Leonard Cohen's Estate Warns Trump Never to Use His Song

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Leonard Cohen's estate has objected to Donald Trump's planned use of his song "Hallelujah" at the Freedom 250 rally in Washington.

Trump, 80, said weeks ago that singers Lee Greenwood and Christopher Macchio would take the stage at the Great American State Fair, with Macchio singing the 1984 single, among other tunes.

"The Leonard Cohen Estate has learned that the song 'Hallelujah' is to be performed at a Donald Trump rally on June 24," says a Facebook post on Cohen's account. "This use is not authorized, and the Estate does not support or approve of this or any similar usage. Thank you for your attention to this matter."

-snip-

After Macchio went ahead with "Hallelujah" on Wednesday, a B2 bomber made a flyover.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/music/articles/iconic-singer-estate-warns-trump-001227192.html

[MIButterfly]

1. Who's Christopher Macchio?

I've heard of Lee Greenwood but not Macchio. I guess I'll have to Google him.

Boy, he just gets the very best people, doesn't he?

ETA: He's some kind of tenor but I still don't know who he is. Is that some kind of ignorance on my part?

[mwmisses4289]

4. My understanding is he is an opera singer.

I guess if one is into opera, one would know him. I also understand that he is friends with one of the trump spawn, one of the older boys, I believe.

[Aristus]

2. "Hallelujah".

What all of us will be saying once this festering walking, talking anus dies.

May it be soon...

[harumph]

3. Republicans have to co-opt genius - because they're not capable of great art.

Republicans, if they display genius, it's more of the swindling kind.

[Ms. Toad]

5. There are ways to try to prevent political uses of a song - posting a note on Facebook isn't one of them.

Hallelujah can be licensed for public performance through a performing rights organization ("PRO" - e.g. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc.). That means anyone who pays the appropriate license fee can perform it.

Some of the PRO organizations (but not all) have a separate license for political uses of their works. The appropriate way to try to prohibit Trump's use is to exclude their works from being licensed under the political use license. This may (or may not) be successful - generally, a use license grants the rights to all items in the entire PRO catalog for the licensed purpose (and an attempted exclusion of works licensed in the general performance category from use under the political use license may not be effective).

So a statement on facebook (or to the media, or even a cease and desist letter) is purely performative.

(This is within my area of practice when I was actively engaged in the practice of IP law, and I frequently obtained PRO licenses on behalf of clients. The controversy over whether artists can effectively exclude their works (in part or in whole) from the political use license post-dates my active practice. But the last information I found with quick research is that it was unlikely that artists could successfully exclude works from licensing under the political use license.)