Michael Bolton joined a half of dozen other artists on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight in a hilarious spoof about politicians stealing songs for their campaigns. (Photo: ScreenCap)
Trump caused an uproar when his campaign used well-known rock songs without permission at the Republican National Convention.
Trump’s action was particularly ironic because he billed himself as the “law and order” candidate during his RNC acceptance speech.
Copyright infringement, which is tantamount to theft, costs the music industry tens of millions of dollars a year. It’s the industry’s single biggest issue.
But all that was lost on the Trump campaign.
As IM reported yesterday (July 24), the campaign used no less than seven well-known songs without permission. All of the artists involved were furious.
British rock band Queen, ’70s R&B group Earth, Wind & Fire and ’60s English rock group The Turtles have all complained about Trump’s unauthorized use of their music during the four-day convention.
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The O’Jays, The Rolling Stones and British group Free have also lodged similar complaints.
On last night’s HBO show, Oliver noted that politicians have been ripping off artists for years.
Ronald Reagan ripped off Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” back in the 1980s, he noted, without ever realizing the meaning of the lyrics.
“To be fair, it is by no means just Trump who has angered musicians by using their music without permission,” said Oliver.
Find out who is in the same league as Trump and Ronald Reagan; check out the video below.
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