The rock duo end their legal dispute against the president-elect days after calling him a “wannabe dictator.”
Days after publicly labeling Donald Trump a “wannabe dictator,” iconic rock musicians Jack White and Meg White, of The White Stripes, have decided to drop their lawsuit against the president-elect. The lawsuit initially arose after Trump’s campaign used their hit song Seven Nation Army at rallies without the band’s permission.
The White Stripes claimed that the Trump campaign’s use of their track was a “flagrant misappropriation” and filed the suit to prevent further use of the song, citing copyright concerns and the potential damage to their public image.
Law & Crime has more details on White’s decision to capitulate:
Court documents filed Sunday evening in Manhattan federal court state that the White Stripes “dismiss without prejudice all claims against Defendants Donald John Trump, Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc., and Margo McAtee Martin.” Martin is Trump’s deputy communications director.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in October, claimed that playing the band’s 2003 hit — referred to in the complaint as being “among the most well-known and influential musical works of all time” — in the background of a video of the former president getting on a plane to campaign in Michigan and Wisconsin without White’s “knowledge or consent” amounted to a copyright violation.
The case, similar to one Trump faces against the estate of Isaac Hayes and resembling the objections of other artists, said Trump’s “self-professed” sophistication, business acumen, entertainment experience, and history of “being on the receiving end of numerous copyright claims by musical artists whose work he used without permission” all support the assertion that he and the other defendants “knew or should have known that the use of the 7NA Works in the Infringing Trump Videos was unauthorized.”
White said that his stance on Trump has remained unchanged since 2016, when the White Stripes said “in no uncertain terms that they were ‘disgusted by [the] association’” of the band’s music with a “pro-Trump campaign video.” This time, though, the use of “Seven Nation Army” was allegedly “even more offensive” to the bandmates, who “vehemently oppose the policies adopted and actions taken by Defendant Trump when he was President and those he has proposed for the second term he seeks.”
Despite dropping the lawsuit, Jack White remains outspoken in his criticism of Trump and his supporters.
“Trump won the popular vote. End of story. Americans chose a known, obvious fascist, and now America will get whatever this wannabe dictator wants to enact from here on out,” White wrote in an Instagram post the day after the election. “It’s absolutely dumbfounding that this con man succeeded in pulling the wool over so many Americans’ eyes—not once, but twice.”
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tell the Whites that the wanna be dictator was from msnbc so they should start watching a real news station, CNN, Fox, OAN, anything other than MSNBC
There is a critical detail missing in reports of these issues.
Did the musicians license the work to an agency? If so, did the campaign license the work from the agency?
I know there has been at least one case where the musician had to drop an accusation when someone pointed out they no longer owned the rights, and the campaign purchased a license from the agency that owned the rights.
PLay AC DC
U2
FIxx
Police
Sting
War 1970s
CCR
Alan Parsons Project
Fixx
Pat Benatar
These lawsuits are frivolous and typically go nowhere. The reason is almost all of these musicians have agreements with third parties to license their music. That’s how these musicians make most of their money. When they deligate to others the power to license their music they no longer get to decide who can and cannot play their songs. Most music find their way into huge libraries of music that can be used through a single license that grants access to that library. Campaigns will take out one of these licenses.
I’ve never heard of this band. Back in the day it would have been an honor to have a candidate use their music. But today the hate is overwhelming on the other side. I tried to talk to a friend of mine when President Trump was still president, and she absolutely would not listen to anything good I had to say about the things he was doing. She said we would agree to disagree, and we haven’t talked about our country, since. It is sad people put their hate for one man against the future of our country. May their eyes one day be open to the lies they have been told. I pray that every night. God’s will be done.
I doubt White can fascist let alone define it. What pathetic drivel.