TWISTED SISTER Copyright Infringement Case Against Australian Politician Clive Palmer Going To Court In October 2020; Frontman DEE SNIDER To Give Evidence

December 8, 2019, 4 years ago

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TWISTED SISTER Copyright Infringement Case Against Australian Politician Clive Palmer Going To Court In October 2020; Frontman DEE SNIDER To Give Evidence

Australia's MusicFeeds recently reported that United Australia Party leader Clive Palmer called for Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider’s 2019 Australian tour to be cancelled, amid an ongoing disagreement between Palmer and the American band over the use of the Twisted Sister song, "We’re Not Gonna Take It" in political campaign ads.

Snider was scheduled to perform four solo shows across Sydney and Melbourne between January and February, but Mr Palmer called on the government to reject the musician’s visa. Judging by the video footage available online, Palmer's bid failed and Snider's shows went ahead as planned.

Further doing damage to Palmer's ego and public image, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Universal Music filed a lawsuit against him for rewriting the Twisted Sister classic. The case, filed on February 6th, cites copyright infringement proceedings against Palmer in the Federal Court in Sydney.

According to an updated report from The Sydney Morning Herald, found here, Palmer applied for a licence to use the Twisted Sister's anthem in political advertisements but "didn't like the price" and went ahead without permission, the Federal Court has heard.

The copyright infringement case against Palmer, filed by Universal Music, will go to trial on October 19th, 2020 and is slated to run for up to five days. Snider is expected to give evidence in court.

Snider and his fellow Twisted Sister member Jay Jay French called out Palmer for using their song without permission earlier this year, before Snider claimed that Mr Palmer knew about the licensing fee required for the song but decided to re-record his own version of it anyway.

In a statement, United Australia Party accused Twisted Sister of “swindling its hit song from a famous Christmas carol” - Snider has previously cited glam rock band Slade and the Christmas carol "O Come, All Ye Faithful" as influences on "We’re Not Gonna Take It".

“The song ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ as an alleged musical work was not written by Dee Snider,” said Palmer. “The music was originally arranged as a cappella piece from the hymn ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ first composed in the mid 1700s. Others may have documented the instrumentation, but the melody was already present."

Read more at musicfeeds.com.au.



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