"Someone bought the music and played it an event - perfectly legal (at least there have been no accusations of theft that I'm aware of). The fact the event was reported on and aired does not violate any copyight issues."
Wrong.
Think about it this way. What if you published a book of poetry and someone bought it. And then the McCain campaign started playing a recording of one of your poems over the loudspeaker at the convention and in promotional tapes sent out to media outlets around the world.
Leaving aside the issue of hell freezing over, I think you can see that the campaign cannot simply make your poem its own and use it on television and in its promotional materials to its heart content simply because they plunked down $12 to buy your book.
Poem or song, there's little difference here. You can't "publish" someone else's copyrighted work, and rebroadcasting is a form of publication.
I don't think it's a big issue, by the way. I'm much more concerned with the ridiculousness of claiming that being mayor of a town of 7000 people is sufficient preparation for leading the free world (particularly after the McCain campaign ridiculed the idea of a Keane vice presidency by saying that being mayor of Richmond, Virginia was not the sort of preparation that counts).
But while we will no doubt disagree on politics, when it comes to the copyright issue you are simply wrong.
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