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INTERVIEW: Isaac Hayes III Details Ongoing Lawsuit With Donald Trump Over Licensing His Father's Music · The Breakfast Club

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  Speaker 1: Morning, everybody. It's e j Envy, Jess, Hilarrys, Charlomagne, the Gud.
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  Speaker 1: We are the breakfast club. Now Jess is out, so
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  Speaker 1: Laura LaRosa is holding it down to Charlamagne is actually
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  Speaker 1: catching a flight. We asked some special guests on the
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  Speaker 1: phone lines this morning. We have Isaac Hayes the Third
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  Speaker 1: and his attorney, James Walker Junior.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning.
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  Speaker 3: How are you doing.
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  Speaker 2: How are you feeling this morning?
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  Speaker 3: Really good?
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  Speaker 2: All right, well let's jump right into it.
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  Speaker 1: And recently I seen Trump was using your father's song
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  Speaker 1: and you sat down a ceasing desist to make sure
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  Speaker 1: that song.
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  Speaker 2: Was being stopped. Allegedly he didn't stop, So now you're
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  Speaker 2: suing his ass.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we sent a ceasing desist years ago, and
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  Speaker 4: then we asked for demand for payment for the multiple
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  Speaker 4: uses over one hundred and thirty uses, and they didn't
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  Speaker 4: respond to our deadline. So we had to file a
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  Speaker 4: lawsuit in a federal court. And you know, we were
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  Speaker 4: waiting to get some some information back. But I'll let
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  Speaker 4: James share exactly what new information we have that is
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  Speaker 4: actually breaking.
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  Speaker 5: Okay, we found out a day or so ago that
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  Speaker 5: we have been approved by the court and our requests
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  Speaker 5: for a emergency hearing with Team Trump on September third.
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  Speaker 5: So your viewers, your listeners, and all of America who's
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  Speaker 5: been supporting this great brother here who By the way,
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  Speaker 5: this is probably the first time in a long time
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  Speaker 5: outside of the Estate of Marvin Gay, where we've had
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  Speaker 5: a black man stand up for his publishing, his songwriting
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  Speaker 5: and go all out to get what's doue and what's
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  Speaker 5: proper and what's respect. So we got great news that
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  Speaker 5: the judge is granted an emergency hearing on September third
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  Speaker 5: with Donald Trump and company.
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  Speaker 6: For all of the people, because some people will say, like, oh,
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  Speaker 6: it's just the song. Can you explain, like, when a
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  Speaker 6: judge approves in an emergency hearing, that's a big thing because
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  Speaker 6: that means that there's a lot of evidence that sure
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  Speaker 6: that something is going on. Can you explain for the people,
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  Speaker 6: like why this is such a huge breaking news moment
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  Speaker 6: for you guys, and what it takes to get an
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  Speaker 6: emergency hearing approved.
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  Speaker 5: I can give you three million reasons why Isaac Hay's
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  Speaker 5: license is his father's music in the estate of Isaac
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  Speaker 5: Hayes's music and intellectual property every day, all year round.
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  Speaker 5: Sometimes those licenses can be six figure checks. Under copyright law,
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  Speaker 5: you get one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per copyright infringement.
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  Speaker 5: Your viewers can look up Title seventeen. They'll see it
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  Speaker 5: right in the statute. So Donald Trump has used this
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  Speaker 5: music in the Republican National Committee and so many others
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  Speaker 5: that kind of are in his constituency. They've used this
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  Speaker 5: music probably one hundred and thirty four times, and we
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  Speaker 5: have yet to see a blanket license, a sign license,
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  Speaker 5: a copy of a check. We've reached out to BMI,
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  Speaker 5: We've reached out to universo we're urging them to turn over,
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  Speaker 5: you know, whatever, documents to prove it, because if you
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  Speaker 5: can't prove it, it's one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
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  Speaker 5: per use, and we have over one hundred uses, so
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  Speaker 5: you're talking about, you know, several million when we get
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  Speaker 5: in a courtroom. The other side of this is it's
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  Speaker 5: urgent and then its emergency because when you look at
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  Speaker 5: the family and the legacy of Isaac Hayes Junior, his dad,
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  Speaker 5: and even his family throughout, Donald Trump doesn't represent the
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  Speaker 5: character and the morals and the values that this family represents.
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  Speaker 5: So every time you use this music, and I like
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  Speaker 5: Isaac to elaborate on this, it's got to have impact
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  Speaker 5: on the family and how they feel.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I've said several times that I'm a
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  Speaker 4: brother the Seven Sisters. My father had seven daughters. He
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  Speaker 4: would not want his music being used by a man
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  Speaker 4: with Donald Trump's character, the way that he talks about women.
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  Speaker 4: He's been found liable of sexual abuse, he calls women dogs,
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  Speaker 4: especially black women. There's no way my father wants to
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  Speaker 4: be associated with a person of Donald Trump's character. And
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  Speaker 4: on top of that, you know, my father lost to
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  Speaker 4: rights to his music a year before I was born,
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  Speaker 4: and it took us fifty six years to start to
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  Speaker 4: get them back.
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  Speaker 3: And we do.
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  Speaker 4: We have people infringing on our copyright immediately. And a
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  Speaker 4: lot of the states are not in this position because
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  Speaker 4: they sell their publicising, they sell their estate to a
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  Speaker 4: bigger entity, and are not in control to be able
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  Speaker 4: to make these kinds of decisions and fight. And I
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  Speaker 4: understand that the corporations that they sell them to are
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  Speaker 4: publicly traded companies. They don't want to be in the
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  Speaker 4: middle of this. They don't want to be in some
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  Speaker 4: sort of political squabble. They want to remain neutral. So
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  Speaker 4: we are in the unique position that I don't have
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  Speaker 4: to buy by those rules, especially when it comes to
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  Speaker 4: defending my father's legacy, his copyright, his music against someone
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  Speaker 4: like Donald Trump that's just been blatantly using his music
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  Speaker 4: without our permission.
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  Speaker 1: Now on the sheet it says the song was co
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  Speaker 1: written by your dad and Dave Porter. So is Dave
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  Speaker 1: Porter in the lawsuit as well.
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  Speaker 4: Davis not in a lawsuit. Dave was the co writer
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  Speaker 4: of hold On, I'm coming Him. My dad wrote, you know,
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  Speaker 4: several hit records. Dave was aware of everything that's going on.
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  Speaker 4: He actually has sold his catalog to Universal Music, so
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  Speaker 4: he kind of did when I said people do so.
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  Speaker 4: Universal has his part of his catalog and they represent that.
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  Speaker 4: But again, us being in a unique position that I
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  Speaker 4: decided not to sell my father's catalog, we are the
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  Speaker 4: decision makers. And you know that song is one of
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  Speaker 4: the gems of my father's catalog. It gets licensed dozens
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  Speaker 4: and dozens of times a year. I know we got
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  Speaker 4: two more licenses in in the last you know week,
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  Speaker 4: that over probably about five hundred thousand dollars just to
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  Speaker 4: license these songs for commercials that are coming up, and
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  Speaker 4: so you know, we don't hold on them coming doesn't
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  Speaker 4: need Donald Trump's help to make revenue, and so it's
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  Speaker 4: just a matter of IP and anybody that has their
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  Speaker 4: you know, copyright and publishing. She to understand how important
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  Speaker 4: this is. And this is a lesson to songwriters, producers,
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  Speaker 4: other other artists out here that really, you know, understand
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  Speaker 4: that their music has value and they have rights as well.
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  Speaker 3: It's unfortunate that some of them don't. I know. Celine
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  Speaker 3: Dion's story was a huge story.
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  Speaker 4: But as much as she wants Donald Trump to not
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  Speaker 4: use my heart will go on, she has no say
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  Speaker 4: so because she's not the writer of the record. So
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  Speaker 4: if you didn't write the song, you know, you don't
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  Speaker 4: own the publishing. So again, those are those are really
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  Speaker 4: good headlines, But she has no power to say that
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  Speaker 4: Donald Trump can't use her song, and we do.
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  Speaker 3: And that's the point that I'm making. Now.
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  Speaker 1: Did he try to clear it, did he try to
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  Speaker 1: license it, or he just said effort, I'm just gonna
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  Speaker 1: take it and use it.
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  Speaker 2: It is what it is.
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  Speaker 5: We haven't seen any proof. We've been told by some
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  Speaker 5: of the music societies that they believe he had a
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  Speaker 5: blanket license at some point, but as of today, there's
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  Speaker 5: no license that we know of. And we begged his team,
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  Speaker 5: or I've said, emailed this team repeatedly to turn over
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  Speaker 5: a blanket license. If not, we'll see you in court
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  Speaker 5: after this handful on September third, because we believe once
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  Speaker 5: the court sees all the evidence, the exhibits and documents,
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  Speaker 5: is going to be very clear that this is copyright infrigement.
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  Speaker 5: One on one, trump O'donald Jones. You can't use somebody's
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  Speaker 5: music illegally. This man sitting next to me in his
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  Speaker 5: father's estate. They have the exclusive right to publicly perform, display,
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  Speaker 5: derivative works, the whole nine under the Copyright Act. You
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  Speaker 5: haven't followed that act, you haven't followed those rules, then
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  Speaker 5: we bring you in the court and let a judge decide.
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  Speaker 2: Now, September third is a great day because I saw
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  Speaker 2: for my birthday button.
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  Speaker 1: I was gonna say, yeah, virgos Now I was going
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  Speaker 1: to ask, so what does Isaac Hayes, what do you
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  Speaker 1: want September third? What do you want to happen after
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  Speaker 1: all of this? Besides financial do you want an apology.
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  Speaker 1: Do you want them to take it down? Do you
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  Speaker 1: want them never to use it again? Or so what
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  Speaker 1: do you want out of this?
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  Speaker 4: All that is listed actually in the laws of you know,
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  Speaker 4: removal because this song has been put on multiple accounts,
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  Speaker 4: different mediums, YouTube, true, social rumble, you know, his social
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  Speaker 4: media accounts, all these other accounts that we didn't want,
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  Speaker 4: you know, want him involved in it. So number one,
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  Speaker 4: we want it taken down. We wanted to stop using
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  Speaker 4: it forever. We want payment for the illegal uses because again,
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  Speaker 4: you ask for permission for stuff like this, but if
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  Speaker 4: you're not asking for permission, and again we see that
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  Speaker 4: he's done this multiple times, it's just the time that
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  Speaker 4: this is where you take the step and say it's
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  Speaker 4: gone a step further because you know, once these artists
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  Speaker 4: get political use licenses, right, and we said we've been
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  Speaker 4: looking for one. Okay, we know that Donald Trump doesn't
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  Speaker 4: have a political use license, and he's used this song
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  Speaker 4: multiple times, so you have to pay, and you know
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  Speaker 4: it was here. Here's another thing. Do you think if
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  Speaker 4: someone was using something illegal from Donald Trump?
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  Speaker 5: Would And on that note, let me say this, isn't
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  Speaker 5: it ironic this morning that Donald Trump claims he's a billionaire.
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  Speaker 5: He benefited off his father's estate. His father lent him
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  Speaker 5: millions of dollars and left him a thirty million dollar.
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  Speaker 3: Company so he could get going.
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  Speaker 5: So the very man who benefited from his father's estate
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  Speaker 5: wants to disrespect this man and his family from benefiting
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  Speaker 5: from their father's a state. The very man who licenses
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  Speaker 5: his father's name all over the world the Trump name,
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  Speaker 5: doesn't want to pay a license to use the Isaac
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  Speaker 5: Hayes name and song in music and copyrights. I just
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  Speaker 5: find that so ironic that he doesn't see or his
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  Speaker 5: team doesn't see how wrong that is, and how it's
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  Speaker 5: the very same mechanism that they've used to create millions
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  Speaker 5: and millions and billions of dollars. And lastly, it's not
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  Speaker 5: just Donald Trump, it's the Republican National Committee, it's National
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  Speaker 5: Rightfle Association. We've named about six defendants and all of
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  Speaker 5: them will have to be in court come September third.
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  Speaker 2: I love that well.
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  Speaker 1: We wish you guys the best of luck, and I
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  Speaker 1: hope you get what you're supposed to get for it,
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  Speaker 1: because you're absolutely right. If somebody puts Trump's name on anything,
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  Speaker 1: He's coming with a lawsuit.
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  Speaker 2: If you put it on a T shirt right now,
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  Speaker 2: he'll sue you.
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  Speaker 1: If it was in the back of your room, if
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  Speaker 1: it was on your building, your car, he'd be coming
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  Speaker 1: for it for his money. So it's only right that
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  Speaker 1: y'all should come for y'alls.
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  Speaker 5: If we urge other writers. If he's using your music,
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  Speaker 5: reach out to Isaac. Learn how to do this, get
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  Speaker 5: it done. Go out there and protect your music because
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  Speaker 5: it helps us all if you protect your music.
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  Speaker 2: All right, Well, we appreciate you guys for checking in.
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  Speaker 1: Isaac Haye's the third James Walker Junior, thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much and good luck and call us back on September third,
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  Speaker 1: September fourth, let us know how it went down.
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  Speaker 2: Well, not September third. I'm gonna be it's my birthday.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, brother. I'll talk to y'all soon.
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  Speaker 3: Wake that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club