Can Zach Bryan Sue the Feds For Using His Song ‘Revival’ In Trolling Social Media Video?

The Department of Homeland Security utilized a Zach Bryan opus successful a promotional video connected societal media – a trolling jab astatine the state prima aft helium released a opus criticizing ICE raids. Can helium writer them for copyright infringement?

The video, posted Tuesday to the authoritative DHS relationship connected X, featured Bryan’s signature deed “Revival” implicit a montage of footage of masked national agents arresting people. It came nether the caption “We’re having an All Night Revival,” the song’s cardinal refrain.

The station came amid days of right-wing outrage aft Bryan released a snippet of a caller opus that said Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a portion of DHS, plans to “bust down your door.” Captioned “The fading of the reddish achromatic and blue,” the lyrics seemed to beryllium a notation to President Donald Trump’s arguable migration crackdown and wide deportations.

Bryan presently seems to beryllium trying to deescalate the situation, saying his lyrics had been “misconstrued.” But since helium astir surely didn’t authorize the usage of his song, the DHS video begs the question: Can Bryan deed backmost by suing the authorities for copyright infringement?

The reply is yes, with immoderate large qualifications.

Using a copyrighted opus successful a societal media clip requires a alleged sync license, the aforesaid mode that movie producers request to get support and wage fees to diagnostic a opus successful their film. Assuming Bryan didn’t assistance specified a licence conscionable to beryllium trolled by the Trump administration, the video posted by DHS is simply a textbook illustration of copyright infringement.

Doesn’t everyone usage euphony successful societal media videos? Platforms person licensing deals with euphony companies, allowing their users to soundtrack their videos with a immense enactment of legally-cleared songs. But that benignant of licence is aimed astatine non-commercial uses by idiosyncratic users and apt wouldn’t screen a promotional video by an entity similar DHS – and Elon Musk’s X famously doesn’t person one anyway.

The bureau apt isn’t shielded by “fair use,” either. If a idiosyncratic who disagreed with Bryan’s sentiment connected ICE and wanted to knock him, they mightiness successfully reason they had a close to usage his music. But that’s a overmuch harder statement to marque for what amounts to a recruiting advertisement by a ample entity that would usually wage for the euphony successful its ads.

Bringing lawsuits against the national authorities tin beryllium hard owed to the doctrine of sovereign immunity, which mostly shields it from civilian actions. But erstwhile it comes to copyright law, Congress has formally waived that regularisation and created a way for rightsowners to writer implicit precisely this situation.

Unlike a emblematic copyright case, Bryan would bring his hypothetical infringement suit successful the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, a peculiar national tribunal designed to grip cases against the government. And dissimilar a mean case, helium could lone inquire for “reasonable and full compensation” for the usage of his song, not an injunction forcing DHS to region the video.

However, Br...