February 1, 2016

No, we're not going to ask our readers to watch Trump's 'Freedom Girls' number again, though if you missed it, it really is required viewing to understand just how bizarre this campaign has been.

Good thing it's all over YouTube as a news story, because the Trump Campaign has been forced to take it down from their channel due to copyright violation. Mediaite:

Trump’s ditty... borrowed its melody from the 1917 rallying war cry “Over There,” a WWI recruitment number that popularized the phrase “Johnny, get your gun.” The song was written by George M. Cohan, and the publishing rights are currently controlled by EMI Music, which issued a take-down notice.

Hate to do it, but I gotta side Trump's cheerleaders on this one. Copyright law that controls songs from World War One is taking ownership too far. It took entirely too long to get the copyright removed from "Happy Birthday", for crying out loud. We live in a digital age, and wiser heads should prevail when it comes to ownership of very old or traditional music when the authors and composers have been dead for a century.

On the other hand, Adele has told Trump to stop using her music at rallies. That's completely legitimate.

Sorry about your takedown notice, Trump for President. However, I may have a solution for you. Have you noticed that if you set the Freedom Girls to Nine Inch Nails, it works perfectly? Why don't you try to buy the rights to "Head Like a Hole"? (Yes, click this one, it'll blow your mind.)

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