Donald Trump defends Electric Avenue’s copyright claim, citing ‘Presidential absolute immunity’

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Legal papers before a New York court show how, in September last year, the campaign video tweet was viewed more than 13.7 million times, ‘liked’ more than 350,000 times and retweeted 139,000 times attracting nearly 50,000 comments. The video was later removed by Twitter following a copyright challenge.

Despite Grant’s offer to settle last year, Mr. Trump’s lawyers have prepared a lawsuit claiming the lawsuit should be dismissed.

They filed a motion to dismiss the claim of music played in the video under “fair use”, a doctrine that allows copyright-protected material to be reproduced without permission under special incident. They also insisted that it was used for satirical purposes, rather than to spread the song itself.

But in September, U.S. District Court Judge John Koeti, rejected the motion to dismiss because the use of the song reached “wholesale in copying music to accompany a political campaign ad”.

The latest papers, which include defending the presidency’s safety among other legal arguments, have been filed in the last few days by Mr. Trump’s lawyers.

‘The court will also reject it in due course’

Grant’s lawyer, Brian Caplan of Reitler Kailas & Rosenlatt, told the Sunday Telegraph: “No president is above the law. Donald Trump, as President, continues to complain about China’s disregard for rights. to the US intellectual because he deserves to do so.

“However, with respect to Eddy Grant, in fact Mr. Trump has done exactly what he accused China of doing. He ignored and violated Mr. Grant’s rights to Electric Avenue, his signature work. .

“The claim of” Second absolute immunity “, after his defense of” fair use “was rejected by the court, is a ridiculous and desperate position that the court will also reject in due course.”

Electric Avenue was released on Grant’s Killer on the Rampage album. It became one of the most popular songs in 1983, in part because this accompanying video was well received on MTV. The song reached number two on the charts and lost the Grammy Award for Best R&B song to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean.

Grant, whose other hits include I Don’t Wanna Dance, now lives in the Caribbean.

A number of musicians, including the Rolling Stones and Neil Young, have complained that Trump used their music without permission.

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