Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

The Rolling Stones have asked presumptive Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump to stop playing their songs at his campaign events.
After effectively sealing the Republican nomination on Tuesday night, Mr Trump played the Stones hit Start Me Up as he left the stage following a victory speech.
However, the British rock band said in a statement on Wednesday: “The Rolling Stones have never given permission to the Trump campaign to use their songs and have requested that they cease all use immediately.”

The opening bass riff from this song "was something that Tony Butler used to play just as a warm-up," said Steve Churchyard, the engineer for the record. It has been used as the opening theme 'bumper' for Rush Limbaugh's popular American talk radio program since 1984, during his days at KFBK in Sacramento, California. He didn't use the lyrics, but Limbaugh said in 2011 that he chose it because of the irony of a conservative using such an anti-conservative song, though he mainly liked its "unmistakable, totally recognizable bass line." In 1999, Rolling Stone magazine reported that, according to Hynde's manager, Limbaugh had neither licensed the song nor asked permission to use it. According to Rolling Stone, EMI took action after Limbaugh told a pair of reporters in 1997 that "it was icing on the cake that it was [written by] an environmentalist, animal rights wacko and was an anti-conservative song. It is anti-development, anti-capitalist and here I am going to take a liberal song and make fun of [liberals] at the same time." EMI issued a cease and desist request that Limbaugh stop using the song, which he did. When Hynde found out during a radio interview, she said that her parents loved and listened to Limbaugh and she did not mind its use. A usage payment was agreed upon which she donated to PETA. She later wrote to the organization saying, "In light of Rush Limbaugh's vocal support of PETA's campaign against the Environmental Protection Agency's foolish plan to test some 3,000 chemicals on animals, I have decided to allow him to keep my song, 'My City Was Gone', as his signature tune..."

I won't give the url! (Apparently, nobody's heard of Google yet ) I'm hoping to be sued; and I'll make a lot of money, for nothing!

Hey, Mick, Keith (and however many of you dumbshits are still alive...): You wrote, performed, recorded and released to the public some pretty good songs. (I like your earlier stuff... But that's probably just me.) Most public performances of your songs bring you money... Unless you released them via subscription only, that's all you get: You have no further "rights".

They hold the copyright, unless they signed it off to some studio or other.

How very European of you! 

instead trying to be what you are never able to be. 

I'm pretty sure no American

You guys are missing the point...

If I decided to form a band and play covers of other artist's work, I would have to pay for that right as well.

Politics has nothing to do with copyright.

There is no point besides you now having to support Trump's insanity instead of Cruz.

No, you wouldn't. The venue would...

However, the responsibility for procuring this license usually falls on the venue or organization hosting the band.

My views about Trump are pretty straightforward: If he's elected, I expect him to be impeached within two years! (Or he'll simply quit.    )

As I've said, there are avenues to get Trump impeached without even trying to dig deep into his past.

Usually, not always.

But, again, my point is that the only reason for an "artist" to refuse "permission" is lack of payment.
In law, there's no other.

Is there any contention that the Trump campaign didn't pay the usual fees?

It's quite true that "law is not the only point in life". But without law, much of life becomes pointless.

It is not the case that "the thing called copyright in arts makes it a matter of legal permission whenever the copyright holder wants it so".

The musicians are quite free to "disclaim" any political use of their works. But they can't retract their works… Nor withhold them from use. (Commercial use is another matter… If you think such is invoked here, you're a very fascist person!)

Political campaigns don’t need artists’ permission to play their songs at rallies as long as the political organization or the venue has gotten what’s known as a blanket license from the performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI for all the music in the licensing group’s repertoire.

But artists do have some recourse. BMI, for example, has said it has a provision in its license agreement that allows BMI songwriters or publishers to object to the use of their songs and they have the ability to exclude those songs from the blanket license.