The US Department of Defense has been forced to delete and repost a promotional video about expanded military drone capabilities after Metallica issued a copyright strike over the unauthorized use of their hit, Enter Sandman.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
The original video<\/a>, posted on X<\/b>, featured Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth <\/b>outlining President Donald Trump<\/b>‘s initiative to boost domestic drone production and equip US combat units with new drones.<\/p>\n An instrumental version of Metallica<\/b>‘s 1991 hit played throughout the video, which included a clip of a quadcopter delivering a memo to Hegseth.<\/p>\n In the video, Hegseth, former Fox News<\/i> host, said: \u201cWe were brought here to rebuild the military\u2026 Match capabilities to the threats of today. So while our adversaries have produced millions of cheap drones before us, we were mired in bureaucratic red tape. Not anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson <\/b>confirmed<\/a> to Military.com\u2019s Konstantin Toropin <\/b>that X contacted the department about the copyright violation: “This afternoon, representatives from X reached out to DoD regarding a video posted to our social media page and asked that the video be removed due to a copyright issue with the song ‘Enter Sandman’ <\/i>by Metallica.\u201d<\/p>\n “This afternoon, representatives from X reached out to DoD regarding a video posted to our social media page and asked that the video be removed due to a copyright issue with the song ‘Enter Sandman’ <\/i>by Metallica.\u201d<\/p>\n Kingsley Wilson, Pentagon<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cThe video has been taken down, corrected, and re-uploaded to our page.”<\/p>\n Under X\u2019s Copyright Policy, the platform says: \u201cX will respond to reports of alleged copyright infringement, such as\u2026 allegations concerning the unauthorized use of a copyrighted video or image uploaded through our media hosting services, or posts containing links to allegedly infringing materials.\u201d<\/p>\n A Metallica representative told<\/a> Rolling Stone<\/i> that the band had not authorized the use of their music.<\/p>\n The development comes a month after a judge temporarily froze<\/a> all legal proceedings between X and a number of music publishers including Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, <\/b>and Warner Chappell Music<\/b>. The publishers sued<\/a> X, formerly Twitter<\/b>, in June 2023, alleging \u201crampant infringement of copyrighted music.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest court order gives a 90-day pause to both parties as they try to settle the dispute outside of court.<\/p>\n Metallica\u2019s copyright strike reflects the band\u2019s approach to protecting their IP. In 2000, Metallica sued<\/a> Napster<\/b> over copyright infringmenet, seeking a minimum of $10 million<\/b> in damages, or $100,000 <\/b>per illegally downloaded song.<\/p>\n \n