The surviving members of the Beastie Boys find themselves 1.7 million dollars richer, after a New York jury closed a copyright case against Monster Energy Drink.  Adam Horovitz, better known as "Ad Rock" and Michael Diamond, more commonly referred to as  "Mike D" spent time in court last week, in a battle against the popular energy drink company for using some of their songs in a video without permission.  Monster used the songs "Sabotage", "Make Some Noise", and "So What'cha Want" as part of the soundtrack for a video of the annual snowboarding contest that was put on YouTube.  Monster did acknowledge the fact that the Beasties songs were used in the video, Ruckus in the Rockies, and said that the employee of the company who was responsible for it was under the impression that the use of the songs was authorized.

The third member of the trio Adam " MCA" Yauch, who died in 2012, had it written specifically in his will that his name, music, image or "any artistic property created" by him should not be used for advertising according to Mashable.com.  Monster offered Horovits and Diamond $125,000, and the two declined.  They originally went after $2 million, with $1 million for use of the songs and the other half to cover an "implied endorsement."  On Thursday, the jury awarded the two remaning members of the Grammy Award winning group $1.7 million dollars.

Astrid Stawiarz, Getty Images
Astrid Stawiarz, Getty Images
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