Monday, November 25, 2013

Beastie Boys try to shift themselves back onto wrong side of history

It's easy to forget these days that when they first burst into the world, ripping VW badges from cars and putting women in cages, the Beastie Boys weren't universally adored.

So discovering that GoldieBlox have taken one of their shittiest, most sexist moments and turned it into a girl-positive, pro-engineering advert is going to be embraced by the band as a chance to further distance themselves from their youthful missteps, right?

Oh... apparently not:

Along with Universal Music, the Beastie Boys sent a letter to GoldieBlox threatening a copyright infringement claim. GoldieBlox decided to strike first, and has filed for a declaratory judgment in California, saying that their version is a parody and it's protected fair use.
You know what? If I owned the copyright on a song which suggested a woman who wasn't interested was "probably gay" and dreamed of "girls to do my laundry", I think I'd be delighted to see that someone had come along and fixed that for me.


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