Monster Beverage Corp. settles copyright cases over Beastie Boys tunes
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Monster Beverage Corp. has settled on undisclosed terms two related lawsuits that accused the company of using without permission excerpts from five Beastie Boys songs in a 4-minute video promotion of a Canadian snowboarding event, Reuters reports.
The iconic hip-hop group, which does not license its music for advertising and objected to the potential association of its name with Monster energy drinks, was awarded nearly $2.4 million in damages and attorney fees in one of the Manhattan federal court lawsuits. Capitol Records and Universal-Polygram International Publishing subsequently filed its own case in Manhattan federal court. Monster admitted the copyright infringement, but contested the amount of damages.
As part of the settlement, Monster has dropped its appeal of the verdict won by the Beastie Boys and both cases were dismissed on Thursday.
Representatives of both sides either declined to comment or could not be reached for comment.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Judge cuts $2.4M ‘Cadillac Escalade’ legal fee bid by Beastie Boys, OKs $700K ‘Honda Civic’ award”
Reuters: “Universal Music sues Monster over Beastie Boys music”
