Beastie Boys Sue Monster Energy Drink And Win $1.7 Million

The Beastie Boys have been awarded $1.7 million in a copyright lawsuit against Monster Energy Drink.

The company had taken parts of their songs including, “Sabotage,” “So What’cha Want,” “Make Some Noise” and “Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun” in a promotional video on their website back in 2012.

“Although Monster Energy has great respect for the verdict of the jury, we strongly disagree with it,” Reid Kahn, attorney for Monster, told Rolling Stone. “We will make an application to the Court to set aside the verdict and we intend to file an appeal. From the inception, Monster Energy has been willing to resolve this matter in a fair and equitable manner and we will continue to make additional efforts to reach a just resolution of this dispute.”

They also allegedly posted a 23-minute medley of the Beastie Boys’ songs and made it available for download. The energy drink company took the songs from DJ Z-Trip’s live set at the Canadian festival “Ruckus in the Rockies,” which was sponsored by Monster.

The timing was interesting because it happened just days after Adam Yauch, founding member of the group, died.

Reps from Monster responded saying that they thought the case was “illogical” and that the most they should owe is $125,000.