Beastie Boys Drops Bombshell Lawsuit On Chili’s Restaurant

The surviving members of the Beastie Boys—Adam “Advert-Rock” Horowitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond”—together with the property of the late Adam “MCA” Yauch are suing restaurant chain Chili’s.

In court docket docs seen by AllHipHop, the executor of the property, Yauch’s widow Dechen, Diamond, Horowitz and Brooklyn Mud Music are named as plaintiffs. They declare Chili’s used the 1994 Sick Communication single “Sabotage” and created characters much like those within the Spike Jonze-directed video to make use of on its social media with out their permission.

“Commencing at a while unknown to plaintiffs however, they’re knowledgeable and consider, no sooner than November 2022, Brinker produced, sponsored, and inspired the creation and posting on social media of movies to advertise Brinker’s ‘Chili’s’ eating places that included musical compositions and sound recordings that had been used with out the permission of the rights house owners,” the court docket docs clarify. “One such video used, with out Plaintiffs’ permission or consent, vital parts of the musical composition and sound recording of ‘Sabotage’ (the ‘Unauthorized Chili’s Video’).

“Additional, Brinker synchronized Plaintiffs’ ‘Sabotage’ musical composition and sound recording with different visible materials within the Unauthorized Chili’s Video, by which three characters sporting apparent 70s-style wigs, pretend mustaches, and sun shades who had been meant to evoke the three members of Beastie Boys carried out scenes depicting them ‘robbing’ components from a Chili’s restaurant intercut with fictitious opening credit, in methods clearly much like and meant to evoke within the minds of the general public scenes from Plaintiff’s well-known Official ‘Sabotage’ video.”

Earlier than Adam “MCA” Yauch’s 2012 demise, he made it clear he didn’t need Beastie Boys music used to promote merchandise, one thing the swimsuit factors out as nicely. It continues, “Use of the ‘Sabotage’ sound recording, music composition and video was all with out permission; the plaintiffs don’t license ‘Sabotage’ or any of their different mental property for third-party product promoting functions, and deceased Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch included a provision in his will prohibiting such makes use of.”

Diamond, Horowitz and the Yauch property are looking for to dam Brinker from any additional infringements and acquire “an award of statutory damages … pursuant to the Copyright Act in an quantity in every case of not lower than $150,000 for the willful infringement of the Beastie Boys Musical Composition, and the Beastie Boys Sound Recordings or … precise damages and earnings with respect to every of the foregoing copyrights as permitted below the Copyright Act, in an quantity to be decided at trial.”

Beastie Boys gained a $1.7 million judgement towards Monster Beverage in 2014 for utilizing the band’s music with out permission. As beforehand talked about, a provision in Yauch’s will prevents Beastie Boys’ music to advertise any third-party merchandise in commercials.