Beastie Boys, toy startup settle over use of 1980s hit song for parody video

Toymaker GoldieBlox reportedly settled its lawsuit with hiphop band the Beastie Boys. The toy startup, which gained notoriety for its advertising video featuring its games that exposes little girls to engineering, allegedly used the music group's 1980s hit "Girls" without the latter's permission, CNBC said in a report. The video, which was featured as a Super Bowl commercial, went viral early last year for its empowering message of rejecting stereotyping toys.

According to a profile by the news outlet, GoldieBlox creates interactive books alongside construction toys that feature a little cartoon girl named Goldie. Goldie reportedly tells stories through the books to encourage girls to develop engineering skills and concepts.

GoldieBlox, who credited its beginnings from a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in 2012, is now a dozen-staffed small business in San Francisco who became famous for its "Princess Machine" video, the news outlet said. The video showed three girls who cleverly turned a home into an impressive Rube Goldberg-like machine of obstacles using actual toys by GoldieBlox. The video gained millions of views on YouTube for its social commentary on how toy makers of today unintentionally create a divide on what kind of toys should girls and boys play with.

The lawsuit was lodged by the Beastie Boys as a response to Goldieblox's legal claim over the the sassy lyrics for the video, which was repurposed using the band's song in November last year, CNBC said.

Based on the settlement, GoldieBlox will issue a public apology and award a portion of its revenue to science education charities that are nominated by the Beastie Boys. A GoldieBlox representative also said in an emailed statement to NBC News that the company's apology will be published on its company website.

When CNBC asked a representative of the hip-hop band for comment, a spokesman declined to do so and referred the news outlet to GoldieBlox's statement regarding its settlement.

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GoldieBlox song lawsuit, GoldieBlox Princess Machine Video

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