Donald Trump has discovered a brand new avenue to sue the media: Copyright.
He filed a lawsuit in federal court docket on Monday, alleging that Bob Woodward and his writer, Simon & Schuster, wanted his permission earlier than releasing the audio e book, The Trump Tapes, final 12 months. The audiobook is a set of 20 interviews that Woodward performed with Trump.
“Stated audio was protected materials, topic to numerous limitations on use and distribution—as a matter of copyright, license, contract, primary ideas of the publishing trade, and core values of equity and consent,” in line with the lawsuit. (Learn it right here). Amongst different issues, Woodward interviewed Trump for his e book Rage, launched in 2020. The e book was a bombshell, as Trump admitted that he wished to minimize the Covid menace within the early weeks of the pandemic.
The lawsuit names Woodward, Simon & Schuster and the writer’s mum or dad Paramount International as defendants.
Trump claims that the defendants’ “ongoing concerted efforts to revenue off the protected audio recordings and the works they’ve distributed derived from the protected audio recordings have brought about President Trump to maintain substantial damages, necessitating the establishment of this motion.”
Trump is searching for a minimum of $49.98 million in damages. He additionally needs a choose to declare that he owns the interview sounds recordings, a variety of which had been performed within the Oval Workplace.
A spokesperson for Simon & Schuster didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
Trump is not any stranger to suing media figures, typically with lawsuits rapidly dismissed. A defamation lawsuit in opposition to The New York Occasions, filed by the Trump marketing campaign in 2020, was tossed out on the grounds that what was written was non-actionable opinion. One other lawsuit filed by the marketing campaign in opposition to CNN additionally was dismissed. Extra lately, Trump filed one other lawsuit in opposition to CNN, this time over using the time period “The Huge Lie” to check with Trump’s unfounded and false claims concerning the 2020 presidential election. CNN’s authorized group has known as the lawsuit “baseless and nothing greater than political theater,” whereas arguing that the litigation ought to be dismissed as a result of using the time period “The Huge Lie” has not been proven to be verifiably false or actionable.
