Trump Campaign Argues Fair Use In Their Defense Against Eddy Grant’s Lawsuit For Use Of “Electric Avenue” In Campaign Video

Eddy Grant was one of many musicians who did  not want their music used to be part of any  Donald Trump Campaign. Accordign to Brooklyn Vegan, Grant’s classic 1982 single “Electric Avenue” was used in an animated Trump campaign video. Trump tweeted the campaign video  which featured an animated version of Biden working an old-fashioned railroad handcar while the song and Biden soundbites play over it  back in August, but then removed it following a complaint by Grant. The musician filed suit against the Trump campaign for copyright violation, telling CNN at the time, “the removal of the video does not diminish the damages that have been sustained by reason of the two copyright infringements at issue. The tweet was sent to millions of President Trump’s Twitter account followers and

The Hollywood Reporter reported that the campaign’s attorneys filed a motion on Wednesday that the video made “fair use” of the song on satirical grounds. “Obviously, Mr. Grant’s purpose of creating a meaningful song for the pop music market is completely different from the Animation creator’s purpose of using the song ‘to denigrate … Former Vice President Joseph Biden’,” the motion reads, “Here, a reasonable observer would perceive that the Animation uses the Song for a comedic, political purpose – a different and transformed purpose from that of the original Song.

The report also mentioned that “the motion focuses on sales and not the licensing of the song: “Here, finally, it is utterly implausible that fans of Mr. Grant’s music, or pop music listeners in general, would opt to acquire the Animation in preference to the Song, in order to watch the Animation and thereby to hear the warped snippet of the Song accompanied Former VP Biden’s voiceover. Therefore, the Animation does not affect – much less usurp – the market for the Song and does not offer a market substitute for the Song.”