Bank of America gets in trouble over U2 cover song

Last week I posted the story about Bank of America's callous disregard for a fraud victim who was arrested after the branch manager reported him to the police. As a bonus in that post, I added a video clip of a Bank of America employee singing a cover of a U2 song at a business meeting.

It turns out Universal Music thinks Bank of America violated Universal’s copyright of the song, because a lawyer for Universal posted a cease-and-desist letter on a site hosting the video. (NYT story here)

WFMU's Blog has a good entry about the story, along with information about the singer, whose name is Ethan Chandler. The best part is the way WFMU runs the lyrics to the U2 song side-by-side with the the Bank of America version.

For a darker reading of the BoA song, I recommend reading the lyrics side-by-side with U2's, which helps bring out some of the subtext.

It is even better ... Is it getting better?
Now that we’re the same ... Or do you feel the same?
Two great companies come together ... Will it make it easier on you now?
Now, MBNA is B of A ... You got someone to blame

Link

Update:

PhoneCam video of Johhny Marr and David Cross covering Ethan Chandlers rendition of "One." The video is interrupted after a few minutes by security goons, because... well, because that's what security goons do. Link

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