As previously reported, toy company GoldieBlox has been in a legal battle with The Beastie Boy's over the use of the song "Girls" in a parody advertisement. Monday, the surviving members of the band published an open letter regarding the case. But today the music has stopped, according to The Hollywood Reporter. GoldieBlox has responded in an open letter on the company's blog offering to withdraw its lawsuit if the Beastie Boys agree not to threaten a copyright infringement. Currently, the lawsuit is still active.
Read the letter here:
"Dear Adam and Mike,
We don't want to fight with you. We love you and we are actually huge fans.
When we made our parody version of your song, 'Girls', we did it with the best of intentions. We wanted to take a song we weren't too proud of, and transform it into a powerful anthem for girls. Over the past week, parents have sent us pictures and videos of their kids singing the new lyrics with pride, building their own Rube Goldberg machines in their living rooms and declaring an interest in engineering. It's been incredible to watch.
Our hearts sank last week when your lawyers called us with threats that we took very seriously. As a small company, we had no choice but to stand up for ourselves. We did so sincerely hoping we could come to a peaceful settlement with you.
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. Although we believe our parody video falls under fair use, we would like to respect his wishes and yours.
Since actions speak louder than words, we have already removed the song from our video. In addition, we are ready to stop the lawsuit as long as this means we will no longer be under threat from your legal team.
We don't want to spend our time fighting legal battles. We want to inspire the next generation. We want to be good role models. And we want to be your friends.
Sincerely,
Debbie + Team GoldieBlox"
Since the debate began, some have argued that the video was a parody and a social commentary on gender roles. Others understood the importance of the video's social commentary but argued that despite their good intentions, commercial speech doesn't receive the same protection under the First Amendment as expressive speech, and that the primary focus of the video was ultimately to sell toys.
The original video has now been marked private on YouTube and the commercial has been updated with new, less controversial music. Watch it here, and leave us your comments below!
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