Actor and fanatical golfer Bill Murray has been sent a hilarious cease and desist letter from lawyers for The Doobie Brothers.
Murray has released a range of golf clothing including the recent ‘Zero Hucks Given’ polo shirt, a reference to Huckleberry Finn.
An advert for the polo shirt features the song ‘Listen to the Music’ by the Doobie Brothers, for which Murray failed to pay for or even get permission to use.
A letter sent by lawyers acting for The Doobie Brothers reads:
“Dear Mr. Murray:
“We’re writing on behalf of our clients, the Doobie Brothers. The Doobie Brothers perform and recorded the song Listen to the Music, which Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers wrote. It’s a fine song. I know you agree because you keep using it in ads for your Zero Hucks Given golf shirts. However, given that you haven’t paid to use it, maybe you should change the name to “Zero Bucks Given.”
“We understand that you’re running other ads using music from other of our clients. It seems like the only person who uses our clients’ music without permission more than you do is Donald Trump.
“This is the part where I’m supposed to cite the United States Copyright Act, excoriate you for not complying with some subparagraph that I’m too lazy to look up and threaten you with eternal damnation for doing so. But you already earned that with those Garfield movies. And you already know that you can’t use music in ads without paying for it.
“We’d almost be OK with it if the shirts weren’t so damn ugly. But it is what it is. So in the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, “Au revoir Golfer. Et payez!”
Sincerely,
Peter T. Paterno
of King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano LLP”
This is gold. The author happens to be a well known attorney in the music world who is quite noteworthy (pun not intended)
— Alex Skolnick (@AlexSkolnick) September 24, 2020
