In the docuseries Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult, a Nxivm promotional video is shown which shows images of people at Vanguard Week, a 10-day event celebrating the nativity of Keith Alan Raniere, the founder of Nxivm.
The soundtrack of the Nxivm promotional video features a recording of “Geronimo,” a 2014 hit song by an Australian pop band named Sheppard.
The band, learning of the use of their song by Nxivm, asked their managers, Michael Chugg and Andrew Stone, to contact the producers of Seduced to rectify the copyright infringement – and have the soundtrack of their song removed from the documentary.
It is unclear whether the use of the Nxivm video constitutes fair use in the Seduced documentary since they only play an excerpt of the Nxivm recruitment video.
Sheppard’s legal recourse might be limited to suing the original producer of the Nxivm recruitment video, most likely Nxivm Inc. This too might be problematic since Nxivm and all its assets are in the process of being seized by the US government.
How serious the efforts to stop the use of the song as seen on Seduced is anybody’s guess. Sheppard has gotten good publicity by making statements expressing their horror that their song was used by Nxivm.
Band co-founder, George Sheppard, said, ‘We haven’t and would never have allowed our music to be featured by NXIVM in their promotional video, and we were not approached by the documentary to have this unauthorized usage featured in the program. It goes without saying that the allegations and charges surrounding the NXIVM cult are reprehensible and in no way would we want our music associated with such an organization or for it to be implied by the documentary makers that we have approved this usage.”
Why did Nxivm use the song “Geronimo”? It was No. 1 on the Australian Recording Industry Association. [ARIA] Singles Chart.
Brendan Plowman of AdamNotEve noted that the “lyrics throughout the song suggest an idea of taking the plunge together. Risking it all in the hope of something bigger and better that lies ahead, even if it is ‘through the curtain of a waterfall’ and you don’t know what’s on the other side” while “the music and repetitive chorus are uplifting and exciting and everyone still can’t get enough of it. But it appears this is no accident”.
Sheppard is from Brisbane, and the band was formed in 2009.
From late April to early May 2014, “Geronimo” spent three weeks at No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart, knocking Pharrell Williams’ single “Happy” from the top spot after its 12-week run. It is the first single to have been recorded in Brisbane that reached number one.
Internationally, the track reached the top 10 in Austria, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Poland.
Sheppard was certified 5× platinum by ARIA, for shipments of over 350,000 units.
Here are the lyrics to Geronimo and perhaps readers can see the connection between them and the idea of being a part of Nxivm, led by Keith Raniere.
Now it’s coming back we can steal it
If we bridge this gap
I can see you
Through the curtains of the waterfall
Yeah you held my hand
But I tossed it
Didn’t understand
You were waiting
As I dove into the waterfall
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Bombs away
Bombs away
Bombs away
Can you feel (my love, my love, my love, my love, my love) my love?
Bombs away
Bombs away
Bombs away
Say Geronimo!
Moving away too fast
That we crushed it
But it’s in the past
We can make this leap
Through the curtains of the waterfall
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Bombs away
Bombs away
Bombs away
Can you feel (my love, my love, my love, my love, my love) my love?
Bombs away
Bombs away
Bombs away
With a broken toy
All lost and coy
(At the curtains of the waterfall)
So it’s here I stand
As a broken man
But I’ve found my friend
At the curtains of the waterfall
Through the crashing sound
And you’ve come around
At the curtains of the waterfall
And it sets us free
So I fall to my knees
(At the curtains of the waterfall)
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Bombs away
Bombs away (Say Geronimo!)
Make this leap
Make this leap
Make this leap
Can you feel my love?
Frank Parlato 
Janine Morrison 
J.J. O'Hara 
Richard Luthmann 
Marie White 
Paul Serran
Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us!
My best limerick to date Frank is…..
“Chef Jon’s Sin”
There was a man who loved toss-salad
Large Eggplants made him sing a ballad
Little pickles,
gave him a tickle
After meals he took a mint and ant-acid
Incidentally, do you know if Mr. Johnson liked the limerick?
I don’t know if he was pleased. I would think he was.
One new Limerick and a rewrite:
“The Easter Special”
Once there was a woman name Esther
Her guy, loved her to stuff-up his keister
She’d play his petoot
like a skin flute
He’d take twelve dozen eggs on Easter
“Soul Tan 3.0”
Once there was a princess in a palace
A mad wanker craved her sweet chalice
All the while, he was scorned,
he’d sit enrage and watch porn
Wait on a girl and ur nuts fill with malice
Is it me or does the rock band look like extras from the old Star Trek show?
************
“Soul Tan”
Once there was a princess in a palace
A mad wanker craved her pink chalice
Erstwhile he was scorned
So he’d sit mad and watch gay porn
Wait on a queen and die of bent up malice
Erstwhile should be all the while
iPhone Dictaphone on the toilet doesn’t work out to well
I am done with limericks. At 12 it’s time to stop
Good call, I was trying to place the “wrongness” of their aesthetic. That’s it!
https://youtu.be/-pNQYHvhnms
Ask Megan, Juan and Fluffy why they used that song for the V-Week. Also Mark Vicente may know.
Frank, I didn’t even read this post. But if we don’t hear from you, hope you have a very, well deserved, happy Thanksgiving. I assume Vanguard is having a Cornish hen.
Now Princess Catheter and the Nxivm 5 are off limits?
Frank, you’ve become more pc than unisex bathrooms.
I don’t know who you are, but that was a rude remark. The world’s rotten anyway, so at let’s we just here to be tolerant of each other. (In hindsight, I’m sorry if I hurt someone, it wasn’t intentional.)
I am sorry, but the statement “Frank is more politically-correct than a unisex bathroom” is true.
My man Frank is 3 shakes of a Lambs Tail from growing mammary glands.
The lamb tail reference is lingo from the development of the nuclear bomb, its referencing the initial explosion until the final “second explosion”, nuclear explosion.
Unisex bathrooms exist because men want and demand them. It’s traditionally masculine behavior to remove female boundaries and vilify women for taking issue with it. Frank is doing the opposite.
What Frank is doing is acting like an adult and a leader. A responsible caretaker of many stories. Frank has made himself more equitable and approachable.
What do you think, a blog that covers a rape cult could dial it back a few notches and gain more readers? Must one have breasts to see the sense of this?
Negative advertising is advertising. I wouldn’t mind, but we’re all different.
The song is so sappy-sweet it could give you diabetes. Saccharine, Up-With-People excrement. No wonder the idiots in Nxivm picked it as their theme.
I had to go listen to some Opeth to rinse out my ears after listening to that. Thanks a lot, Frank!
@Aristotle’s Sausage: You said it! 🤮
I’ll bet they aren’t too pissed off…no publicity is bad publicity and this gives them some reach in the USA.
My ears are bleeding and ringing from that foul song!
*********
Here is new limerick fit for Thanksgiving:
“Chef Jon’s Sin”
There was a man who loved toss-salad
Large Eggplant made him sing a ballad
Little pickles,
gave him a tickle
After meals he took a mint and antacid
Another humdinger for Thanksgiving
“Captain Shaun’s Son”
There was a man who love the navy
His best friend’s name was Davy
Davy chase seamen
Our man tagged yeomen
By Thanksgiving they’d plenty of gravy
Rewrite
“Captain Shaun’s Son”
There was a man who loved the navy
His best friend’s name was Davy
Davy chase seamen
And tag many a yeoman
By Thanksgiving they’d plenty of gravy
Good God I to have to get a life
IP attorney here. The clip used seems like a clear case of fair use since it was a short clip which had news value. I’m sure attorneys for STARZ clear everything they air. But I sympathize with the artists who are probably horrified at the connection.
Say, did Mark Vicente create this promotional video for NXVIM? Maybe they should complain to him.
Well shouldn’t Geronimo’s descendants have a misuse/misappropriation of likeness claim against the band for using Geronimo’s name without compensation?
Pot, meet Kettle.
I cannot remember the song on Seduced (I do remember and could actually sing the theme on The Vow but not name it). If not much of the one on Seduced was used, it might be subject to “fair use” in the US. However, Australia and the UK have very very limited fair use exemptions compared with the US. I don’t know how long it was played for but if it was used as a theme tune, it probably should have been cleared in advance.
I can’t remember it either Jane. It’s not like it was a main title theme being repeated. Having said that, I have never heard the song before.
It happens all the time with polititions/political groups/candidates using music without authorisation. I’m not sure if it ever goes so far as someone being sued over it because it happens all the time but I don’t know for sure. Maybe it’s a warning of legal action and it gets removed?
“It happens all the time with polititions/political groups/candidates using music without authorisation.”
That is a different situation then the documentary since the politicians are free to use the songs at public rallies provided they pay the ASCAP fee. The artists that complain know this but like to pretend otherwise and gullible media people lap it up.
As an IP attorney, the clip used seems like a clear case of fair use since it was a short clip which had news value. I’m sure attorneys for STARZ clear everything they air.
Did Mark Vicente produce this video for NXVIM? Maybe they should complain to him.
I did not know this (ASCAP and outrage). That’s interesting. Thanks, Ben.
I can justify my FR interest now, I learn something new every day!
Correction: soothe LOL
While we anxiously [but not really] await Raniere and Bronfman updates at the MDC, here’s the latest on Maxwell to sooth yourselves: https://nypost.com/2020/11/24/ghislaine-maxwell-is-awoken-every-15-minutes-in-jail-lawyers/ LOL
The band is fake protesting, they are getting more publicity than they ever dreamed of – I never heard of them before this. LOL
Besides, they committed ethnic misappropriation with their song in the first place, Geronimo was a native American. LOL
Also, the HBO series was critical of NXIVM, so they should be honored to be associated with an effort in opposition to that scam. LOL
— to bd associated with an effort in opposition to that scam.
Would you qualify this as a tool-scam? I feel it is more along the lines of pedestrian crosswalk.
No, the tool scam is completely different. LOL
Read this and edjamacate yourself:
Do your part and copy/paste this message, including this part, all over social media (unless owned/operated by current Amway IBOs or the Amway scam company), and encourage them to do the same, and so on, à la network marketing/MLM. Also, submit a complaint to the FTC at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/?utm_source=takeaction#crnt&panel1-1 If you don’t, then you’re part of the problem. Amway has 2 major problems, and most MLMs have at least one of these issues:
1. The products are overpriced, which makes them almost impossible to sell to customers and results in Amway being an illegal pyramid: http://allmlmfacts.org/2016/05/h-r-5230-and-the-fallacy-of-mlm/ , and also according to the FTC and SEC websites and previous court decisions and settlements; and
2. The Tool Scam is hidden profit for the top level distributors only, and the vast majority of distributors operate at a net loss as a result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0iFUaiI2hY This is RICO fraud.
For recent examples, google “FTC” along with the following companies, one at a time: FHTM, BurnLounge, Zeek, TelexFree, Vemma, Advocare, Neora, Javita, Waiora, Business For Health, and Herbalife. Make a complaint on the FTC website: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/?utm_source=takeaction#crnt&panel1-1
Although there is no federal law defining pyramid schemes, the FTC has a long and successful track record of using its Section 5 law prohibiting “unfair and deceptive” business practices to go after MLM scams: https://web.archive.org/web/20190824052752/https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/multilevel-marketing (the link was changed in late 2019, so the current page does not state this exactly the same) which states, in part, “Not all multilevel marketing plans are legitimate. If the money you make is based on your sales to the public, it may be a legitimate multilevel marketing plan. If the money you make is based on the number of people you recruit and your sales to them, it’s probably not. It could be a pyramid scheme. Pyramid schemes are illegal, and the vast majority of participants lose money.”
Read about these and much more at these websites: http://www.StopTheAmwayToolScam.wordpress.com and http://www.AllMLMFacts.org, and http://www.AmwayUKBlog.wordpress.com, and email stoptheamwaytoolscam@yahoo.com to help shut down Amway and other MLM scams.
Watch this video about Amway and other MLM scams, then forward it to everyone you know, except for current Amway IBOs, and encourage them to do the same. When enough people know, these scams will collapse:
English version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6MwGeOm8iI
Spanish version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy-O4myeUzg
Visit my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Whydoyoubanothers/videos
Listen to my weekly radio/podcast: https://www.buildingfortunesradio.com/scott-johnson-peter-mingils/
To be clear, it was the producers of Seduced that used an unauthorized song to tell the story of former members, not the now-defunct corporation of NXIVM?
In other instances, bands would probably appreciate the exposure, if they had not reached mass success, but it sounds like this band has, and controlling where songs end up is an ongoing battle musicians often fight. It’s their song, and I can’t say I blame them for not wanting it associated with traumatic events and criminal activity. For myself, if I ever hear the intro song to The Vow again, it will trigger stress and anxiety. It’s forever ruined.