Rock legend Neil Young announced this week that he plans on filing a lawsuit against Donald Trump for using his music at campaign events without permission.
According to Stereogum, Young had told Trump to stop playing “Rockin’ In The Free World” — which he first played at an event announcing his candidacy — and other songs from his lengthy career. After Trump failed to comply, Young said he had enough.
The award-winning artist said that he saw enough after federal agents clashed with protesters in Portland and elsewhere.
“There is a long history to consider and I originally considered it, deciding not to pursue,” Young said last week. “But then President Trump ordered thugs in uniform into our streets. His idea. He ordered this himself. This is all DJT. He told them to wear camouflage, use unmarked vehicles to take people away, innocent people peacefully protesting — their constitutional right as US citizens. Trump’s troopers attacked a NAVY Vet, who was presenting no threat to them, despite their lame excuses.”
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The 74-year-old Young posted a copyright infringement complaint on his archival website against the Trump campaign, although it’s not clear the suit has been officially filed yet.
“[The campaign] does not now have, and did not at the time of the Tulsa rally, have a license or Plaintiff’s permission” to play Young’s songs ‘Rockin’ In The Fee World’ and ‘Devil’s Sidewalk,’” the complaint states. “[Young] in good conscience cannot allow his music to be used a ‘theme song’ for a divisive, un-American campaign of ignorance and hate.”
Young intends to seek the maximum amount in statutory damages allowed for “willful copyright infringement.”
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