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30 June 2016Copyright

Mike Huckabee settles ‘Eye of the Tiger’ copyright suit

Former US presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has settled a copyright dispute with the band Survivor that centred on his use of the song “Eye of the Tiger” during a rally with a prominent county clerk who opposed same sex marriage.

As part of an out-of-court settlement, Huckabee agreed to pay Rude Music, the company owned by Survivor member Frank Sullivan, $25,000.

In the complaint, filed in November at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Rude Music said Huckabee’s use of the song during a rally amounted to copyright infringement and that he didn’t ask for permission.

The rally, held in Grayson, Kentucky on September 8 last year, was in support of Kim Davis, a local government county clerk who has gained notoriety for her opposition to issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples.

Huckabee, of the Republican Party, and Davis entered the stage to the opening bars of the song.

Sullivan co-authored the song,  which was registered with the US Copyright Office in 1982 and achieved critical acclaim for its use in the film “Rocky III”.

The dispute only came to light when Huckabee listed a payment to Rude Music on federal election records.

The payment was described as “legal settlement RE: copyright infringement”.

Donald Trump is likely to be the Republican nominee in the presidential election later this year.

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More on this story

Copyright
20 November 2015   The author of the hit song “Eye of the Tiger” has sued Republican presidential candidate hopeful Mike Huckabee for the alleged unauthorised use of the track at a rally against gay marriage.
Copyright
14 January 2016   Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has claimed that the use of the song “Eye of the Tiger” at a rally he attended to support Kentucky-based marriage clerk Kim Davis did not infringe copyright because it was used at a “religious assembly”.