BEASTIE BOYS, Monster settle copyright lawsuit

16 January 2016

BEASTIE BOYS have resolved their lawsuit accusing Monster Beverage Corp of using excerpts from five of the hip-hop group's songs without permission in a video promoting a Canadian snowboarding competition.

Capitol Records and Universal-Polygram International Publishing, which are units of France's Vivendi SA, settled a related lawsuit against Monster over the same video.

The terms were not disclosed. Orders dismissing the cases were filed on Thursday in two Manhattan federal courts.

In connection with the dismissals, Monster dropped its appeal of a $1.7 million jury verdict and an award of $667,849 in legal fees in the Beastie Boys' lawsuit.

Monster and lawyers for the parties had no immediate comment or declined to comment.

A 2012 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, BEASTIE BOYS have long refused to license their music for advertising.

The group sued Monster over a roughly four-minute "megamix" video by disk jockey Z-Trip promoting an annual "Ruckus in the Rockies" snowboarding competition that Monster sponsored.

BEASTIE BOYS said viewers might be misled into believing that the group endorsed Monster energy drinks.

Monster conceded it was liable for copyright infringement, but the Corona, California-based company thought the damages were too high.

The Vivendi units sued three months after the June 2014 jury verdict.

Two members of BEASTIE BOYS, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz and Michael "Mike D" Diamond, testified at trial. The third member of the group, Adam "MCA" Yauch, died in May 2012.

The cases are BEASTIE BOYS v. Monster Energy Co, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 15-2325; and Capitol Records LLC et al v. Monster Energy Co, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 14-07718.

Source: jam.canoe.com

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