Beastie Boys remind Chili's that copyright infringement isn't something you can just Fight for the Right to do.
Generic American food chain Chili's reportedly released a new commercial that featured a visual recreation of the iconic music video for the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" as well as audio samples from the song. Unfortunately, the company failed to obtain a license to the License To Ill track before releasing the commercial, and are now being sued by the Boys themselves.
Of course, even if they had tried to obtain a license to the License To Ill track, the Beastie Boys probably wouldn't have let it happen anyway.
As The AV Club rightly points out, the Beastie Boys aren't actually suing Chili's itself, but rather:
…technically, Brinker International, the chain's parent company, which is a fun little reminder that every dead-mall chain restaurant with shit on its walls that tries to sell you fried cheese at $20 a pop is owned by some massive multinational with a name like The Thorax Industrial Group
The real tragedy here is that, once upon a time, Chili's already had the absolute perfect commercial jingle, and there's no reason they shouldn't just go back to that one — unless there's some other clusterfuck of a licensing story that has yet to come out about it.
Previously:
• The Beastie Boys: arguably the greatest rap group in history
• Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage' starring Big Bird and the Sesame Street gang
• Beastie Boys send copyright threat to toy company that remixed 'Girls'
