Is Trump’s Copyright Claim Against Woodward “Trumped Up”?

Journalist Bob Woodward conducted an audio interview with former President Donald Trump for his book 'Rage' and later released the tapes as its own audiobook. Now, Trump is suing for copyright infringement. Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo talk about this case on this episode of The Briefing by the IP Law Blog.   Cases discussed: * TRUMP v. SIMON & SCHUSTER INC et al * Falwell v. Penthouse * Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid Read Scott's article about this dispute on the IP Law Blog here. Watch this episode on the Weintraub YouTube channel here. Show notes: Scott:Veteran investigative reporter Bob Woodward conducted an audio interview of former President Donald Trump for Woodward’s book, Rage. Woodward later released these recordings as a separate audiobook, Trump claims that Woodward did not have his permission to release these audiotapes as a separate audiobook and sued Woodard and his publisher for, among other claims, copyright infringement. Does Trump have a claim or is his copyright claim “trumped up”.  We are going to talk about this. Scott:These are the facts according to Trump’s complaint against Woodward and his publisher, Simon and Schuster. Woodward sought and obtained President Trump’s consent to be recorded for a series of interviews with President Trump and repeatedly informed him that such interviews were for the sole purpose of a book. Woodward interviewed Trump, both in person and over the phone, on numerous occasions during 2019 and 2020.  The audiobook, The Trump Tapes, is comprised of 20 audio interviews, one with Trump during his presidential campaign in 2016 and the remaining 20 from the interviews conducted during his term as president.  In his complaint, trump states that during the Interviews, he repeatedly stated to Woodward, in the presence of others, that he was agreeing to be recorded for the sole purpose of Woodward being able to write a single book. Josh:The complaint notes a December 30, 2019 interview which, according to Trump, exemplifies that the rights granted were limited. Woodward: On the record for the book, unless you— Trump: For the book only, right? Only for the book. Woodward: The book only, yeah, I’m not— Trump: For the book only, right? So, there’s no— Hogan Gidley, the former White House deputy press secretary then says Right. So, there’s no stories coming out, okay. Trump contends that Woodward did not request to expand the scope of release or furnish a release to use the Interview Sound Recordings for an audiobook or any other derivative work, as is customary in the book publishing and recording industries. Trump alleges that he told Woodward numerous times that the Interviews were to be used by Woodward—and Woodward only—for the sole purpose of accurately quoting President Trump for his forthcoming book “Rage”, and not for any other purpose, including providing, marketing, or selling the Interviews to the public, press, or the media, in any way, shape, or form. Scott:So best practices would have been for Woodward to get a written release from Trump assigning over any rights Trump may have had in the interview. According to the complaint that didn’t happen and according a press release by Woodward responding to the complaint, that seems to be the case. Josh:Based on this Trump claims that he owns the copyright in the entire sound recording or at least T...