Beastie Boys Pissed, Suing GoldieBlox
posted in: Music News
“GoldieBlox achieved and continues to achieve additional publicity, press coverage, and, upon information and belief, greater sales of its products, as a direct result of the Beastie Boys’ perceived affiliation with the GoldieBlox Advertisement. Unfortunately, rather than developing an original advertising campaign to inspire its customers to create and innovate, GoldieBlox has instead developed an advertising campaign that condones and encourages stealing from others¦ The Beastie Boys Parties have suffered and will continue to suffer injury in an amount not presently known¦ [and] are entitled to recover from GoldieBlox the damages and lost profits they have sustained as a result of GoldieBlox’s unlawful acts of copyright infringement and to recover from GoldieBlox the gains, profits, and advantages GoldieBlox has obtained as a result of the wrongful conduct alleged herein.”
So goes a portion of the lawsuit filed by lawyers for the Beastie Boys against the toymaker GoldieBlox, who, as you likely know by now, used a ‘parody’ of the band’s song “Girls” in their recent popular commercial.
The group had previously contacted GoldieBlox to inquire about the use of their song (essentially saying, hey, you know you didn’t get permission and really can’t use this, right?) and the company responded by filing a preemptive lawsuit claiming fair use (again, they didn’t use the band’s track, but instead recorded a new version with changed lyrics). They then apologized and dropped the suit, saying, We don’t want to spend our time fighting legal battles. We want to inspire the next generation. We want to be good role models. And we want to be your friends.
The Beasties have now called BS on this whole thing, noting that the company has already reaped the benefits of their questionable actions, with the original viral hit, plus the subsequent publicity.
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