The Beastie Boys win copyright case

The two surviving members of the The Beastie Boys band have won a case of copyright infringement against the manufacturer of the Monster Energy drink.  The band made it clear that they will not tolerate the use of their music in commercial endorsements.

The energy drink manufacturer admitted that they wrongly used The Beastie Boys songs in a video that was online for five weeks without obtaining consent from the band.  However, the manufacturer insisted it should owe no more than $125,000 dollars and they therefore intend to appeal the Decision.

The jurors chose to award $120,000 for each of 10 copyright infringements and they also awarded an additional $500,000 after finding that Monster used the bands persona without permission, suggesting a false endorsement of Monster's products.

Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz, a member of the band, told the court the legendary hip-hop group would never license songs to endorse commercial products and that the band was protective of and dependent for revenue on its existing catalogue of music since the death of Adam "MCA" Yaunch in 2012.

Horovitz stated "We cannot tour.  We cannot make recordings" and therefore they are dependent on the revenue from the use of existing songworks.