Beastie Boys vs. Goldieblox
Snapping
995 Posts
Have any of ya'll been following this?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/24/beastie-boys-goldieblox-girls-copyright-infringement-_n_4330583.html
So many crossing threads of copyright law, cultural significance, feminism....
It's hard to know what to think. Am I more pleased to see a parody of the crass original song? Or am I more offended by the unauthorized use of a song by a band that explicitly opposes commercial use of their work - for an obvious commercial!
Do laws protecting parodies protect the use of a song in an advertisement? Was the original song a parody of sexist attitudes or did it revel in them?
I know there are some here who know more about copyright law then me - who is in the right in this case?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/24/beastie-boys-goldieblox-girls-copyright-infringement-_n_4330583.html
So many crossing threads of copyright law, cultural significance, feminism....
It's hard to know what to think. Am I more pleased to see a parody of the crass original song? Or am I more offended by the unauthorized use of a song by a band that explicitly opposes commercial use of their work - for an obvious commercial!
Do laws protecting parodies protect the use of a song in an advertisement? Was the original song a parody of sexist attitudes or did it revel in them?
I know there are some here who know more about copyright law then me - who is in the right in this case?
Comments
While I thought the commercial was well done as a whole. Watching it made my head hurt with the lyrics about the colour pink. Only to be filled with tons of pink in the video.
It was without a doubt reveling in sexism. That aside, Goldieblox lost the moral high ground when they appropriated an artists work for their own profit, and their conduct has been both sanctimonious and greedy. Fuck them.
those asshole, i guess they accomplished what they set out to do which is not to empower little girls and push back on gender stereotypes as the ad deceptively suggests but to get as much damn publicity as possible through any means possible. there is some old saying about "means" and "ends" that might fit here.
I'm usually pretty good with sarcasm, but I honestly don't know how you actually feel after reading this.
days before holiday shopping kicks into high gear.
you call it genius, i call it chutzpah.
Quite some parents with kids in the target age range for this garbage have more love for the Beasties than for some assholes peddling Chinese made plastic shit so no, I think what they did was rather stupid.
Yup. And trading on people's ideals for commercial gain is absolutely foul.
I have no doubt this a big win for the toy company.
The Beastie Boys have also apologized (even in a rap) for their sexist talk in the past and I'm pretty sure they had completely cut that song from their set. Goldies claim of parody like they zinged the Beastie Boys is ridiculous and I'm sure they know it. I'm glad they pulled the commercial and time will tell if they have a good product or only specialize in explotation.
Except when it has to do with the environment, Then its ok.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing
They want to empower girls to become engineers?
And to do this they come up with a line of flimsy, pastel colored shit that looks like it's made for 3 year olds. Yet according to their website http://www.goldieblox.com/ these useless assortments of crap are made for an age group of 6-8 year old -Girls, of course. That's how you "level the playing field"? By giving girls some baby colored stuff that looks "special needs" more than anything else?
Now if you want your kid to, not to become an engineer, let's not be too ambitious, just a person with a normal, healthy, technical understanding then there's always Fischertechnik.
This is from their line for 5 year olds. Note how this is not a gender specific product:
This is a 6 year old Goldieblox "Princess":
Goldieblox for age 8 and 9:
An item from Fischertechnik's "advanced" line for age 7 and up:
VS:
Compare this:
To that:
People are fucking retarded. No wonder nobody knows how to do shit with their hands anymore. Give them a few more generations and motherfuckers will be done giving up walking erect and buy their kids little cream colored plastic wheelchairs instead. Oh, the humanity, just bring on the nuclear holocaust already and spare us further disgrace.
Get real. The Beastie Boys were at the beginning of sampling. Over time they have had to back pay a lot for samples and now most artists pay sampling royalties and give credit were credit is due. If it was just a sample and had nothing to do with the original song I might agree with you, but you know that's not the case.
The message I see from the Goldie toys is "Your a girl, here's ribbon and a plastic drum. Don't hurt yourself."
I don't think they have ever had issue with sampling. Ad-Rock has stated in interviews that anyone wants to sample his stuff he's fine with. In the same interview he says that in the court case over Jimmy Castor Bunch. That he thought it was right that they paid.
This is on some. They don't want their art to be used in a commercializing way.
Edit. Looked for the video.