The Beastie Boys have apparently published an open letter to GoldieBlox (the letter is mentioned in this NYT post, but not linked to, and does not appear on the Beastie Boys’ official website) arguing that GoldieBlox misunderstood their earlier communications questioning parodying their song “Girls” in a viral video ad.
In last week’s filing with the Northern District Court of California, GoldieBlox’s lawyers stated that they had been “threatened” by the Beastie Boys’ lawyers, who had claimed that the video was “a copyright infringement, not fair use” (for detailed fair use analysis, see this EFF post) and a “big problem.”
According to the NYT story, the open letter in response to the suit claims that the earlier communication from the Beastie Boys’ lawyers was intended as an information query (“When we tried to simply ask how and why our song ‘Girls’ had been used in your ad without our permission, YOU sued US”) and not a threat.
It’s not clear if the initial communication from the Beasties’ lawyers to GoldieBlox was written or verbal, and if it was written, it has yet to be published.
Update: Here’s the text of the Beasties’ open letter to GoldieBlox:
Like many of the millions of people who have seen your toy commercial “GoldieBlox, Rube Goldberg & the Beastie Boys,” we were very impressed by the creativity and the message behind your ad.
We strongly support empowering young girls, breaking down gender stereotypes and igniting a passion for technology and engineering.
As creative as it is, make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product, and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads. When we tried to simply ask how and why our song “Girls” had been used in your ad without our permission, YOU sued US