“I’m a well-known liberal and it just irked me beyond belief that my beloved song would be co-opted by Sen Rand Paul,” the song's writer said of the Carmen Sandiego-inspired ad run by Rand Paul's campaign. | AP Photo 'Carmen Sandiego' songwriter threatens to sue Rand Paul

One of the writers for the theme song of the PBS show "Carmen Sandiego" is threatening to sue Rand Paul for using his work in an attack ad against Marco Rubio.

The ad drawing dispute came out in mid-December and could still be found on Paul's YouTube page as of Thursday afternoon. Titled “Where in the World is Marco Rubio?,” it hits the Florida senator on his series of missed votes.


“I’m a well-known liberal and it just irked me beyond belief that my beloved song would be co-opted by Sen Rand Paul,” Sean Altman, who co-wrote the song for the PBS show in the 1990s, told POLITICO. “This song is my bread and butter. This is literally one of the ways I make my living because it is licensed frequently.”

On Jan. 19, Altman and his legal team sent a letter to Paul's campaign manager, Chip Englander, accusing the senator and his campaign of copyright infringement. A previous letter sent in late December requested the ad that featured the song be removed from all distribution, but the Jan. 19 letter reported that it can still be found in multiple locations and demanded that action be taken within seven days.

"Your unabated and unauthorized use of the Composition and Sound Recording in the advertisement constitutes two separate counts of copyright infringement," the Jan. 19 letter reads. "Please be advised that should you fail to comply with the foregoing demands, Mr. Altman and Big Sean Music will not hesitate to file a lawsuit against the Campaign and Senator Paul personally for injuctive relief and damages. We urge you to take these demands very seriously."

Altman told POLITICO that the Paul campaign is currently in discussion with his lawyer about how to proceed, which he hopes will include some form of compensation.

“Once the thing has been viewed half a million or more times and has been published widely, the damage has been done,” Altman said. He said that Paul didn’t just use his song, but the ad also featured his voice, which he said "adds insults to injury.”

Chief Paul strategist Doug Stafford responded to POLITICO that the campaign "responded, out of courtesy, to Mr. Altman’s request several weeks ago by removing the video from its YouTube account, and the video does not appear on any of the Campaign’s social media pages"

"At this point, it appears that the only reason this lives on is so that Mr. Altman can pursue a political agenda or so his trial lawyers can frivolously chase a windfall," Stafford said in a statement.