Former US President Donald Trump infringed copyrights by using Eddy Grant’s iconic “Electric Avenue” in a 2020 campaign video without permission, a federal judge ruled today, rejecting Trump’s argument that he made legal fair use of the song.
This was reported by Billboard.com
Grant sued Trump in 2020 after the then-president used his 1982 hit in a social media video attacking Joe Biden. Grant said he reacted with “dismay” when he began receiving inquiries asking if he had approved the Republican candidate’s use of his music.
Trump’s lawyers had argued the video was shielded under copyright’s fair use doctrine, which allows for the “transformative” re-use of protected works in certain situations. But in Friday’s ruling, Judge John G. Koeltl sharply rejected that argument.
“In this case, the video has a very low degree of transformativeness, if any at all,” the judge wrote. “The video is best described as a wholesale copying of music to accompany a political campaign ad”, Billboard reported.
A spokesperson and an attorney for the Trump campaign did not immediately return requests for comment.