TWISTED SISTER - Clive Palmer To Pay $1.5 Million (AUD) After Losing "We're Not Gonna Take It" Copyright Fight
April 30, 2021, 3 years ago
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, businessman Clive Palmer has been ordered to pay $1.5 million (AUD) to Universal Music after losing a copyright fight over his use of the Twisted Sister anthem "We’re Not Gonna Take It" in a string of political advertisements before the 2019 federal election.
In a judgment on Friday, Federal Court Justice Anna Katzmann said the former federal MP and United Australia Party founder had infringed Universal Music’s copyright in the 1984 hit and rejected his claims he had penned his own lyrics and used the melody of an 18th century hymn.
It was “ludicrous” and “fanciful” to suggest Mr Palmer’s song “Aussies Not Gonna Cop It” was created independently of the Twisted Sister anthem, Justice Katzmann said, and his behaviour in using the song without a licence was “high-handed and contemptous”.
“He gave false evidence, including concocting a story to exculpate himself,” she said.
Justice Katzmann ordered him to pay $500,000 in damages, $1 million in additional damages in light of the flagrancy of the infringement, and legal costs. Interest on damages will be calculated at a later date.
Read more at The Sydney Morning Herald.
HALLELUJAH!! Just found out that the copyright infringement of "We're Not Gonna Take It" by "politician" Clive Palmer in Australia has been decided MAJORLY in favor of myself as writer and @UMG as publishers! WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT ANY MORE!!
— Dee Snider🇺🇸 (@deesnider) April 30, 2021
(Top photo - Mark Weiss, 1984)
