While it may seem like small potatoes compared to all the other crimes he’s committed while in office, Donald Trump has proven himself to be a blatant abuser of artists’ copyrights. Whether on stage at a campaign rally or via a video decimated on Twitter, Trump and his gang of deplorables have routinely play songs against the wishes of the musicians who created them. The latter such example of this occurred on Saturday when Trump tweeted a fan-made campaign video soundtracked by Linkin Park’s “In the End”.
As the late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington previously called Trump “a greater threat to the USA than terrorism,” the band’s surviving members were quick to file a takedown notice with Twitter. Within hours, Twitter obliged with the band’s request, pulling the video from Trump’s feed and replacing it with a message that reads, “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.”
Unfortunately, musicians have had a harder time getting Trump to cease playing their music at physical campaign events as he’s hidden behind a Political Entities License which provides him with access to more than 15 million musical works in BMI’s repertoire. Nevertheless, The Rolling Stones recently threatened Trump’s campaign with a lawsuit over the continued unauthorized use of the band’s music.
Linkin Park – 1
Donald Trump – 0 pic.twitter.com/8rJKmQ500P
— SFDB (@sfdb) July 19, 2020
I loved Linkin Park. They hated Donald Drumpf. pic.twitter.com/WFaVoNLtbg
— Impeach Me..🏳 (@JD88791146) July 18, 2020
