Every election cycle, liberal musicians object to their songs being played at the campaign events of Republican candidates, which usually comes to an end pretty quickly when the candidates agree to no longer play their songs.
This issue came up again recently when Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president and Neil Young's song "Rockin' In the Free World" was played at the event,
The Washington Post is reporting.
A statement was released shortly after by Young's manager saying that the rocker doesn't support Trump's candidacy, and the real estate mogul didn't get authorization to use the song.
According to the Post, typically when this happens, a campaign will notify the musician that it got the necessary licenses to play the song but will agree to stop playing the song anyway.
Musicians could make a legal case against the candidate, by arguing that the use of their song could be seen as a false endorsement of the candidate or as an unauthorized use of a trademark.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, "that's not to say that a musician would actually prevail in a lawsuit asserting such claims . . . there's enough language [in past court rulings] expressing doubt over consumer confusion to give politicians some optimism about heading into court with a musician."
However, most politicians typically don't think it's worth the hassle or the distraction to fight it. That being said, the Post contends Trump just could be just the type of person who would be willing to take on that fight.
"It could be his one great political contribution to this country," the Post adds.
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