Beastie Boys sued Brinker International, the parent company of the Chili’s Grill & Bar chain, for using the band’s hit song “Sabotage” in an ad without permission. The ad also allegedly used imagery from the song’s music video, further infringing on the group’s copyright.
The remaining Beasties, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond, and the estate of their late bandmate, Adam “MCA” Yauch, filed the suit on Wednesday (July 10), seeking to block Brinker from further infringements, along with “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.”
Among the violations, they say, are social media videos “significant portions of the musical composition and sound recording of ‘Sabotage’” and said that the video featured “three characters wearing obvious 70s-style wigs, fake mustaches, and sunglasses who were intended to evoke the three members of Beastie Boys” — the most prominent features of the original “Sabotage” video. You can see that below.
While the song has been used in a slew of television shows and films (including the 2009 Star Trek and its sequel, Star Trek Beyond, an episode of Family Guy, and in the game Fortnite), a provision in MCA’s will prohibits its use in commercials with rare exceptions.