Lara Trump May Find Herself in Legal Trouble After Covering a Song From Someone That Called Out the Family in 2020

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Lara Trump recently joined Tiffany Trump as another musically-inclined member of the Trump family with her recent cover of the Tom Petty song, “I Won’t Back Down.” With 99 percent of the Trump family’s new ventures, it was met with heaps of controversy, and some eagle-eyed internet users remembered another incident with this song that could spell trouble for Lara.

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In case you need a refresher, Lara recently released the song on Apple Music (and a few days later, she and her husband Eric Trump accused the platform of “shadow-banning” her song).

Many users on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, reminded fellow users of a previous incident involving the Trump family and the Petty family. Back in 2020, Lara’s father-in-law, former US President Donald Trump, used Petty’s song during a rally in Oklahoma.

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Soon after, the Petty family made a post that many have been referring to on X that reads, “Trump was in no way authorized to use this song to further a campaign that leaves too many Americans and common sense behind.”

They added, “Both the late Tom Petty and his family firmly stand against racism and discrimination of any kind. Tom Petty would never want a song of his used for a campaign of hate. He liked to bring people together… Concurrently, we have issued an official cease and desist notice to the Trump campaign.”

While the family never used the song again in their rallies, Lara went ahead and did a cover of it.

So, you may be thinking, “How could she be in legal trouble? People cover songs all the time.” True, people often cover hit songs, and cease and desists don’t typically last long. Getting in legal trouble for a cover doesn’t happen often, but you can still be sued for doing so.

As far as we know, “I Won’t Back Down” isn’t a public-domain song; you typically don’t have to get explicit permission to cover a song. Because of the fair use rule, it’s quite easy to cover and sample works, but there’s one caveat.

However, with the Petty family’s previous legal action since the Trump family tried to tie the song to them, many are speculating the Petty family could act again.

Before you go, click here to see the biggest presidential scandals in US History. 

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