Donald Trump Relents, Testifies In Eddy Grant’s ‘Electric Avenue’ Copyright Lawsuit

[ad_1]

Former US president Donald Trump has complied with a court-ordered deposition, in connection with a $300,000 copyright infringement lawsuit by British-Guyanese Eddy Grant, over the use of the superstar’s Reggae-fusion song Electric Avenue, in his 2020 election campaign.

The court order came in April of this year, nearly two years after Grant filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Trump, in a federal court in Manhattan.

According to an Insider report, the information was revealed recently, eight months after both Trump and Grant were directed by the court to testify under oath on June 21, 2022.

Electric Avenue singer Eddy Grant did something the January 6 committee and the New York attorney general couldn’t: get Donald Trump to answer questions in a deposition, Insider reported Monday.

Trump has sat for at least three other depositions in lawsuits against him this year. He pleaded with the Fifth about 400 times before being forced to sit for questioning by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is preparing a $250 million lawsuit alleging a long-standing pattern of business fraud, it added.

Grants US$300,000 lawsuit was filed in 2020, after Trumps campaign used Electric Avenue, the singers biggest international hit, in a tweet bashing Biden during his re-bid in the election in the last US presidential run-offs.

A sample from the song, totaling 40 seconds, was used as the soundtrack for an animation posted on Trumps Twitter account on August 12, 2020, mocking former candidate Joe Biden, showing him slow movement. hand-car while the Trump campaign barrels on a high-speed train, according to The Insider.

The animation, which was viewed more than 13.7 million times, was removed a month later, but according to the Grants case the tweet containing the video was liked more than 350,000 times, retweeted more than 139,000 times, and received nearly 50,000 comments, and brought the singers name into disrepute.

According to Insider’s latest report, Grant’s attorney Brett Van Benthysen said Trump was fired for this action and did not object to answering questions about the tweet.

It said Trump is scheduled to be deposed in the case in early April at Van Benthysen’s Manhattan offices where he will answer questions about the campaign’s access and control of his Twitter account; the process for the campaign’s decision to post her tweet, and the “financial or political benefit” the campaign received, as a result.

However, the publication noted that online court records do not indicate the date or location where Trump made the deposition.

The Insider noted that the purpose of Monday’s filing was for Grant’s side to request a hearing on Trump advisor Dan Scavino’s failure to comply with a subpoena for his own deposition in the lawsuit.

Grants attorney wrote in an Aug. 20 court filing, seeking Scavinos’ testimony because he reportedly frequently wrote and/or reviewed Trump’s tweets and the defendants represented that Mr. Scavino had a role in the un- allegedly tweet containing an infringing video”.

According to Insider, Scavino, who is a longtime aide and adviser to Trump, also fought a House January 6 committee subpoena, for his phone records but US District Judge John G. Koeltl set a Wednesday, Dec. 21, for a hearing on Scavino’s failure to comply with Grant’s subpoena.

The report said lawyers for both Trump and Grant have agreed to a strict gag order on the case and have repeatedly declined to comment on the matter.

As for the offending tweet, Trumps team, in its defense, argued that the animation was political satire, and, as a result, was exempt from copyright law. In addition, his lawyers said that the campaign team simply reposted the animation with no idea where it came from and that he cannot be sued due to presidential absolute immunity.

Earlier this year, Insider cited court documents as revealing that lawyers for both sides attempted to settle their disagreement over the song on March 2, during a closed-door settlement conference, in front of a magistrate, which ended in a stalemate.

As such, it said the Manhattan-based federal lawsuit will instead move forward with taping the depositions of all parties.

In September last year, Reuters reported that Trump had lost his attempt to escape Electric Avenue’s copyright lawsuit for misusing the single, after US District Judge John Koeltl ruled that the former president and his campaign failed to prove in an early stage of the case that the video used Grants’ song fairly under federal copyright law.

The judge also said that the fair use factors were all in favor of Gimme Hope singer Joanna and that the video Trump posted did not parody the music or change it in any way, and that the overall political purpose it did not make a difference. or non-commercial.

Grants’ then-lawyer, Brian Caplan of Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt, said in an email that he was very pleased with the decision, because there is no justification under existing copyright law for a politician to simply apply a popular recording and synchronizing it with an unrelated video for ostensibly a commercial purpose, wrapped as a political advertisement.

Electric Avenue was written and recorded by Grant in 1982 and released on his album Killer on the Rampage.

The song, which references Electric Avenue in London and the 1981 Brixton Riot, peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart spending five weeks in that spot. It was also certified platinum in the United States, where it was one of the biggest hits of 1983.

In August 2020, Grant shared a release on his website, noting that he had taken immediate action against President Donald Trump’s political campaign team, for unlawfully using Electric Avenue in a video criticizing Joe Biden, the Democratic Presidential candidate.

He mentioned then, that his intellectual property was encapsulated in destructive political rhetoric, which was further encapsulated in a video production that could only be interpreted as evil, and thus caused me great emotional distress. anxiety

The statement also noted that on August 13, 2020, Trumps campaign was issued a cease and desist letter and that Grant himself, described the actions of the presidents campaign as blatant abuse of his rights as a artist, composer, arranger, producer and owner. .

Additionally, the Grants’ attorney at the time, Wallace EJ Collins, also stated that as a result of Trump’s wrongful Unauthorized Use Violation in connection with his controversial political campaign, there was substantial and irreparable reputational damage. of singers.

Collins also said that Grant has a reputation for standing up for truth and justice for all, which any association with the name Trump in a political context would seriously damage, and described it as a serious violation that would amount to a catalog of blacks. will sing.

[ad_2]