U.S. Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has been hit with a cease and desist order from Canadian music bosses after using The Heavy's How You Like Me Now? at a Florida campaign rally.
The politician blared the popular song during a campaign stop in Tampa on Monday (23Jan12) without permission and now he's come under fire from bosses at Third Side Music, who own the rights to the tune, and the British band itself.
The Heavy posted a response on its official Facebook.com page denouncing its usage on Tuesday (24Jan12), writing, "If you heard How You Like Me Now? being used by Republican, Newt Gingrich, in his campaign, we'd like you to know it had f**k all to do with us and we are trying to stop it being used. T**TS."
And Third Side Music executives have since taken legal action to demand that Gingrich refrains from using the song again.
Chief Jeff Waye tells RollingStone.com, "Neither us, nor the band have particularly approved the usage of it."
Such copyright claims are particularly popular during the campaign season - earlier this year (12) Cyndi Lauper demanded a political advert featuring her song True Colors be removed from the internet after it was used to smear U.S. Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney without her authorisation.