So, Mastercard asked indie rock sensation M. Ward if they could use one of his songs for an advertisement (actually, it wasn't his song - it was a cover of a Daniel Johnston song.) When Ward said no, Mastercard got someone else to record a similar sounding version of the song. M. Ward is not necessarily happy [1].

More on this at Pitchfork [2], but it's an interesting case. A similar thing happened to Tom Waits [3], and it seems to be a good example of how it's not just the amateurs [4] that are redefining intellectual property.