Copyright Infringement Case: Beastie Boys vs. Monster Energy

The Beastie Boys and Monster Energy battled in court over Monster's apparent illegal use of multiple live songs in a commercial. Monster went so far as to create a music medley of these live songs available for download on their website, claiming that an employee believed the company had legal rights to the use of the performance. This is a direct violation of Michael Yauch aka MCA's will, stating that no copy of their music shall be used in advertisements.

This all seems relatively simple, except for a one-word expression by Dj Z-Trip which made the permission of use slightly unclear. When showed the video by Monster of him performing the Beastie Boys music, he responded "Dope!". This, in some cases, could be considered permission to use the music, but the claim was later dismissed by the jury, as Z-Trip testified that "Dope!" meant he liked how he looked in the video, not explicit permission to use the songs.

Monster Energy lost the case, and was ordered to pay 1.7m.

In my opinion, what Monster did was reckless and completely insensitive. With such specific terms in Adam Yauch's will, it is not hard to avoid infringing the copyrighted content. It is fair to say that the employee which created the content is no longer with the company, but I believe that such a large corporation has a responsibility to double—even triple-check what they are releasing and permissions associated with it. The ruling was fair in my opinion, and it goes to show that the further up in fame and monetary value these cases are, the more intense they become.