Dope Little Lawsuit

You can always spot hardcore fans of the Beastie Boys because they know all rarities and oddball joints like "Dope Little Song" which was released on "Ill Communication" but only in Japan, and as the B-side to the Sabotage/Get It Together single.



I would bet everything I own that The Hon. Paul A. Engelmayer is not familiar with "Dope Little Song." Judge Engelmayer is a District Judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to his Wikipedia page, he graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. He then clerked for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and followed that up with a SCOTUS clerkship for Justice Thurgood Marshall. He went on to be an AUSA and an assistant to the Solicitor General. Eventually he headed up the New York office of a fancy law firm, and was nominated to SDNY by President Obama in 2011. The Senate approved his nomination 98-0.

In legal circles, this is about as prestigious as a resume can get. The closest comparable is Chief Justice John Roberts who slightly trumps Judge Engelmayer because he was Principal Deputy Solicitor General at one point and his first bench assignment was an appellate court. But don't be surprised if someday you see Judge Engelmayer's name on short lists for higher posts. Hopefully these posts will not involve slang literacy.

I say this because Judge Engelmayer is assigned to the case of Beastie Boys v. Monster Energy Corp. The complaint is interesting for a few reasons, the most charming of which is the discovery that the Beastie Boys operate as a New York Partnership:

I use the word charming because a partnership in New York does not require any special filings with the state or even a contract between the partners. A partnership is simply two or more persons carrying on as co-owners of a business for profit. The partners owe each other a duty of loyalty. Of course there are ways to formalize a partnership or to limit liability, but these three bad brothers you know so well didn't do that. Trust me, I looked. Instead, they've been carrying on together as partners for over 30 years essentially without a net, just trusting each other and being loyal. We should all be so lucky.

But I digress. The Beasties sued Monster Beverage for copyright infringement because Monster used various Beasties songs to make a promotional video for their "Ruckus in the Rockies 2012" event. Monster then sued (natch) a DJ named Zack Sciacca, stage-named Z-Trip. Apparently, Monster used remixes available on Z-Trip's website to make the promotional video with Z-Trip's permission:

U-Tube!! Ha! Also "ha!" worthy: Monster asserts the defense that "Hey, we thought it was ok to bust the Beasties' loops, Z-Trip said it was dope."

Honestly. That's what they told Judge Engelmayer. More specifically, they told Judge Englemayer that "Mr. Sciacca said 'you can use the music on my website.' That was a separate contract, [then Monster asked] do you approve? And he wrote back, 'it's dope.'"

At which point the learned judge said "It's dope?"

Z-Trip's lawyer explained “It’s dope means it’s good. He says, ‘well they showed me this video and yeah, it looks good. They say ‘oh, that gives us permission to use all this music.' But there’s no contract between my client and the Beastie Boys.”

To which Judge Engelmayer replied, “I take it on a summary judgment motion that I have to treat ‘dope’ in the light most favorable to your client." I'm not sure if His Honor realized how funny that quip is. You probably don't either, particularly if you didn't take civil procedure. But trust me when I say it's a hoot.

Anyway, it goes without saying that it's really hard to win a case when the judge doesn't understand what you're saying. As the Beastie Boys would likely tell Monster's attorneys, don't play no game that you can't win.