Aussie acts falling victim to dodgy rip-offs and refused payouts is – disgracefully – nothing new.

We’ve seen John Butler Trio’s ‘Zebra’ being ripped off by a Superbowl commercial selling yoghurt, The Grates’ ‘Aw Yeah’ used to peddle Weet-Bix and GOD’s 1987 debut ‘My Pal’ closely referenced by Mercedes Benz.

But what al those instances shared was they were instigated by greedy advertising firms, where the newest incident sees an international political figure at the centre of allegations of yet another Aussie artist rip off.

A Chilean presidential candidate, running with the support of the leftist Communist Party, has reportedly stolen the music of colourful Sydney five-piece Jinja Safari.

Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet is taking a run for another term in office and a commercial used in her new campaign allegedly uses Jinja Safari’s 2010 single ‘Peter Pan’ as its soundtrack, though without the consent of the band themselves, as Junkee reports.

A Chilean fan tipped off the globe-trotting Aussie group and their management about the use of their music in the campaign; “I just want to know if she is paying you for use of one of your more known songs, if she’s paying for your rights as musicians,” wrote the anonymous fan of the offending video, which was shared to Bachelet’s more than 525,000 followers on Facebook ahead of next moth’s election.

The clip features a number of community archetypes – a doctor, a business-man, a construction worker – heading to the polling booth, all set to the spritely sounds of a track that is remarkably similar to Jinja Safari’s ‘Peter Pan’.

You can compare the two below, the Bachelet campaign’s ‘Peter Pan’ lift begins at 0:29.

According to the band’s co-manager, Blake Rayner, Jinja Safari were not approached about the use of their music and that they had every intention of addressing Bacehelt’s office with legal action over the matter.

“Sadly, it’s not uncommon for corporations to use a song that ‘sounds right’ for their brand or message without asking permission,” says Rayner. “It’s happened several times in Jinja Safari’s short career, and in all those instances we pursued and won damages.” One instance for the group – who released their self-titled debut earlier this year – involved a retail sports brand, the other, an airline.

The co-manager adds that the band’s dispute “is not about the politics; it’s more about the basics,” adding that, “use of any artistic element in a political campaign or message should be subject to the permission of the artist or copyright holder,” he emphasises.

It’s hardly the first time that a Presidential candidate has misused a song in a campaign gaffe, the most famous example being Ronald Reagan severely misinterpreting Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born In The USA’ as a rallying cry as opposed to a critique.

Likewise, it’s the latest case of a band discovering their songs were being mimicked or used without permission. Such as local Canberra band Tonk did when they discovered their songs were used not once but twice in the popular US sitcom How I Met Your Mother, electropop South African ex-pats Clubfeet having their creative music video copied not once, but twice, and defunct UK indie act Wu Lyf fuming at their music used in a ‘sexist’ ad for Toyota.

Even a most polite decline by Beach House over the use of their music to Volkswagen wouldn’t satisfy, an ad agency persisted for weeks to use the dream pop duo’s “Take Care” in a commercial to no avail; so they created their own sound-alike version of the track instead, while The Black Keys have filed several lawsuits against the likes of Pizza Hut, Home Debut, and a casino chain over rip-offs off their dynamic garage rock.

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