WASHINGTON — Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has agreed to pay $12,500 for using a rock song on the campaign trail without the artist’s permission.
The amount is listed in the Huckabee campaign’s Federal Election Commission report for May, which was submitted Monday.
Huckabee’s use of the band Survivor’s hit song, “Eye of the Tiger,” during a Sept. 8 rally in eastern Kentucky lasted barely a minute. But the legal problems that followed stretched on for months.
The song was playing as Huckabee was joined on stage by Kim Davis, a county official who had been jailed after prohibiting her office from issuing marriage licenses to gays.
Thousands of Davis supporters, some of them waving white crosses and American flags, roared their approval as the song blared.
The rally gave Huckabee a public relations windfall — the event was carried live on national news channels — but it also caught the attention of the song’s co-author.
Rude Music Inc., which is owned by Survivor founding member Frank M. Sullivan III, sued Huckabee for President Inc. in November, alleging copyright infringement.
Huckabee responded, arguing that the event had been a religious assembly, not a political rally, and that he was simply expressing his “sincerely-held Christian beliefs, protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution” on the day the song was played.
After initially fighting the allegations, the campaign and the musician reached a settlement in an Illinois court earlier this year.
Although the terms of the settlement were not listed in the initial court filings, the debt was reported on campaign finance documents.
Overall, the Huckabee campaign still owed $31,454.44 as of May 31. Contributions last month included $4,000 from Huckabee. He has given $13,700 overall, election commission records show.
The former Arkansas governor and his campaign did not respond to multiple messages left with his daughter and former campaign manager Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and with his political action committee.
Huckabee had sought permission from the election commission to pay for the settlement with the help of donors, using a new legal defense fund. But the commission has declined to approve the arrangement.
Huckabee isn’t the first politician to wind up in court over “Eye of the Tiger.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich faced a similar lawsuit after using the song without permission during his 2012 presidential campaign. That suit was settled; the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
The rock anthem, which was included in the Rocky III soundtrack, topped the Billboard charts for six weeks during the summer of 1982 and earned the group a Grammy.
While zealously protecting the copyright to “Eye of the Tiger,” Sullivan has also fought to defend the Survivor trademark. He sued CBS after its Survivor television program began selling a Survivor soundtrack and other merchandise. In 2004, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Sullivan’s claim, saying he had failed to show that the public would confuse the band and the reality show.
Huckabee had sought permission from the Federal Election Commission to pay for the settlement with the help of donors, using a new legal defense fund. But the commission has declined to approve the arrangement.