Beastie Boys sue Chili's for using their song 'Sabotage' in social media ads

The hip-hop and rock group said in a court filing that they "do not license 'Sabotage' or any of their other intellectual property for third-party product advertising purposes."

The Beastie Boys are going to fight for their right to use their music how they please — the hip-hop and rock group is suing the owner of Chili's for using their song "Sabotage" in social media ads.

According to a complaint filed Wednesday in New York and shared by Reuters, the Beastie Boys are accusing Chili's owner Brinker of copyright infringement and unfair competition arising from its use of the iconic group's 1994 song "Sabotage," which they say was used to promote the restaurant chain without their permission.

"Use of the 'Sabotage' sound recording, music composition and video was all without permission; the plaintiffs do not license 'Sabotage' or any of their other intellectual property for third-party product advertising purposes, and deceased Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch included a provision in his will prohibiting such uses," the lawsuit says. (Yauch's estate and group surviving members Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz are all listed as plaintiffs in the suit.)

Attorneys for the Beastie Boys and representatives for Brinker didn't immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for comment Thursday.

The Beastie Boys, which first formed in 1981, released the song "Sabotage" as a single off their album "Ill Communication" in January 1994. Rolling Stone designated the song as one of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” in 2004. 

A Spike Jonze-directed video for the song, which has 131 million-plus views on YouTube, famously features both an homage to and parody of 1970s crime drama TV shows.

Both the song and video are called out in the suit, which alleges, "One such video used, without Plaintiffs’ permission or consent, significant portions of the musical composition and sound recording of 'Sabotage' (the 'Unauthorized Chili’s Video'). Further, Brinker synchronized Plaintiffs’ 'Sabotage' musical composition and sound recording with other visual material in the Unauthorized Chili’s Video, in which three characters wearing obvious 70s-style wigs, fake mustaches, and sunglasses who were intended to evoke the three members of Beastie Boys performed scenes depicting them 'robbing ingredients from a Chili’s' restaurant intercut with fictitious opening credits, in ways obviously similar to and intended to evoke in the minds of the public scenes from Plaintiff’s well-known official 'Sabotage' video."

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The Beastie Boys are asking the court for at least $150,000 in damages, a permanent injunction order blocking Brinker from using their music, as well as requiring removal of "the Unauthorized Chili’s Video from all places where they have been stored and/or made available by or through Brinker or reposted by any third party, and destruction of any and all copies of the Unauthorized Chili’s Video."

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