The toy company GoldieBlox is arguing that their ad's use of an altered version of the Beastie Boys' song "Girls."
As previously reported, the toy company released an ad, which has already been viewed over seven million times since first being posted on YouTube Monday.
The commercial features three young girls constructing a Rube Goldberg machine to the Beastie Boys song "Girls," but with different lyrics. "It's time to change, we deserve to see a range. Because all our toys look the same and we would like to use our brains."
CEO Debbie Sterling said that GoldieBlox is aimed at girls ages 4-9 and offers building kits that include storytelling.
While the video may be popular, it seems that the Beastie Boys are not thrilled with the use of their song, according to The Hollywood Reporter. A lawsuit was filed over how "the Beastie Boys have now threatened GoldieBlox with copyright infringement."
The lawsuit continues, "Lawyers for the Beastie Boys claim that the GoldieBlox Girls Parody Video is a copyright infringement, is not a fair use and that GoldieBlox's unauthorized use of the Beastie Boys intellectual property is a 'big problem' that has a 'very significant impact.'"
Much like the Robin Thicke/Marvin Gaye issue, GoldieBlox is trying to head off any lawsuit by getting a court to rule, this time that the song is fair use.
To determine if the song in the video is fair use, a judge will have to answer on the purpose and character, nature of the copyrighted work, the effect of the use and the amount and substantiality of the portion used.
image: Wikimedia Commons
