MGMT has won a settlement from President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, which had been using the band's song "Kids." All this is kind of funny considering they are currently trying to push through anti-piracy legislation.
"Normally MGMT steers clear of mixing music and politics, but the fact that the UMP used our song without permission while simultaneously pushing anti-piracy legislation seemed a little wack," the band wrote on their Web site.
When asked if the reported sum of $39,000 was accurate, Isabelle Wekstein, the band's lawyer, told Reuters, "There has been an agreement of that order."
This is decidedly more than the one Euro the UMP had originally offered bandmemebrs Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden for use of the song, a deal dismissed as insulting. So the UMP simply jacked it.
The settlement comes just a day ahead of a vote in the French parliament on legislation to combat Internet piracy. The bill was previously rejected in a humiliating defeat for the UMP. Oh, the delicious irony.
The band is smart enough to realize that the suit may paint them as "typical Americans" in the eyes of French. Rather than spend the money on "chinchilla coats and Navigators," they intend to donate the funds to artists rights organizations.
