Donald Trump fights Electric Avenue copyright claim, citing ‘Presidential absolute immunity’

Donald Trump is fighting a breach of copyright claim after using the British hit song Electric Avenue in a campaign video, insisting he is legally immune because he was the US president.

The British pop star Eddy Grant took legal action after his 1983 song was used by the former US president to mock his political rival, Joe Biden, during last year’s presidential race.

The 55-second animation posted on the then president’s Twitter account in August last year showed Mr Trump, 75, riding a “Keep America Great” train speeding past the presidential Democrat candidate who was on a slow hand-powered rail cart. As the clip focuses on Mr Biden, the Electric Avenue song is played for 40 seconds.

But, after Grant, 73, won a key stage in his legal battle last month, Mr Trump’s lawyers now have filed papers saying any claim against him must fail because he is entitled to “Presidential absolute immunity”.

Essentially, Mr Trump’s legal team is arguing that because their client was the 45th President of the United States when he broadcast the video featuring Mr Grant’s music on social media he was immune from any form of prosecution because of the high office he then held.

The Guyanese-born singer-songwriter filed a lawsuit in New York after he discovered an unlicensed copy of his song, inspired by a street in Brixton, south London, had been used by the then president.

His legal action followed numerous complaints by other musicians that they did not want to be associated with Mr Trump or appear to be endorsing his candidacy.

Legal papers before the New York court show how, by September last year, the campaign video tweet had been viewed more than 13.7 million times, been ‘liked’ more than 350,000 times and retweeted 139,000 times attracting nearly 50,000 comments. The video was later removed by Twitter following the copyright challenge.

Despite Grant offering to settle last year, Mr Trump’s lawyers prepared a case claiming the lawsuit should be kicked out.

They submitted a motion to dismiss claiming the music was played in the video under “fair use”, a doctrine allowing copyright-protected material to be reproduced without permission under special circumstances. They also insisted it was used for satirical purposes, rather than to disseminate the song itself.

But in September, US District Court Judge John Koeti, rejected the motion to dismiss because use of the song amounted to “wholesale copying of music to accompany a political campaign ad”.

The latest papers, which include the presidential immunity defence among other legal arguments, were filed in the last few days by Mr Trump’s lawyers.

‘This will also be rejected by the court in due course’

Grant’s lawyer, Brian Caplan of Reitler Kailas & Rosenlatt, told the Sunday Telegraph: “No president is above the law. Donald Trump, as President, constantly complained about China’s disregard of US intellectual property rights because it behooved him to do so.

“However, with respect to Eddy Grant, Mr Trump has in fact done exactly what he accused China of doing. He has disregarded and violated Mr Grant’s rights in Electric Avenue, his signature work.

“Claiming “Presidential absolute immunity”, after his defense of “fair use” was soundly rejected by the court, is a ridiculous and desperate position which will also be rejected by the court in due course.”

Electric Avenue was released on Grant’s Killer on the Rampage album. It became one of the most well-known songs of 1983, in part because its accompanying video was well received on MTV. The song reached number two in the charts and lost out on the Grammy Award for Best R&B song to Billie Jean by Michael Jackson.

Grant, whose other hits include I Don’t Wanna Dance, now lives in the Caribbean.

A number of musicians, including the Rolling Stones and Neil Young, have complained that Trump has used their music without permission.