‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’: Universal Music Publishing Group launches legal action against Clive Palmer
We’ve been forced to listen to it over and over again. Now Clive Palmer is being sued for the advertisement he’s flooded our airwaves with.
Global music corporation Universal Music Group is suing Clive Palmer for alleged copyright infringement over his party’s use of a version of the Twisted Sister song We’re Not Gonna Take It, in his party’s relentless multimillion-dollar TV and YouTube advertising blitz.
Universal Music, who acquired the song publishing rights to all of Twisted Sister’s hits in 2015 for a sizeable amount, filed copyright infringement proceedings against Mr Palmer in the Federal Court on February 6.
Mr Palmer has claimed he “wrote the words personally that appear on our promotion and hold(s) the copyright for those words”.
Those words, composed by Mr Palmer are, “Australia ain’t gonna cop it, Australia’s not gonna cop it, Aussies not gonna cop it any more.”
In the original recording by Twisted Sister, the lyrics are, “We’re not gonna take it, no we ain’t gonna take it, we’re not gonna take it any more.”
On January 2 the manager of Twisted Sister, Jay Jay French, tweeted that the band had not endorsed the use of the song and was not receiving payments for use of the song.
Twisted Sister does not endorse Australian politician Clive Palmer, never heard of him and was never informed of Clive Palmer's use of a re -written version of our song Were Not Gonna Take It.
— Jay Jay French (@jayjayfrench) January 1, 2019
We receive no money from its use and we are investigating how we can stop it.
Mr Snider then tweeted that Mr Palmer had contacted Universal Music Publishing Group, an international publishing giant, who informed the mining billionaire of the one off licensing fee.
At this point, according to Mr Snider’s tweets, Mr Palmer and the UAP opted to record their own version, dismissing the fee.
“They can’t even claim ignorance!” Mr Snider said.
The legal documents show Mr Palmer did receive a cease a desist notice, which the documents claim he ignored. UPMG is represented by Adam Simpson, the director of Simpson’s Solicitors.
Mr Simpson has previously won high profile copyright cases for musicians, including where The National Party of New Zealand used a version of the Eminem song Lose Yourself in 2014.
Mr Smith’s claim against the political party was successful, the judge ordering they pay NZ$600,000 in damages.
Mr Palmer cited an 18th Century hymn, O Come, All Ye Faithful, was the actual inspiration for the song.
”Others may have documented the instrumentation, but the melody was already present,” Mr Palmer said in a statement.
“As Twisted Sister never remunerated the original arranger, we do not understand how they have ever had any claim to its copyright,” he said.
These clive Palmer ads are annoying
— Anna (@spannaforce) February 4, 2019
FFS Clive Palmer. You have destroyed my love for that Twisted Sister song you bastard
— Serena 🤔 (@flercken) February 10, 2019
The ad’s presence in the Australian media landscape is significant, with experts estimating the billionaire spent about $1.005 million on advertising in the month of October alone.
Mr Palmer also paid $132,00 a minute to book two minutes of prime time TV on Channel 9 last week to warn Australians of what he says is, “a clandestine takeover of Australia” by the Chinese.
Members of the United Australia Party were contacted for comment for this story but did not immediately respond.
Universal Music Group were contacted for comment last week but declined to comment. Requests for comment today were not immediately returned.