New details have emerged in a case settled by GoldieBlox and the Beastie Boys, in which the toy company was alleged to have illegally used the band’s track “Girls” in a viral YouTube video.
As the result of a separate and ongoing copyright suit between the Beastie Boys and Monster Energy, court documents revealed that GoldieBlox “agreed to make annual payments of 1 percent of its gross revenue, until the total payments reached $1 million, to a charitable organization.”
As reported, that charity was to be selected by the Beastie Boys in the fields of science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
In return, GoldieBlox was granted “a retroactive license to use the musical composition…between November 18, 2013 and November 28, 2013,” court papers declare.
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When the scuffle broke out last November, GoldieBlox wrote in an open letter to the Beastie Boys, “Our hearts sank last week when your lawyers called us with threats that we took very seriously…We want to be your friends.”
“As creative as it is,” the Beastie Boys responded to GoldieBlox in an open letter of their own, “make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product.” And because it was used for promotional purposes, it went against the wishes of founding Beastie Boy member Adam Yauch.
Yauch, who died of cancer in 2012, stated in his will that the Beastie Boy’s image and music should never be licensed for advertising purposes.
The track was subsequently replaced in the offending video, which had garnered 7 million views in the span of a week.
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