I See That Some Musicians Object to Donald Trump Using Their Music In His Rallies; Especially The Song "Hold On, I'm Coming", Written By Two Men Including The Late Isaac Hayes Whose Estate Is Now Suing Trump. What Are The Rules

Yes, there have been multiple musicians who like most arts employed individuals tend to identify as politically and culturally liberal. Trump tends to stir the emotions of those that love him or hate him. That includes opposing politicians such as former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi who demonstrated her vile contempt that extended not just against the person but against the office when she tore up her copy of Trump’s, State of the Union Address during his Presidency.

A song that the Trump campaign has used at rallies is the 1966 Dave Parker and Isaac Hayes song, “Hold On I’m Coming” that they co-wrote. The song was written for the use of Sam and Dave who released it in 1967. Isaac Hayes died at the age of 65 in 2008. Prior to that time Mr. Hayes had several issues during his life including a bankruptcy in which he lost all rights to the music he had written or performed. The Trump campaign assert that they had obtained and paid for the appropriate licensing. Isaac Hayes, III as an heir to Isaac Hayes and a party with Isaac Hayes Enterprises (collectively Hayes) asserts that the Trump campaign does not have current licensing rights. The Hayes parties claim that the Trump campaign had licensing between 30 November 2022 and 5 June 2024. Further, Hayes claims that they were able to re obtain 50% of the ownership and that the Trump campaign had its licensing use terminated.

Sam Moore, of Sam and Dave has sung at times for the Trump campaign and disagrees with the Hayes narrative. While he does not know how Isaac Hayes would feel about the lawsuit, he feels it is politically motivated on the part of Hayes. I would also think it is as much financially motivated.

An Atlanta judge has granted to Hayes injunctive relief so for now I assume the Trump campaign is not using the song, “Hold On I’m Coming”.

I have no idea whether the whole song is used at his rallies or possibly just the phrase “Hold On I’m Coming”. Within the law, there is the Fair Use Doctrine which is laid out in 1976 copyright law. Something similar to Fair Use first arose in Great Britain in 1710. Some of the areas that Fair Use might be utilized is in parody, news reporting, scholarship, commentary, search engines, criticism, and research. The use considers what is “based on a flexible proportionality test that examines the purpose of the use, the amount used, and the impact on the market of the original work”, "Copyright and Fair Use". ogc.harvard.edu. Harvard Office of the General Counsel. One would hardly think that the Trump campaign would profit from playing the song nor take away from the sale of the song by the public. Surely it may energize the supporters and who knows whether the Trump campaign profits from more donations by playing that particular song. I guess from what I learned in law school, I had the impression that snippets were generally included as Fair Use save for frequent repetition. To me it would seem that the balance of public use and exposure versus the rights of the artist, author, etc. would come within the doctrine of Fair Use. I often see on news shows the use of a popular song snippet as the news goes to commercial break. These snippets are never the same. I would interpret that as falling under the Fair Use Doctrine, even though a liberal leaning artist may object to their snippet being used by a conservative organization; so like Trump there may also be a problem with the use by Fox News. Then again, I don’t work in copyright law so my understanding may not be correct.

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