The Grammy-award winning rock duo Black Keys, which headlined Music Midtown last year, is taking Atlanta-based Home Depot and the Pizza Hut chain to court, claiming both businesses used parts of its songs without permission in advertisements.
Guitarist Daniel Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney said they have tried since May to get the two companies to stop using songs from their latest CD, “El Camino,” but to no avail.
They said in a federal complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles that the companies were trying to improperly "capitalize on their hard-earned success," according to Bloomberg News.
“We haven’t seen the complaint, but we take intellectual property very seriously,” Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes told Bloomberg,
Christopher Fuller, a Pizza Hut spokesman, told the Associated Press the company had not seen the lawsuit but respects artists' rights.
The suit contends Home Depot used portions of Black Keys’ hit “Lonely Boy” in an ad for Ryobi power tools. It said Pizza Hut and its ad agency used portions of its song “Gold on the Ceiling” in an ad for the restaurant chain’s Cheesy Bites Pizza.The ad agency was identified as Interpublic Group of Companies.
The Black Keys is seeking unspecified damages and a court order barring the ads. The group headlined Music Midtown last September with Coldplay.
