GoldieBlox and the Beastie Boys have had a long, drawn out showdown over a parody of the song “Girls” in an advertisement. GoldieBlox took the song out of the ad after 10 days and replaced it with something else, but that didn’t stop the two parties from suing each other.
After the Beastie Boys sued Goldieblox for copyright infringement, the matter was settled out of court. GoldieBlox said they would no longer use the parody, would publish an apology, and would donate a percentage of revenue to a charity chosen by the Beastie Boys. The charity would support girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, a sort of ‘win win’ borne of legal nastiness.
But how much was actually being donated? Now, thanks to an unrelated lawsuit between the Beastie Boys and Monster Energy, the amount Goldieblox has to pay has been revealed.
Goldieblox has to donate 1 percent of their gross revenue to the specified charity until they’ve paid a total of $1 million. Quite an astonishing amount.
Nina Ulloa covers breaking news, tech, and more. Follow her on Twitter: @nine_u
Goldieblox was the one who SUED Beastie Boys first when Beastie Boys ask them to cease using a version of their song. I think Goldieblox got what they deserved, they wouldn’t like it if someone went and try to rip off their toy idea would they?
Eh, they sued to protect themselves because they heard Beastie Boys were going to sue. Don’t think Beastie Boys asked them to take it down before that.
No-one, including GoldieBlox, has claimed that the Beastie Boys threatened to sue them before GoldieBlox filed their own preemptive suit.
“Our hearts sank last week when your lawyers called us with threats that we took very seriously. As a small company, we had no choice but to stand up for ourselves. We did so sincerely hoping we could come to a peaceful settlement with you.” – GoldieBlox
accusations of infringement and threats can be resolved (and are resolved, everyday) without filing pre-emptive lawsuits and making that fact public. This was done to maximize the PR impact of the entire affair to their benefit, as was use of a famous, copyright protected song in the first place. The cost of the ensuing settlement pales in comparison to the cost of the free Super Bowl spot they got (no doubt from all of the attention they received in the weeks leading up to the voting in the Intuit competition they ended up winning by getting the most votes), as well as the benefit of the endless stories about the affair that tore through (and continue to tear through) digital and social media. the brand gets to look “smart” and “disruptive” (and sell a lot of toys) for the paltry cost of trampling on an artists last will and testament.
Don’t kid yourself…GoldieBlox knew exactly what was coming.
trying to file a suit as an infringer to protect yourself is pathetic.
The entire affair, including using a song for which they knew they’d be sued and the cynical pre-emptive suit, was a staged stunt to get hits and help them win the Intuit Superbowl competition. It worked and they got a free commercial during the superbowl.
The future of America. Appalling how people are raising their children to be copycats and public clowns.
Sounds like GoldieBlox got a good deal.
Interesting point, esp. since the dying wishes of Adam Yauch were to never license Beastie Boys music from what I’ve heard. There’s your negotiated price!
I remember it that the Beastie Boys were preemptively sued by Goldie Blox in November then in December, Goldie BLox made the “oops forgive us” blog post..
http://www.scribd.com/doc/186402972/Beastie
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/11/26/goldieblox-fair-use-and-the-cult-of-disruption/
Boycott Goldieblox. They are a terrible example to kids.