Beastie Boys hit with backlash as legal fight looms over ‘Girls’ video

The Beastie Boys are reportedly pursuing legal action against the makers of a video that went viral this week by putting a pink-empowerment spin on the artists’ “Girls.”

The Internet’s reaction to the alleged copyright infringement claim? What a bunch of babies!

Social media reaction so far appears to be overwhelmingly in favor of the GoldiBlox video aimed at encouraging little girls to pursue careers in engineering. On Twitter alone, for example, Tweets are calling out the Beastie Boys and urging them to quickly resolve the legal wrangling and allow the video to live on:

And:

And on Tumblr:

--”I love the Beastie Boys, but excuse me, this version is pretty cool for us, GIRLS! You should feel honored, because you always fought for rebellion and creativity.

GoldiBlox, the upstart toy company behind “The Princess Machine” video has said in a court document that representatives for the Beastie Boys are threatening them with a copyright infringement action. This, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which links to the filing. GoldiBlox contends that the video is clearly a parody, and as such does not infringe on copyrights and is protected by the Fair Use Doctrine.

A few important things to remember as this social media backlash unfolds over a weekend: We’re just hearing one side of the story so far. We haven’t heard back from the Beastie Boys’ representatives, or the Beastie Boys themselves. A call to GoldiBlox was also not returned before this story was posted online. (If we do get return calls, we will update this post.)

So ,while it’s important to reserve judgment until more facts are in, we still must ask: What do you think?

The Hollywood Reporter’s piece goes into depth about the legal issues behind the conflict and why this case could unleash a tide of copycat videos using popular music to make a parody point (and, um, sell stuff).

The Reporter also provided this interesting tidbit: GoldieBlox is said to be a finalist in a competition to make a Super Bowl commercial. Hmm. Wouldn’t it be great if this could all be resolved in time for the Beastie Boys to sing the parody version at the Super Bowl?

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