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Nov 27, 2013 By Mike Hilleary Beastie Boys

In what had become a strange back and forth between one of the industry’s iconic hip-hop groups and a children’s toy company, GoldieBlox has seemed to put an end to their dispute with the Beastie Boys by writing an open letter of apology to the band for parodying “Girls” in a recent advertisement commercial. In a statement posted on the company’s website, GoldieBlox wrote that they have removed the song from the ad (though it seems they’ve removed the video altogether) and “don’t want to spend out time fighting legal battles.” The company also claims that it was unaware of the late Adam Yauch’s will request to not have Beastie Boys songs in advertising, and that they “are actually huge fans” of the trio’s work.

You can read the entire letter below:

“Dear Adam and Mike,

We don’t want to fight with you. We love you and we are actually huge fans.

When we made our parody version of your song, ‘Girls’, we did it with the best of intentions. We wanted to take a song we weren’t too proud of, and transform it into a powerful anthem for girls. Over the past week, parents have sent us pictures and videos of their kids singing the new lyrics with pride, building their own Rube Goldberg machines in their living rooms and declaring an interest in engineering. It’s been incredible to watch.

Our hearts sank last week when your lawyers called us with threats that we took very seriously. As a small company, we had no choice but to stand up for ourselves. We did so sincerely hoping we could come to a peaceful settlement with you.

We want you to know that when we posted the video, we were completely unaware that the late, great Adam Yauch had requested in his will that the Beastie Boys songs never be used in advertising. Although we believe our parody video falls under fair use, we would like to respect his wishes and yours.

Since actions speak louder than words, we have already removed the song from our video. In addition, we are ready to stop the lawsuit as long as this means we will no longer be under threat from your legal team.

We don’t want to spend our time fighting legal battles. We want to inspire the next generation. We want to be good role models. And we want to be your friends.

Sincerely,

Debbie + Team GoldieBlox”