Bush Samples Raise Copyright Issues

Greenplastic reported that DJ Shadow's remix of Radiohead's The Gloaming was rejected by Radiohead's label due to sample clearance issues. And what were the samples then? Greenplastic:

The samples in question seem to be of George W. Bush saying words like "terrorists", "terrible weapons", "saddam hussein", "nuclear holy warriors", etc. (i.e. his usual speech) over and over again.

[...]

I'll leave it to you to decide whether "sample clearance issues" (their quote) or "political pressure from record label executives who refuse to issue anything bashing Bush" (my quote) was the real cause of this one. Keep in mind that this is currently unconfirmed, but we'll keep you posted.

I'd go for the latter cause, especially considering what the vinyl remix has turned out to look like. Yikes! Clearing Bush's words for copyright? This is must be a joke.

Later: Now the clearance of Radiohead's words raises a copyright issue. A writer that wanted to quote from lyrics of The Bends, Idiotique and I Might Be Wrong was confronted with a bill of $350 by Warner Bros.. Forget fair use, cough up the dough to the corporate moguls. Very much in Radiohead's spirit.

More at p2pnet and Ars Technica