It's almost been two months since Golideblox and Intuit danced disruptively into the Super Bowl sunset. High fives and beer all around, copyright infringement be damned. Yay, Yay, Narrative Play! All that time though, something was nagging us. Goldieblox sued the Beastie Boys, and did so preemptively, assuming no one in the Beasties camp would be so silly as to defend their copyright or the honor of their fallen member Adam Yauch. The band in turn, did the right thing, bravely, and filed a countersuit. Since then, we've wondered if the dispute has been settled. According to USA Today, the answer is yes. The lawsuit has been settled, and details are specific.
The settlement includes a public apology, and a portion of the Oakland, Calif., toymaker's revenue going toward science education charities — as selected by the band. GoldieBlox's apology will be posted on the toymaker's website, according to a statement emailed to NBCNews.com from a GoldieBlox representative... The settlement includes payment by GoldieBlox, based on a percentage of its revenues, to one or more charities selected by the Beastie Boys that support science, technology, engineering and mathematics education for girls, according to the statement.
Hopefully it'll be a proper apology as opposed to their first non-apology, that was issued back when we first started raising a shit storm about their copyright infringement. I love that the terms of the settlement hits these google-backed Silicon Valley charlatans in two different places. Their wallets, and their conscience. If they even have one. As for the Beasties, good on ya. It clearly wasn't a battle you deserved or wanted to have, but you handled it with class. goldie
Says a rep for the Beastie Boys:
"The lawsuit between the Beastie Boys and GoldieBlox concerning GoldieBlox’s use of the Beastie Boys song 'Girls' has been settled. That settlement includes (a) the issuance of an apology by GoldieBlox, which will be posted on GoldieBlox’s website, and (b) a payment by GoldieBlox, based on a percentage of its revenues, to one or more charities selected by Beastie Boys that support science, technology, engineering and mathematics education for girls.”
Update Goldieblox issues non-apology apology - WHO IS SURPRISED?
src="adland.tv/ntuit-rewards-goldieblox-i/1232490106"> Super Bowl sunset. High fives and beer all around, copyright infringement be damned. Yay, Yay, Narrative Play! All that time though, something was nagging us. Goldieblox sued the Beastie Boys, and did so preemptively, assuming no one in the Beasties camp would be so silly as to defend their copyright or the honor of their fallen member Adam Yauch. The band in turn, did the right thing, bravely, and filed a countersuit. Since then, we've wondered if the dispute has been settled. According to USA Today, the answer is yes. The lawsuit has been settled, and details are specific.
The settlement includes a public apology, and a portion of the Oakland, Calif., toymaker's revenue going toward science education charities — as selected by the band. GoldieBlox's apology will be posted on the toymaker's website, according to a statement emailed to NBCNews.com from a GoldieBlox representative... The settlement includes payment by GoldieBlox, based on a percentage of its revenues, to one or more charities selected by the Beastie Boys that support science, technology, engineering and mathematics education for girls, according to the statement.
Hopefully it'll be a proper apology as opposed to their first non-apology, that was issued back when we first started raising a shit storm about their copyright infringement. I love that the terms of the settlement hits these google-backed Silicon Valley charlatans in two different places. Their wallets, and their conscience. If they even have one. As for the Beasties, good on ya. It clearly wasn't a battle you deserved or wanted to have, but you handled it with class. goldie
Says a rep for the Beastie Boys:
"The lawsuit between the Beastie Boys and GoldieBlox concerning GoldieBlox’s use of the Beastie Boys song 'Girls' has been settled. That settlement includes (a) the issuance of an apology by GoldieBlox, which will be posted on GoldieBlox’s website, and (b) a payment by GoldieBlox, based on a percentage of its revenues, to one or more charities selected by Beastie Boys that support science, technology, engineering and mathematics education for girls.”
Update Goldieblox issues non-apology apology - WHO IS SURPRISED?
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Just noting that this settlement is yet another round of press that links the Goldieblox website (yeay! Organic SEO!) even if some article seem to sneer when they dub them "the feminist Toy company".
Once again, Goldieblox mission statement "engineering toys for girls"is repeated over and over in choice press like Rolling Stone magazine. The small notice in NYtimes art beat simply states that Goldieblox has to issue an apology.
But so far, with all this press and hundreds of hits on Google news, we ain't seen the Goldieblox apology yet. You seen it? Nope. Not up yet. Goldieblox sent the statement to the press before issuing the settlement agreed-upon apology.
Yep. There is no apology, yet.
Well gee. That's kind of calculated of them, isn't it? More press, without saying "sorry". Not that I'm surprised at this point.
Screendump of the non-apologetic Goldieblox website right now, as I type this (and no, there's nothing in their blog either):
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PermalinkOf course it's calculating. Any person, mother or otherwise, who still has respect for this company and its owners should really wake up already.
The apology will most likely read one of two ways. Either with a qualifier like this:
"I'm sorry if you were offended at my unauthorized and illegal use of your song."
Or they'll turn it into a further sales pitch like this:
"As a woman and so-called engineering student from a prestigious school, I never dreamed our little angel investor-backed mom and pop store that creates such amazing products called Goldieblox, for little girls who may one day become engineers would ever make it to the Super Bowl, despite raising a butt load of money on Kickstarter, and beating out real mom and pop stores in a small business competition. Goldieblox is honored to have such a successful business already. That's why it pains us to take time away from our constant PR barrage to do this, but so be it.
Goldieblox, and the founders of such amazing narrative play engineering toys for girls are very sorry if they did anything wrong to the Beastie Boys. We hope we can move past this so we can get back to our PR barrage for Goldieblox, because Goldieblox."
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Permalink... You forgot "small business competition that was sort of rigged in our favor by all the clicks this hubub and attention ganking the Beastie Boys song got us... "
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PermalinkYou also forgot "as a woman and "so-called engineering student turned marketing professional married to an SEO specialist"
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Permalink+1, Cynic.
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