The surviving members of the Beastie Boys—Adam “Ad-Rock” Horowitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond”—along with the estate of the late Adam “MCA” Yauch are suing restaurant chain Chili’s.
In court docs viewed by AllHipHop, the executor of the estate, Yauch’s widow Dechen, Diamond, Horowitz and Brooklyn Dust Music are named as plaintiffs. They claim Chili’s used the 1994 Ill Communication single “Sabotage” and created characters similar to the ones in the Spike Jonze-directed video to use on its social media without their permission.
“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,” the court docs explain. “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’).
“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.”
Before Adam “MCA” Yauch’s 2012 death, he made it clear he didn’t want Beastie Boys music used to sell products, something the suit points out as well. It continues, “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.”
Diamond, Horowitz and the Yauch estate are seeking to block Brinker from any further infringements and collect “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.”
Beastie Boys won a $1.7 million judgement against Monster Beverage in 2014 for using the band’s music without permission. As previously mentioned, a provision in Yauch’s will prevents Beastie Boys’ music to promote any third-party products in commercials.