NEWS: Bank of America U2 Rendition Results in Lawsuit

CELEB: Bank of America U2 Rendition Results in Lawsuit

A clip of two Bank of America employees singing a fucked up version of U2’s One spread like wildfire on the internet recently. The overhauled lyrics garnered fans worldwide (“its even better, now that we’re the same, two great companies come together, now MBNA and B of A”), but didn’t impress U2’s copyright attorneys.

While guitarist Jim Debois blissfully strummed away, corporate suit Ethan Chandler “sang” his own “Bank of America” lyrics in a slightly pathetic attempt to motivate employees.

The video appeared to be typical corporate, motivational, cheerleading, drink-the-Koolaid kind of bullshit, but U2 can argue Bank of America failed to get permission and failed to pay royalties while using U2’s intellectual property for profit.

If this were a church video or a nonprofit fund-raiser, I might think Bono needs to shut his big fucking mouth. Because this performance was to increase the earnings and profits of one of the largest, most evil banks in the world, I begrudgingly stand on the side of U2.

Damn you, Bank of America, for making me defend U2.

I'm suing Ethan Chandler for making me vomit on my keyboard just now.

Man, that's just awkward, this sort of peprally thing is common in America?

Becuase they gotta make money somehow off people since they "donate all their money to charities".

GIve me one giant sized fucking break. This lamewad crooning to his employees isn't going to affect the fucking revenue or profitability of BofA in the least. Second it wasn't created as a commercial and there was no paid media carrying the song. So it's not even like it was an ad hoc commercial.

I don't know if Bono or the rest of the band had anything to do with UMPG's reaction. But if they did, fuck them, and if they didn't fuck UMPG. This is ridiculous.

However I do think that that if the BofA employees who had to listen to that bullshit had stormed the stage and torn that guy limb from limb, they would have been well within their rights.

All they were trying to do was boost morale for employees. Give me a fuckin break U2.

Guy's got a decent voice, really.

A couple of things about your post:

1. A cease-and-desist letter isn't a lawsuit. It's not even close.

2. I'm reasonably certain U2 had no idea that Universal Music's lawyers were going to send this letter. Part of the downside of selling or leasing your music publishing rights to a major corporation is that the corporate legal staff comes with the deal.

I'm not even sure Mr. Raul Gonzalez's boss knew he was sending the letter. When you're a low-level business affairs person at a major music company, you grind out the C&D letters all day every day.

Anyone who does this stuff for a living will tell you that copyright law is a mess and it's lagging decades behind technology.

IF Universal has a case, it's pretty weak.

The BoA guys were certainly within their rights of parody (yeah, that's the legal term) to perform the U2 song with alternate lyrics in a private setting. I'm sure whatever hotel or convention center they were in has blanket ASCAP and BMI licenses. No problems there.

If someone put the video of that performance up on YouTube as a joke, it's no more of a copyright violation than any of the other 37,000,000 music videos or homemade videos people post there every day.

If BoA posted it for viral marketing purposes, then they've altered the lyrics and made a commercial without permission. Then Universal and U2 ought to nail them to a tree.

And you don't nail anyone to a tree with a cease-and-desist letter. That's like telling someone you'll beat them up next year if they don't stop making fun of you today.

Silly as the lawsuit may seem, I'm all for it.
These are the arseholes that make you wait 5 days for a cheque to clear, even though it's an electronic transaction and happens instantaneously. These are the fucksticks who charge £30 just for sending you a letter telling you you've spent too much money!

They deserve all the lawsuits they get, however spurious and timewasting.

*edit*
just read the above post. ok, so it's not a lawsuit. I still don't like banks though! hehe

That went on waaaaaaay too long and he looked way too serious singing it. A lawsuit? I understand viral advertising and all, but please. Just ask them to remove it from the sites, geez.

Anyone else notice how lawsuit happy UMG has been lately.

Either way that was hard to listen too. That's the type of moment of clarity that would cause me to quit my job, not boost my moral. Bad taste withstanding they're still within their rights though as it's an obvious parody done in a private setting.

well that's the basis of a cease and desist order. it's a legal warning prior to filing suit against someone. Again, if it was just meant to be performed solely for their employees then they're essentially and it was uploaded by an employee without their consent, they're in the clear. However if anyone within the position to authorize this made the decision to upload it to the internet for marketing purposes then Universal has every right to rip BofA a new one.

Parody. 'Nuff said.

-TM

universal has been on a roll as far as demanding payment and filing lawsuits, sending out cease and desists, etc, for the last month and a half. this doesn't really surprise me at all; here's hoping that b of a actually takes them to court, and wins. it would be sweet, sweet irony if a major corporation was responsible for setting user-centric legal precedent in the dmca age.

why is everyone hating on U2? Their lawyers and management are just defending their client's best interests

I just witnessed the raping of one of my favorite songs. Excuse me while I go wash my ears and eyes with soap... after I vomited.

That clip gave me douche chills. That guy clearly was serious. I think he thought he was doing something wonderful but it was the worst thing I have ever seen or heard. Everything about that was disgusting.

Isn't that protected as a parody? Thats how Wierd Al was able to do Amish Paradise.

well put, lil' darlin.

Unfortunately, and the larger the company, the more ridiculous and wrong-headed the conferences get.

Any lawyer who can't get that declared fair use deserves to be forced to listen to that guy sing on a loop.

This reminds me of Starbucks' brainwash I've had to sit through.

Johnny Marr and David Cross cover the terrible cover before the Modest Mouse concert this week:

+1