The White Stripes suing Trump for copyright Infringement

I have been the drummer and founding member of the internationally touring locally based Vancouver alternative rock/pop band Meltt since 2014. This has brought the complicated and expansive world of IP law in the music and entertainment industry into my day-to-day work life and has fascinated me ever since. This article (published yesterday Sept 9th, 2024), is a very current example of an interesting case of copyright infringement in music. It involves the right to use a particular piece of music in a promotional political campaign video without permission and against the will of the composers and rights holders of such music. In this case, Donald Trump used “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes in a campaign ad video much to the chagrin of Jack White and The White Stripes.

“The new association with Defendant Trump that Defendants have foisted upon Plaintiffs through the Infringing Trump Videos is even more offensive to Plaintiffs because Plaintiffs 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,” attorneys for the White Stripes wrote.”

As pointed out in the article, gaining permission to use a song – for instance in a political campaign – is not always cut and dry. If you are a business and wish to use a song promotional or otherwise or you are a politician using a song at a political rally you can gain permission from the public rights organization in charge of registering the music and issuing licenses for it. They provide them the right to play songs from artists’ music catalogues and ensure that the musicians involved are fairly paid. These music publishing rights organizations in the United States are ASCAP or BMI and in Canada, we have an organization called SOCAN. Musicians must register with these organizations and the various publishing entities worldwide to ensure all their royalties are being collected for the use of their music, as my band has had to find out the hard way, which led us to sign our catalogue with a publishing agency this year.

However, in this case, when the music is used in an actual promotional video that is to be published it involves the world of sync, which brings in the requirement to obtain a sync license directly from the artist that owns the music (or label). This is the same for if a TV show or commercial wants to use a musician’s track in their show or commercial. Jack White claims no permission was granted and that previous opposition to the use of their music in his campaigns makes this an even more flagrant copyright abuse.