The Beastie Boys are suing the parent company of Chili’s. The restaurant chain is accused of running an ad without permission that used the hip-hop trio’s smash hit “Sabotage.”
In a federal court lawsuit filed in New York on Wednesday, the rap group claimed that Brinker International created a Chili’s industrial that used large portions of “Sabotage” and copied the song’s music video.
Brinker International didn’t immediately reply to an email looking for comment. No attorney for Brinker was listed in court records.
“Sabotage” was released in 1994 and have become an enormous hit for the Beastie Boys. The accompanying music video, through which the three band members appear in a parody of Seventies crime series with wigs, fake moustaches and sunglasses, is probably the most famous within the genre.
The lawsuit accuses Brinker of making a social media industrial for Chili’s in 2022 that used parts of the song together with a video of three people in Seventies-style costumes stealing ingredients from a Chili’s restaurant.
The case was filed by surviving Beastie Boys members Adam Horovitz and Michael Diamond, in addition to the executor of Adam Yauch, a band member who died of cancer in 2012. in his willexpressly prohibited the usage of his music in advertisements.
The Beastie Boys won $1.7 million in 2014 at a Case of copyright infringement against the manufacturer of the Monster Energy drink due to the company’s unauthorized use of one among the group’s songs.
