They could, but unless they own their own catalogue and license the music in a way that lets them decide the context for its usage, the lawsuit probably wouldn’t go anywhere.
There’s also something in copyright law called moral rights which can’t be transferred, although they can be waived. It’s possible to retain moral rights even if you sell your music to someone, and moral rights allow you assert some control over your works where you think misuse of it would cause harm to your reputation, amongst other things. I’m not a copyright lawyer or anything, but I’ve dealt with a bit of this stuff through open source software licensing, and it’s come up a few times when I was transferring licenses from companies I used to work for. If they didn’t waive moral rights then that would perhaps be an avenue to prevent misuse, but again, an actual copyright lawyer would be able to better determine that.
Fun fact, the Foo fighters own all of their music. They’re one of the few if only bands that actually do. The main reason is the fact that after Nirvana Dave grohl had fuck you money. This is one of the reasons why that band is so special. For them it is all about the music. It didn’t start out as a struggle. All of their catalog is a passion project, and that’s pretty cool.
That said, I doubt a lawsuit would really go anywhere.
the could’ve sued him to stop…
They could, but unless they own their own catalogue and license the music in a way that lets them decide the context for its usage, the lawsuit probably wouldn’t go anywhere.
Dammit. You’re probably right, and I hate this situation.
There’s also something in copyright law called moral rights which can’t be transferred, although they can be waived. It’s possible to retain moral rights even if you sell your music to someone, and moral rights allow you assert some control over your works where you think misuse of it would cause harm to your reputation, amongst other things. I’m not a copyright lawyer or anything, but I’ve dealt with a bit of this stuff through open source software licensing, and it’s come up a few times when I was transferring licenses from companies I used to work for. If they didn’t waive moral rights then that would perhaps be an avenue to prevent misuse, but again, an actual copyright lawyer would be able to better determine that.
Fun fact, the Foo fighters own all of their music. They’re one of the few if only bands that actually do. The main reason is the fact that after Nirvana Dave grohl had fuck you money. This is one of the reasons why that band is so special. For them it is all about the music. It didn’t start out as a struggle. All of their catalog is a passion project, and that’s pretty cool.
That said, I doubt a lawsuit would really go anywhere.
Because cheeto man wouldn’t cough up anyway - he’d slime his way out of it.