\u201cPeople will look at it and believe, or might believe, that Metallica has authorised this or supports her. If she hasn\u2019t approached Metallica, then that\u2019s potentially misleading\u201d, Gray told NZME.<\/p>\n
Tamatha Paul has pulled Metallica inspired merchandise after copyright questions were asked.<\/p>\n
After Newstalk ZB contacted the Green Party to raise questions about permission to use Metallica\u2019s logo, the shirt was quickly removed from her campaign website as well as social media, before a response had been given.<\/p>\n
After Newstalk ZB tried again to get comment about the shirt and its recent removal from the site, a Green Party spokeswoman said Paul had \u201clocal artists contributing to her campaign and work in Parliament\u201d and that the shirt was designed and \u201cinspired by heavy metal\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It] was not intended to cause confusion with, or profit from Metallica trademarked content,\u201d the spokeswoman said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe t-shirt has been removed to avoid confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray was concerned there could be copyright infringements involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cMetallica has a trademark registration for that stylised Metallica logo which they\u2019re well known for, and so there\u2019s potential trademark infringement, [as] the registration covers clothing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Green co-leader Chloe Swarbrick wore the shirt to Paul’s campaign launch.<\/p>\n
According to Gray, the main issue would likely be with the promotion name \u201cTameticalla\u201d rather than the shirt itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe might be able to say, well, that\u2019s not use as a trademark, but given the way it\u2019s merchandised with \u2018Tamatellica\u2019 range, that might be pushing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe and the Green Party now have clearly made the link with Metallica and that\u2019s where the problem probably arises.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was initially advertised for purchase by Paul across her social media platforms in November last year in a video featuring her wearing the shirt herself.<\/p>\n
Then this week party co-leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick was seen on social media wearing the shirt at Paul\u2019s Wellington North campaign launch on Monday night.<\/p>\n
It was for sale alongside stickers and posters with similar imaging.<\/p>\n
A poster resembling the cover of the famous Edmonds Cookbook has also since been removed from the website.<\/p>\n
The shirt was designed to match the Metallica brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusicians are particularly sensitive about politicians using their brand or suggesting there\u2019s an association with them or using their music,\u201d Gray said.<\/p>\n
In 2014, the National Party was involved in a major copyright lawsuit over its use of a song similar to US rapper Eminem\u2019s Lose Yourself in a campaign video. <\/p>\n
The High Court initially ordered the party to pay $600,000 in damages in 2017, which was later reduced to $225,000 on appeal.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Sony, the record company for the band Chumbawamba, sent Winston Peters a cease and desist notice, after Peters used their music at a state of the nation speech.<\/p>\n
Gray believed the Greens made the right choice pulling the items from its site.<\/p>\n
Other merchandise include stickers and posters contained the logo. Edmonds Cookbook-themed merchandise has also been pulled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last thing they want is to even suggest that they\u2019re ripping off international musicians or are suggesting that a particular band supports them if they don\u2019t have that support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tamatha Paul has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
A Green Party bill aiming to alter New Zealand\u2019s copyright law passed its first reading in the house earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill would give the authority to use a copyright work for the purpose of parody or satire and allows for a much wider interpretation of current copyright law.<\/p>\n
Tobias Macintosh is a Newstalk ZB Multimedia Journalist, based in Wellington. He joined NZME in June 2025, and has a keen eye on the capital, local politics, crime and justice, and foreign affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cPeople will look at it and believe, or might believe, that Metallica has authorised this or supports her.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3595,1738,10709,7323,156,2518,28634,6559,48205,13458,15220,11523,1614,4938,6368,111,139,69,1118,4762,17357,5196,31530,175483],"class_list":["post-550107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-by","tag-campaign","tag-concerns","tag-copyright","tag-entertainment","tag-green","tag-hastily","tag-heavy","tag-icons","tag-inspired","tag-line","tag-merchandise","tag-metal","tag-metallica","tag-mp","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-party","tag-paul","tag-removed","tag-removes","tag-tamatha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}