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By Peter Aitken
Politics Weekend Editor
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The Pentagon removed and reposted a video that promoted its new drone initiative after the band Metallica hit the department with a copyright strike over the unauthorized use of its song "Enter Sandman."
Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon by email outside of normal business hours on Sunday evening for comment.
Why It Matters
A copyright strike is when a video or social media channel faces punishment for unauthorized use of published media—either visual or audio. Unauthorized use of a song, video or photos can result in such a strike.
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Metallica famously initiated the landmark lawsuit against peer-to-peer file sharing company Napster in 2000, which led to further suits that ultimately caused the company's initial collapse.
What To Know
The U.S. announced a new directive that would unleash the Department of Defense's ability to produce and improve drone technology in a bid to keep pace as "global military drone production skyrocketed" over recent years.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth featured in a flashy video that announced the new initiative, including a sequence in which a drone delivered a memo to him and backed by "Enter Sandman."
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"We were brought here to rebuild the military—match capabilities to the threats of today," Hegseth said in the video, bemoaning the limitations of red tape to develop those capabilities.
Hegseth emphasized that the Pentagon would leverage "world-leading engineers and AI experts" to develop a range of low-cost American-crafted drones for combat units.
"Next year I expect to see this capability integrated into all relevant combat training, including force-on-force drone wars," Hegseth wrote in the memo.
Meanwhile, some comments under the original video questioned if the Pentagon had asked Metallica for permission to use the song, with many questioning whether the band would have agreed to do so.
Just one day later, it appeared that the band had not only not given permission, but also took issue with the unauthorized use.
In a statement emailed to Newsweek, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said*:* "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' by Metallica. The video has been taken down, corrected, and re-uploaded to our page."
Separately, a Metallica spokesperson told Rolling Stone that the use of the song was unauthorized.
President Donald Trump has long used music at his rallies and events without explicit permission, leading to numerous requests and demands that he stop doing so. Rock band Guns N' Roses said in 2018 that the president was "using loopholes in the various venues' blanket performance licenses which were not intended for such craven political purposes, without the songwriters' consent."
Other notable examples include Leonard Cohen's estate saying they had explicitly rejected permission for use of "Hallelujah," Linkin Park forcing Trump to delete a fan-made video using "In the End," and The Rolling Stones threatening legal action if the Trump campaign continued using "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
What People Are Saying
Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday: "Hegseth stole their property without permission to use in an official government video promoting war. That's not how Metallica wants their music used, as DOD would have known if they asked instead of breaking the law."
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