Warner/Chappell pulls NSW Premier Mike Baird’s ’mean tweets’ clip from YouTube

NSW Premier Mike Baird has become the latest politician to infringe copyright during a campaign.

The Leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party uploaded a Jimmy Kimmel-esque ‘Mean Tweets’ video to YouTube yesterday, where he read comments directed to him that were posted on Twitter. The clip features R.E.M track Everybody Hurts and Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off; both acts are signed to publisher giant Warner/Chappell Music.

Warner/Chappell swiftly made a copyright claim with YouTube and the video was removed.

While the publisher has declined to comment to TMN are other media, Baird did tweet the following this morning.

Baird’s camp aren’t the first trigger-happy political party to neglect to consult rights holders during a campaign. Eminem is set to take New Zealand’s national party to court for infringing the copyright of his Grammy and Oscar-winning song Lose Yourself in its campaign song; in 2008 Foo Fighters sent out a missive to US Republican Presidential candidate John McCain asking him to stop using their track My Hero on his campaign tour, and that same year Sam Moore sent a letter to Barack Obama requesting he stop using the Sam & Dave track Hold On, I'm Comin'.

Watch a copy of the original video below before it gets pulled down.