Earlier this week Beastie Boys wrote an open letter to GoldieBlox concerning the toy company's decision to release a video parody of their 1986 song "Girls" without permission. The company has now responded with an open letter of their own that calls for legal peace between the two sides.
"We don’t want to fight with you. We love you and we are actually huge fans," the letter starts out by GoldieBlox founder, Debbie Sterling. "When we made our parody version of your song, ‘Girls’, we did it with the best of intentions. We wanted to transform it into a powerful anthem for girls."
The viral ad—which has since been set to private on YouTube after racking up somewhere around 10 million views—used the instrumental of "Girls" with new lyrics that sketched out a girl's love for engineering. The company said it was was covered by fair use. This claim ran counter to that of the Beastie Boys, who saw the promotional video as copyright infringement. Moveover, it threatened their stance on denying companies the opportunity to use their music for advertising purposes. This is something Sterling also addressed in her letter.
"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," she says. "Although we believe our parody video falls under fair use, we would like to respect his wishes and yours."
Sterling goes on to state why the toy company initially filed a lawsuit against the rap group. She says they plan to drop the lawsuit with cooperation from Beastie Boys' legal team. The new GoldieBlox commercial can be viewed below.
[via CNN]
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