I agree — The Edge said they have some influence over their label, but ultimately Island was the shot caller on enforcement. Funny — a footnote to the interview reads: “Years later, in 2003, Negativland learned something new: that it was R.E.M.s manager, Bertis Downs, who first found the U2 single in a record store (Wuxtry Records) in Athens Georgia the day it came out. Downs was on the phone that night with his good friend Paul McGuinness, U2’s manager, wondering what the record really was. McGuinness asked Downs to over-night the single to U2 in Ireland the next day. U2 and their manager always maintained to Negativland and to the media that they nothing to do with instigating the lawsuit, but this was a lie. It was, in fact, U2’s manager who sent it along to the business affairs department of Island Records ( U2’s record label at the time) for them to sue Negativland and stop the record.”

Sort of points out the silliness of the current situation where U2 doesn’t have enough control over their own music to head off a lawsuit if they wanted too.