Legal Solutions  Blog

Don Henley has settled a copyright infringement suit against California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore that arose out of DeVore’s use of parodies of two of Henley’s 1980’s hits, “The Boys of Summer” and “All She Wants to Do Is Dance” (parodied as “The Hope of November” and “All She Wants to Do Is Tax,” respectively), in campaign advertisements.

 The settlement comes after a United States District Judge granted partial summary judgment to Henley, Mike Campbell (co-writer, with Henley, of “The Boys of Summer”), and Danny Kortchmar (writer of “All She Wants to Do Is Dance”) on their copyright infringement claims.  That opinion is available on Westlaw at 2010 WL 2533388 and contains complete sets of lyrics both to the original songs and DeVore’s versions.

 The docket for Don Henley, et al. v. Charles S. DeVore, et al.is also available on Westlaw, and contains links to most of the parties’ filings in the case. Docket number is 8:09-CV-00481.

 For further reading on past instances of songwriters and/or musicians being unhappy with politicians using their songs, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog’s story on the Henley case mentions several such conflicts.

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