Features
France Pays MGMT For “Kids”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party used the tune at its national congress in January, during a field trip by the party leader and in online videos, according to Reuters.
Although the party admitted to using the tune without permission, the UMP thought it was in the clear because it had paid a standard 53-euro fee to the French music licensing body, the SACEM.
A lawyer for the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based duo said the fee didn’t cover the numerous times the song was used.
After MGMT threatened to sue the UMP back in February, the party offered to hand over one euro in symbolic damages for copyright infringement.
Yeah, right. Nice try. One euro is not going to cut it.
The band said no way and rejected the offer as “insulting,” according to Reuters.
The UMP party’s secretary general, Xavier Bertrand, then promised MGMT would be paid a fair compensation (you know, more than one euro) and the band’s French lawyer confirmed this April 28.
France Info radio reported that the settlement fee was in the amount of 30,000 euros ($39,050) and lawyer Isabelle Wekstein told Reuters “There has been an agreement of that order.”
Wekstein said the settlement is “satisfactory” and added the band is donating the settlement.
MGMT posted the following message on its Web site:
“We did not want to be ‘typical Americans’ and sue, despite the amazing monetary benefit and chinchilla coats and Navigators it would bring, instead we are using the settlement fee the UMP presented and donating it to artists’ rights organizations.”
Ironically enough, the French parliament is voting on Wednesday on a government-backed bill to crack down on Internet piracy. The bill was rejected the first time around.
MGMT currently has dates on the books through September with shows in the U.S., New Zealand and Europe.
The band is also working on a new album.
Click here to read the Reuters story.