Apparently the Beastie Boys were not actually licensed to ill.
Just one day before Adam Yauch died last week, he and the other members of the Beastie Boys were sued for illegally sampling music.
TufAmerica claimed that copyrighted recordings were illicitly used on “License to Ill” and “Paul’s Boutique,” both of which dropped over two decades ago. This will probably bring out a battle on whether the statute of limitations has passed.
Some say there will never be another album like Paul’s Boutique because copyright enforcement has become so tight in the decades since the album dropped. Can TufAmerica use today’s copyright rules to sue over an album that came out before they were enforced? Only time will tell.
One thing is for sure, TufAmerica’s timing is just a little off.
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