You’ve seen the video. It’s an incredibly creative, life-sized version of the old board game Mouse Trap, set to a reworking of the Beastie Boys classic “Girls.” Unfortunately, the Beastie Boys aren’t on board.
GoldieBlox is “building games for girls to inspire future engineers,” which is a noble undertaking in today’s toy market. This stanza from their rewritten “Girls” lyrics sums it up quite nicely:
“It’s time to change.
We deserve to see a range.
‘Cause all our toys look just the same
and we would like to use our brains.”
The problem is, the GoldieBlox crew took and rewrote “Girls” without asking the Beastie Boys’ permission first. GoldieBlox then went on to preemptively sue the Beastie Boys, claiming fair use. And the band isn’t too happy about it.
You guys..Don't get it twisted. We did not threaten to sue Goldiblox..THEY'RE SUING US. http://t.co/xCxnuJxjI5
— ADROCK (@adrock) November 25, 2013
Turns out Thom Yorke has their back, too.
I support the beasties here> I would be v upset too.!…OPEN LETTER FROM BEASTIE BOYS' MIKE D & ADROCK TO GOLDIEBLOX http://t.co/gCyd8WKqIs”
— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) November 25, 2013
Click here for the open letter from the Beastie Boys to GolideBlox. They cry foul, claiming what GoldieBlox calls fair use is actually copyright infringement (it is). And for a band that’s fought for their entire career to keep their music out of commercials, you can understand why they’re upset.
