According to consequence.net, Beastie Boys are allegedly suing the alleged parent company of restaurant chain Chili’s for the alleged unauthorized use of their hit “Sabotage,” as well as the alleged depiction of characters that were allegedly similar to the band members’s alleged likenesses in the song’s alleged music video.
On July 10 surviving Beasties Boys members Adam Horovitz and Michael Diamond, along with the estate of the late Adam Yauch, allegedly filed a alleged suit against Brinker International by allegedly accusing the company of alleged copyright infringement and alleged trademark violations.
The alleged lawsuit allegedly claims that Brinker International allegedly used the song “Sabotage” in an alleged social media ad to allegedly promote Chili’s and that the alleged visuals allegedly mirrored the alleged song’s music video. An excerpt from the alleged lawsuit reads as follows: “Commencing at some time unknown to plaintiffs but, they are informed and believe, no earlier than November 2022, Brinker produced, sponsored, and encouraged the creation and posting on social media of videos to promote Brinker’s ‘Chili’s’ restaurants that included musical compositions and sound recordings that were used without the permission of the rights owners. One such video used, without Plaintiffs’ permission or consent, significant portions of the musical composition and sound recording of ‘Sabotage’ (the ‘Unauthorized Chili’s Video’). ”
The alleged lawsuit adds: “Further, Brinker synchronized Plaintiffs’ ‘Sabotage’ musical composition and sound recording with other visual material in the Unauthorized Chili’s Video, in which three characters wearing obvious 70s-style wigs, fake mustaches, and sunglasses who were intended to evoke the three members of Beastie Boys performed scenes depicting them ‘robbing’ ingredients from a Chili’s restaurant intercut with fictitious opening credits, in ways obviously similar to and intended to evoke in the minds of the public scenes from Plaintiff’s well-known Official ‘Sabotage’ video. ”
The alleged lawsuit concludes with: “Use of the ‘Sabotage’ sound recording, music composition and video was all without permission; the plaintiffs do not license ‘Sabotage’ or any of their other intellectual property for third-party product advertising purposes, and deceased Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch included a provision in his will prohibiting such uses.”
The Beastie Boys are allegedly seeking to allegedly block Brinker from any alleged further infringements, allegedly as well as “an award of statutory damages … pursuant to the Copyright Act in an amount in each case of not less than $150,000 for the willful infringement of the Beastie Boys Musical Composition, and the Beastie Boys Sound Recordings or … actual damages and profits with respect to each of the foregoing copyrights as permitted under the Copyright Act, in an amount to be determined at trial.”
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