Fox News entertainment reporter Hollie McKay apparently thinks musicians’ intellectual property belongs to the Collective:

Do Musicians Block GOP Candidates From Using Their Songs?

When GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s team was looking for a theme song for his campaign, Kid Rock’s hit “Born Free” hit a chord. But instead of doing what countless other politicians before him had done, simply take the song and start blasting it at events, Romney first asked Rock’s permission.

…could he have taken this tack because musicians often seem to lean anti-GOP?

Earlier this year, Republican hopeful Michele Bachmann was issued a “cease and desist” letter from rocker Tom Petty’s music publisher insisting that she stop playing his “American Girl” at campaign events. The Foo Fighters and John Mellencamp asked John McCain to stop playing their hits during his presidential run in 2008, and McCain settled out-of-court with Jackson Browne last year after the singer-songwriter sued McCain and the Ohio and national Republican committees, accusing them of using his song “Running on Empty” without his permission.

John Hall, a member of the band Orleans, was not happy when George W. Bush played “Still the One” at an event in 2004. The former President was also rebuffed by Tom Petty, John Mellencamp and Sting during his presidential runs for making use of their tracks. And way back in 1984, Bruce Springsteen was unhappy when Ronald Reagan used his hit “Born in the USA.”

… On the other hand, Bill Clinton used Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” in his successful 1992 presidential bid, Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry played Springsteen’s “No Surrender” in his 2004 campaign, in 2008 Sen. Barack Obama revived Springsteen’s “The Rising,” and that same year fellow Democrat John Edwards used Mellancamp’s “Our Country.” …

So why do Democrats seem to get more free passes then Republicans?

“Musicians are part of the entertainment industry which is mostly anti-Republican. So lefty performers hate having conservatives use their music,” says Vice President of the Business & Media Institute and political commentator, Dan Gainor….

I gather from the tone of this that Gainor (and McKay) don’t think they should have the right to refuse permission to use their songs for political reasons — not even John Hall, who went on to serve for a couple of years as a Democratic congressman from upstate New York, should have that right. Even he should be required to surrender his intellectual property rights to a Republican on demand.

If you wrote the song, shouldn’t you (or your heirs and assigns) be able to do as you please with it? If you wrote a country song that a Democrat wants to use and you’re a Republican, shouldn’t you be free to withhold the rights? I don’t have a problem with that. Why would I think you have no right to decide that?

The musicians named above are all left-leaning, as far as I know. That’s their right, isn’t it? It ain’t illegal yet, is it?

(X-posted at No More Mister Nice Blog.)