Beastie Boys send copyright threat to toy company that remixed "Girls"

The Beastie Boys have sent a legal threat to toymaker GoldieBlox over the company’s extremely clever ad, which parodies the Beasties’ early track “Girls”. The ad rewrites the lyrics (which are pretty terrible in the original) to insist that girls should take control over their world, reject passivity and subservience, and make things (the video accompanies this with the creation of a Rube Goldberg device that ultimately switches off a TV showing girly toy ads).

The irony here is pretty thick: the Beasties are still being sued over their use of samples on their early albums, including the classic Paul’s Boutique. Every pirate wants to be an admiral, of course, but for the Beasties to decry remix culture even as they go to court to defend their (perfectly legitimate) right to make new things out of other creators’ old rope is pretty sad.

GoldieBlox is seeking a declaratory judgment that their video is fair use.