29 seconds. Somebody talked to a legal/copyright amateur.

The whole issue of political use of songs violating copyright is muddled in the cases. It’s one of the more entangled part of property rights (and that’s not a simple field).

Thing is, one of the stupid rules of thumb that came out of one of the cases was the 30 second rule. One of the tests is how much of the work gets used, and the decision was that less than 30 seconds was generally acceptable — unless that was the whole piece being a reason for the “generally” weasel word in there.

If Tom Petty decides to push it, though, this one’ll be interesting. She used the whole thing already. When Petty sent the cease and desist, they didn’t. Instead they cut to this. This creates the perception they’re trying to tie the song to Bachmann, which runs into the impact test. In this case, if people hear the song do they think of Tom Petty or do they think of Michele Bachmann? If they’d gone with 30 seconds in the first place OR they’d played the whole thing they would be sitting in a much better position. Now?

This could turn hilarious (unless you’re a Bachmann fan).