According to a report on
Gigaom.com, the Beastie Boys have decided to file a counter lawsuit against the toy company GoldieBlox for copyright infringement, claiming the toy company used the song “Girls” in one of its video ads without permission.
This all started mid-November, when the toy company released its “GoldieBlox, Rube Goldberg & Beastie Boys Princess Machine” YouTube video ad with reworked lyrics from the Beastie Boys song “Girls.” The video went viral, generating more than eight million views in just over seven days.
Before releasing the video, GoldieBlox failed to get approval to use the song, prompting the Beastie Boys to contact the toy company directly, and ask why they had used the song without getting permission.
According to a report in The New York Times, GoldieBlox filed a lawsuit against the Beastie Boys to deflect a copyright infringement case. The GoldieBlox suit claimed the toy company’s use of the song was a parody and protected under “Fair use” laws.
The New York Times report included an open letter from the Beastie Boys to GoldieBlox, clarifying the toy company had brought a lawsuit against the rap group, and not the reverse. “When we tried to simply ask how and why our song “Girls” had been used in your ad without our permission, YOU sued US,” wrote the Beastie Boys.
Two days after the New York Times report, GoldieBlox posted a response to the Beastie Boys, saying the company had removed the song from the video and would stop its lawsuit if the Beastie Boys would halt any legal threats.
Now, two weeks later, Gigaom.com says the Beastie Boys have filed a counter lawsuit against GoldieBlox and are suing the toy company for damages, profits gained from the illegal use of their song and attorney fees. The lawsuit lists a number of counterclaims, including copyright infringement, trademark infringement and false endorsement.
You can read the official lawsuit filed by the Beastie Boys below:
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