Decisions in Brief

• Pages: 55-64
• Date: 01 December 2026
• Published date: 01 December 2026
• Author: John C. Gatz
• Subject Matter: Derecho Constitucional

Published in Landslide, Volume 18, Number 2, 2026. © 2026 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights

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LANDSLIDE December/January 2026

55

DECISIONS IN BRIEF

John C. Gatz

Copyrights

Intent Is Important for Joint Works, and Interview Responses Are Not Copyrightable

Trump v. Simon & Schuster, Inc., 791 F. Supp. 3d 470 (S.D.N.Y. 2025). This case involves a series of interviews of

Donald J. Trump by defendant Robert Woodward that were later incorporated in an audiobook titled The Trump

Tapes: Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews with President Trump, published by defendant Simon & Schuster, Inc.,

and other related works. President Trump sued the defendants for declaratory relief, namely, that he is a joint author

and copyright owner of works associated with The Trump Tapes, in the district court. The defendants filed a motion

to dismiss. The court granted the motion.

The complaint alleged that The Trump Tapes audiobook includes more than eight hours of raw interviews with

Trump. Each of the Trump interviews is the subject of a separate chapter in The Trump Tapes, and the title of

each chapter is a line selected from that interview. The complaint further alleged that Trump did not authorize the

publication of The Trump Tapes and did not receive any compensation for the work. Simon & Schuster obtained

copyright registration for the audiobook. Trump sought his own copyright registration for the interviews, audiobook,

and associated derivative works. The Copyright Office issued a registration to Trump for sound recordings and texts

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