By Zanub Saeed
Rock band The Black Keys filed a lawsuit against both The Home Depot and Pizza Hut, citing copyright infringement, this past Thursday, said the Associated Press.
The band claimed that neither corporation had the rights to use their song "Gold on a Ceiling" in recent advertisements to promote The Home Depot power tools. For Pizza Hut, the band said that they misused the song "Lonely Boy' in a recent advertisement, cited the Associated Press in a report issued on Tuesday. The song appeared on the band's album called "El Camino," which was released in 2011.
The band is asking for more than $75,000 in unspecified damages, said the AP, and a court order preventing the songs to be used in future commercials for both The Home Depot and Pizza Hut.
The lawsuit claimed that The Home Depot and Pizza Hut misused the band's music, where with Pizza Hut the song was used to promote their new "Cheesy Bites Pizza," and with The Home Depot the song helped advertise the Ryobi power tools they had in store.
"The experts confirmed that this was copyright infringement," band spokeswoman Mary Moyer said in a statement sent to the Associated Press.
Both Pizza Hut and The Home Depot claimed they have not seen the case filed, said the report, but they do respect the band and the artists' rights as intellectual property owners.
"We haven't seen the complaint yet, but respect for intellectual property rights is a matter we take very seriously," Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes told the Associated Press.
The Black Keys said that letters were sent to Pizza Hut and The Home Depot back in May requesting they stop featuring ads that contained their music, said a report in Bloomburg on Tuesday. in addition to the two band members, Patrick Carney and Daniel Auerbach, is co-writer Brian Burton, also known professionally as Danger Mouse, said the Bloomberg report.
Both cases, filed as Auerbach v. Pizza Hut, 12-05385, and Auerbach v. Home Depot, 2:12-cv-05386, were done so at the U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles), said Bloomberg.
