A Katy Perry song has got the National Party in hot water after it was used in one of the party's social media videos. Photo / Christine Hahn
A Katy Perry song has got the National Party in hot water after it was used in one of the party's social media videos. Photo / Christine Hahn
The National Party has removed an Instagram video attacking Labour because it had used a Katy Perry song “out of context” in the video.
Perry’s Did Somebody Say tune was attached to a video, recently published on the social media app by National, which was titled “Just be rich ft. The Labour Party” - a reference to the Just Eat food delivery company, for which the song was an advertisement.
The video showed the percentage increase in the cost of various food items with the caption “Under Labour, food prices have skyrocketed”.
However, the move appears to have backfired after Just Eat-owned Menulog, which operates in New Zealand, contacted National and requested the video be removed over an apparent copyright issue.
“Our social media team adapted a TikTok trend for Instagram reels, which used Menulog’s audio out of context,” a National Party spokesperson said.
“Menulog asked us to remove the video, which we did immediately.”
National leader Christopher Luxon. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In 2017, National was found guilty of breaching copyright for using Eminem’s track Lose Yourself for a 2014 election ad and was initially told to pay $600,000 before it was reduced by the Court of Appeal to $225,000 in 2018.
The then-Government was accused of knowingly trying to sidestep licensing fees by using the track Eminem Esque.
The National Party bought Eminem Esque from a company called Beatbox, which in turn bought the licence from California-based music library Labrador.
In 2017, the High Court ruled that $600,000 would be the “hypothetical licence fee” that would have reasonably been charged for permission to use Lose Yourself in National Party advertising.
The court noted Eight Mile Style had exclusive control of the song’s licensing, and rarely granted permission for the song to be used in ads.
Although the National Party legal team had tried to argue Lose Yourself wasn’t a very original work to begin with, Justice Helen Cull found Eminem’s Lose Yourself was “a highly original work”.
“The distinctive sound of Lose Yourself is not limited by a ‘melodic’ line, but is a combination of the other instruments, particularly the guitar riff, the timbre, the strong hypnotic rhythm and the recurring violin instrumentation and the piano figure.
“It is no coincidence that Lose Yourself received the 2003 Academy Award for Best Original Song.”
Cull ruled that Eminem Esque “substantially” copied Lose Yourself, to the point where the differences between the two were “minimal”.
