The Beastie Boys have taken away GoldieBlox's license to ill.
Bowing to legal pressure over the use of "Girls," a 1986 song from the rap trio, GoldieBlox changed the soundtrack in its viral ad to a purely instrumental tune. The original version of the video, meanwhile, has been marked private.
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The move comes after the Beastie Boys' lawyer contacted GoldieBlox this week to discuss alleged copyright infringement. The startup responded by launching a preemptive strike in the form of a lawsuit asking a U.S. District Court in San Francisco to declare that it had the absolute right to produce a parody of the song.
GoldieBlox founder Debra Sterling explained the move on GoldieBlox's blog on Wednesday with a letter to surviving Beastie Boys Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz:
Dear Adam and Mike,
We don’t want to fight with you. We love you and we are actually huge fans.
When we made our parody version of your song, ‘Girls’, we did it with the best of intentions. We wanted to take a song we weren’t too proud of, and transform it into a powerful anthem for girls. Over the past week, parents have sent us pictures and videos of their kids singing the new lyrics with pride, building their own Rube Goldberg machines in their living rooms and declaring an interest in engineering. It’s been incredible to watch.
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.
We want you to know that when we posted the video, we were completely unaware that the late, great Adam Yauch had requested in his will that the Beastie Boys songs never be used in advertising. Although we believe our parody video falls under fair use, we would like to respect his wishes and yours.
Since actions speak louder than words, we have already removed the song from our video. In addition, we are ready to stop the lawsuit as long as this means we will no longer be under threat from your legal team.
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 original video, which was released last week, rewrote the lyrics of the song, originally a tongue-in-cheek exercise in misogyny, as a feminist empowerment anthem. For instance, the refrain "Girls — to do the dishes/ Girls — to clean up my room/ Girls — to do the laundry" became "Girls — to build the spaceship/ Girls — to code the new app/ Girls — to grow up knowing."
The two surviving Beastie Boys have said they like the message of the parody, but have resolved not to allow their music in ads.
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Image: Getty/Astrid Stawiarz