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Another week, another lawsuit against Donald Trump for using music without permission as part of his campaign. This summer has seen Defendant Don rankle artists from across many music genres: pop (Celine Dion), soul (Isaac Hayes), disco (ABBA), and alt rock (Foo Fighters), and joining them now is alt/garage/indie rock duo The White Stripes. The Trump campaign released a video in August cued up to the distinctive riff of “Seven Nation Army,” and when Jack White caught wind of it he let it be known that the message comin’ from his eyes says, leave it alone. And if he catches it comin’ back his way he’s gonna serve it to Don. And that ain’t what Trump wants to hear, but that’s what Jack’s done. He’s goin’ to Wichita— no, no, that’s it for the lyrics! But yeah, Jack and Meg White are suing Trump’s broke ass for copyright infringement:
The White Stripes are suing former president Donald Trump for featuring their acclaimed track “Seven Nation Army” in a video on social media, which they allege was used without their permission last month in a breach of federal copyright law.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in New York, Jack and Meg White accused the Republican presidential nominee of trying to burnish his public image and generate financial support for his campaign “on the backs of the Plaintiffs,” constituting a “flagrant misappropriation” of their work.
The lawsuit is the latest copyright case to plague Trump’s presidential campaign, raising questions about how to adjudicate allegations of copyright infringement in the digital era. Copyright lawyers say the cases could set an important precedent on the use of popular music in political campaigns.
The Whites, who are seeking unspecified damages, said that the fact that they “vehemently oppose the policies and actions taken by Defendant Trump” only made the alleged violation all the more offensive to them.
A spokesman for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment early Tuesday.
According to the lawsuit, which names Trump, his campaign and Deputy Director of Communications Margo Martin, the defendants published a video of Trump boarding an aircraft for campaign stops in Michigan and Wisconsin with the riff of “Seven Nation Army” playing for the duration of the video. “Defendants impermissibly synchronized the riff from [“Seven Nation Army”] with that footage,” the lawsuit alleged.
Jack White shared the X post by Martin on his Instagram account on Aug. 31, promising the lawsuit and saying, “Don’t even think about using my music.” The post was not visible on Martin’s account, nor Trump’s, as of Tuesday.
The White Stripes’ case underlines the complexity of music copyright law, says U.S. intellectual property lawyer Jason Rosenblum. “If you want to use music in a video, you need a synchronization license,” he said in an email Tuesday. Such a license is acquired through a different process than how rights are negotiated for public performances of music. Synchronization licenses typically require direct negotiation with whoever holds the rights to the recorded song, he added, usually the publisher or musician.
“If Trump’s campaign or whoever posted the video didn’t get those rights, the White Stripes should have a strong case against them,” Rosenblum said, although he cautioned that these cases aren’t always clear cut and that he wasn’t familiar with the details of this specific claim.
You see, there’s always a bright side to litigation: Trump’s endless stream of lawsuits will finally set much-needed clarifications and precedents for US music copyright infringement law, specifically as it pertains to the digital landscape! Huzzah! I realize that Trump isn’t single handedly selecting the playlist for his rallies and propaganda, but I do find it funny that he’s doing legal battle over these songs, when I don’t really get the impression that Trump is much of a music man himself? I mean, anyone who’s heard his meandering, plotless, rhetorically-painful “speeches” knows the man has no musical ear whatsoever. So why doesn’t he just pull from the Kid Rock, Amber Rose and Jason Aldean catalogs and call it a day? And those suggestions are just off the top of my head; I’m sure if Trump thought about how to license music without getting sued, he could come up with his own concepts of a plan.