Beastie Boys, Monster settle copyright lawsuit

By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) - They fought for their
copyright. And now they have settled.
Beastie Boys have resolved their lawsuit accusing Monster
Beverage Corp MNST.O of using excerpts from five of the
hip-hop group's songs without permission in a video promoting a
Canadian snowboarding competition.
Capitol Records and Universal-Polygram International
Publishing, which are units of France's Vivendi SA VIV.PA ,
settled a related lawsuit against Monster over the same video.
The terms were not disclosed. Orders dismissing the cases
were filed on Thursday in two Manhattan federal courts.
In connection with the dismissals, Monster dropped its
appeal of a $1.7 million jury verdict and an award of $667,849
in legal fees in the Beastie Boys' lawsuit.
Monster and lawyers for the parties had no immediate comment
or declined to comment.
A 2012 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Beastie
Boys have long refused to license their music for advertising.
The group sued Monster over a roughly four-minute "megamix"
video by disk jockey Z-Trip promoting an annual "Ruckus in the
Rockies" snowboarding competition that Monster sponsored.
Beastie Boys said viewers might be misled into believing
that the group endorsed Monster energy drinks.
Monster conceded it was liable for copyright infringement,
but the Corona, California-based company thought the damages
were too high.
The Vivendi units sued three months after the June 2014 jury
verdict.
Two members of Beastie Boys, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz and
Michael "Mike D" Diamond, testified at trial. The third member
of the group, Adam "MCA" Yauch, died in May 2012.
The cases are Beastie Boys v. Monster Energy Co, 2nd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 15-2325; and Capitol Records LLC
et al v. Monster Energy Co, U.S. District Court, Southern
District of New York, No. 14-07718.