MGMT sues French President Sarkozy's UMP party for music piracy...

...and settles for 30,000 euros.  You can read the story at Reuters.  You can also check out the story on Youtube, but it's in French and doesn't include any footage of the pirated material, just the UMP ("Union for Popular Movement") Secretary General explaining the incident.  

MGMT was upset by the party's pirated use of "Kids" at its national congress in January, as well in online videos, apparently available on its official website.  I looked, and I can't seem to find them anywhere, nor can I find them on the party's blog.  I'm sure the terms of the settlement included the removal of the offending material.  

MGMT's victory puts the party in a pretty awkward position.  The party had previously failed to pass a "three strikes" rule (introduced in June, 2008) which would require internet service providers to kick off customers caught pirating copyrighted material three times (see also, Tuts my Barreh).  Tomorrow, they'll try again.  To say the least, the party has certainly lost credibility because of the settlement.  As one commentator has put it:

[MGMT] specializes in "shape shifting psychedelic pop."  Not a bad choice for the UMP, then, which specializes in shape-shifting hallucinogenic economic pap.

Let's have a look at some of the "shape shifting psychedelic pop" that they're referring to.  Also, take a look at some of the (pirated?) footage used for the video.  And the weatherman.  Dig the weatherman.