As reported by www.adland.tv  GoldieBlox was not disqualified despite their “permissionless” commercial use of The Beastie Boys song “Girls”.   This appears to be against the rules of the contest.  If true, they should have been disqualified in round 3 according to the rules as they were violating the content restrictions at that point.

https://www.smallbusinessbiggame.com/rules/

Content Restrictions:

• The Submission must not contain material that violates or infringes another’s rights, including but not limited to privacy, publicity or intellectual property rights, or that constitutes copyright infringement;
• Entrant must have permission from all individuals mentioned or displayed in the Submission (if any) to use their name and likeness in the Submission and to grant the rights set forth herein and if requested, entrant must be able to provide such permissions in a form acceptable to Sponsor;

Read Adland.tv’s excellent coverage here.

So big deal. Two Silicon Valley firms, Intuit and GoldieBlox, breaking the rules? Yawn. As we’ve seen with the “Google Bus” corruption scandal  this has become an everyday occurrence in the valley of permissionless innovation.

Well here’s the kicker. Public contests, lotteries and sweepstakes are strictly regulated by state and federal laws.  Some of which have criminal penalties.   If I had a small business in this contest I would look at those state and federal laws very carefully!  Who knows DairyPoop may already be a winner!

We all know that Goldieblox appears willing to do anything to garner publicity including what some commentators have suggested was  marketing by lawsuit. Why a generally sensible company like Intuit would put themselves in a position where they may be liable is a mystery to me.