“I didn’t go to the speech, because I didn’t want to be part of a photo op asking for more money from the United States government when they have not given us a single piece of accounting on anything they spent,” Hawley said.
Zelenskyy spoke before a joint meeting of Congress Wednesday night following a visit to the White House, calling U.S. aid to the county “an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”
Some Republicans, including Hawley and Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, declined to attend Zelenskyy’s address or refused to applaud, pointing to past corruption by the Ukrainian government. Other Republicans opposed the spending on Ukraine, saying that country’s war with Russia was not an American problem.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia introduced legislation calling for an audit of funds provided to Ukraine.
“I’m worried about putting us deeper in debt and worried about the American public,” Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Minority Leader, said. “They always come first.”
Russia invaded Ukraine Feb. 24 and has repeatedly fired barrages of missiles at targets in the country. The United States sent at least $52 billion in aid, in addition to another $45 billion in the $1.7 trillion omnibus legislation passed by the Senate Thursday.
The Biden administration announced the United States would give Ukraine a battery of MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missiles Wednesday, according to the Washington Post. The system consists of a AN/MPQ-53 radar and as many as eight launchers, each with four missiles, according to Designation-Systems.net.
Stop merchandising a widely published photo taken before the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, showing you clenching your fist in support of the mob. Stop being part of a long line of celebrities and politicians who think they can misappropriate images and music created or owned by others without permission, credit or compensation. And please, stop erroneously citing copyright “fair use” as an excuse for doing it.
You are not the first and certainly will not be the last try to profit from the work of others. Neil Young sued and apparently settled with Donald Trump for copyright infringement of Young’s music during Trump campaign stops and political rallies.. In 2020, Mick Jagger was joined by Elton John and other stars in an open letter calling on all candidates to obtain permission before playing their music at political events. Even if, like Snoop Dogg, you misguidedly believe that photographers shouldn’t own their photos of celebrities, please stop using this photo.
As a graduate of Yale Law School, you are to be commended for criticizing China for stealing U.S. intellectual property, but it is galling that you feel entitled to act in ways that are extremely detrimental to those same American workers who earn their living through the licensing of such intellectual property. As a senator, you should know that in recognition of the importance of such works, the Constitution empowered Congress to enact laws to “promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”
Title 17 of the United States Code is a large and complicated body of federal copyright law, established for just that purpose. Among other things, it protects music and photos from being infringed, but also from being used in ways that the creator of the work never intended or would authorize. “Fair use” is an affirmative legal defense against infringement claims that may be asserted only by a defendant in a copyright lawsuit.
While a judicial fair use ruling may permit a party to use a work without the copyright owner’s permission for certain purposes, those determinations can be made only by balancing four critical factors, which judges sometimes get wrong. Those cases often get appealed, occasionally finding their way to the Supreme Court after years of costly litigation.
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