The musician who wrote reggae classic “Electric Avenue” sued President Trump for copyright infringement for using the song in a Twitter video that bashed Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Songwriter Eddy Grant filed the suit in Manhattan federal court Tuesday, claiming he has suffered and will continue to suffer if the video continues to spread across the internet.
The clip, which Trump tweeted on Aug. 12, “appears to be an endorsement” of the president’s re-election campaign, according to the suit.
The video “contains a visual depiction of a high-speed red train bearing the words ‘Trump Pence KAG 2020’ in stark contrast to a slow-moving handcar bearing the words ‘Biden President: Your Hair Smells Terrific’ being powered by an animated likeness of Former Vice President Biden while out-of-context excerpts of Former Vice President Biden’s speeches and interviews are played over Plaintiffs’ Recording,” the suit states.
Both Trump and his re-election campaign politically benefited from the video, according to the suit.
Grant, who lives in Barbados, is seeking to collect damages that will be determined at trial, the suit states.
The song, which includes lyrics such as “now in the street there is violence,” was written by Grant after he watched news coverage of the 1981 Brixton riots in London, the Guardian reported in 2018.
“I had been talking to politicians and people at a high level about the lack of opportunity for black people, and I knew what was brewing,” he told the newspaper.
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