I don’t know much about Skinny Puppy or their music, but a few minutes on YouTube suggests two things: (1) I would have loved them when I was 16 and going through my industrial music phase, and (2) a whole lot of their music, played very loud and against my will, would probably make me very suggestible.

It should not be much of a surprise, then, to learn that the U.S. government has reportedly used their music on Guantanamo detainees, and not during recreation time. They also apparently did not clear any music rights.

Did Skinny Puppy, from the great socialist northern neighbor, Canada, sue the government? No, they did perhaps the most capitalist thing imaginable: they sent the government an invoice.

From an actual legal perspective, I have no idea where the use of music for torture purposes falls within copyright law—I don’t think there is a specific license for such a use. Skinny Puppy probably shouldn’t hold their breath while waiting for payment, though. Still, kudos.

As a reward for reading this far, here are a few of my favorite ditties from my aforementioned industrial music phase of the early 1990’s:

One thing I learned while writing this post: the dogs hate Nitzer Ebb. To each their own, I guess.