Last Week, Team Tangerine Offered A Truly Stultifying Reason NOT To Find A Copyright Infringement -- Of "Electric Avenue"

We have begun following the infringement case Eddy Grant brought in Manhattan federal court, against Tangerine's 2020 Campaign -- for stealing his song, without permission, and (critically, in view of the below) without paying any royalties. We are late with this -- as it was filed / happened while we were in the air, returning from the mountains. [My prior backgrounder may be found, here.]

These campaign guys have very little in the way of excuses, in their favor, true.

But as we see on page 4, below (full filing here), Team Trump now argues that BECAUSE Trump openly, and notoriously "stole" the song, without offering any royalty payment (or even contacting Mr. Grant or ASCAP to get a quote) -- there could be no lost revenue. That is, since Trump was set on stealing it -- no one might be able to complain that Mr. Grant lost money:

. . .Here, by contrast, there is no. . . such market. As a single social media post by Defendant former President Trump on his personal Twitter account, the Animation could not have been a lost licensing opportunity for Plaintiffs, as no licensing payments were generated. . . .

Wow. Just. . . wow.

"I was always going to steal it. . ." is not the best defense I've ever seen.

And, likely the dumbest band of miscreant crooks in US history, are these guys. Wow.

नमस्ते