Strike one occured when John McCain used Mike Myers work in an internet campaign ad. Myers creeated Wayne’s World, and McCain’s people stole a bit of Myers’ creative product in an attempt to make fun of Barack Obama. According to the LA Times, Mike Myers people asked, and McCain’s folks whined, but ceased to use the Wayne’s World footage.

Strike two is not directly against McCain, but against the Ohio Republican Party, which is running a pro-McCain ad including music from Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty.” According to Sam Stein at Huffington Post, Jackson Browne is suing both the McCain campaign and the GOP for this abuse of his copyrighted work.

Singer, songwriter, liberal activist and now John McCain scourge Jackson Browne filed a lawsuit today against the presumptive GOP nominee and the Republican Party for failing to obtain a license to use one of his songs in a television commercial.

The song, “Running on Empty,” has been used by the Ohio Republican Party (not the McCain campaign) apparently against Browne’s approval. The music icon also claims that in doing so, the false perception is created that he is endorsing McCain’s candidacy.

Let’s add to this the wikipedia plagiarism case, and we’ve got a McCain campaign that evidently has no sense of honesty. It is high time the media label this for what it is, theft.