Turning Point, the rightwing American youth organisation that supports the NRA and opposes Black Lives Matter, has asked a court in Georgia to remove it from the copyright lawsuit filed by the estate of Isaac Hayes against Donald Trump.
That’s because, although it may have hosted political events for Trump - including events where Hayes’ song ‘Hold On, I’m Comin’ was played - it was never in charge of what tunes were used on stage, and it was Trump himself who was in charge of the playlist of songs - licensed or otherwise.
In the lawsuit filed against it and Trump, says Turning Point, the Hayes estate makes claims that “allege wrongful conduct on the part of Donald Trump”, but fails to show how Turning Point “induced, caused or materially contributed to the alleged infringement”, or that Turning Point had the “right and ability to supervise the infringing conduct”. For the Hayes estate’s infringement claims against it to succeed, says the political organisation, both of those things would need to be proven.
Numerous musicians have complained about Trump using their songs in videos or at political events, of course, though only a small number have actually gone legal. With political rallies, Trump and his campaign can usually rely on blanket licences from collecting societies like BMI and ASCAP, except where songwriters have specifically withdrawn their songs from the President’s licence.
Both the Hayes estate and David Porter, co-writer of ‘Hold On, I’m Comin', have excluded their songs from Trump’s BMI licence, with Porter doing so in June last year before various Trump campaign events where the song was played.
The Hayes estate sued not only Trump and his campaign, but also organisations that had hosted events for him, including Turning Point. Which is why it’s now trying to get itself removed from the litigation on the basis it wasn’t involved in Trump’s musical choices.
Turning Point also argues that it should be removed from the litigation for jurisdiction reasons, because it’s based in Arizona and its events took place in Florida and Michigan, so there’s no connection to Georgia.
Like Trump, it also questions whether or not the estate even has a stake in the copyright for ‘Hold On, I’m Comin’. That’s something the estate has already addressed in its response to Trump’s motion for dismissal, saying it does have a stake in the copyright because of the 2014 termination of a previous publishing deal with Warner Chappell.