Making Music Is Not About Charity. Ask Bryan Adams.

By Eriq Gardner

Copyright owners rarely seem flattered when their nearly forgotten works are brought back from the dead.

Witness Bryan Adams. Apparently, the Canadian singer has launched a campaign to snuff out fan sites that use his likeness without authorization. Adams has hired a service called Web Sheriff to crack down on sites like bryanadamsfanclub.nl, bryanadams.nu and badfan.com, that abuse the his copyrights. The sites were taken down until they can agree to a set of guidelines that will allow them to "happily coexist" with Adams.

The Web Sheriff is even targeting a cover band called The Bryan Adams Experience. Apparently, the singer wants them to be called The Bryan Adams Tribute Experience.

The number of musicians who aren't happy about misappropriated songs used in political campaigns also grows larger and larger by the day.

Cy Coleman, the songwriter who wrote the tunes in the Broadway musical "Sweet Charity," is suing U.S. Congressman Dean Heller (R-Nevada) for including that musical's hit "Big Spender" in a campaign commercial. The complaint alleges that Heller's campaign sought permission to use the song as background music and was denied. Nevertheless, the politician paid for a different version of the song and used it to attack his challenger as, of course, a big spender.