Band The Dropkick Murphys have filed legal action against neo-Nazi group the New England Nationalist Social Club, or NSC 131. The cease-and-desist is for unauthorized use of the song “The Boys are Back.”
On March 20th, about a dozen NSC 131 members showed up to the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston. While members did wear masks, they held up a sign saying “Keep Boston Irish.” Their appearance and banner were denounced by the parade’s organizers, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. On Monday, a video documenting the stunt was posted to Odysee using the song’s refrain- “The boys are back, and they’re looking for trouble” and trouble they found.
On March 22nd, the band took to Twitter calling the NSC 131; “Fuckin Losers.” And went on to say; “Stop using our song for your little dress up party video. We will SMASH you ??”.
The Dropkick Murphys are unfortunately no strangers to neo-Nazis misappropriating their music. A google search for “Dropkick Murphys, nazi fight” will show a ton of videos of the band getting violent with audience members displaying Nazi hand gestures. Like this one from 2013.
Dropkick had their lawyers send a cease-and-desist letter, confirmed by their publicist to be real. The letter said things like;
“DKM has not (and would not, ever, in a million years) authorize or license to NSC 131 the right to use or exploit the Recording and/or Composition in the video in question or any similar video,” The letter went on to say; “We’ll take your immediate compliance as confirmation that you received this letter. If, however, you fail to immediately comply, then my client and their designees and assignees are prepared to take whatever legal action they deem necessary and appropriate to protect their rights in and to the Recording and Compensation, including, without limitation, seeking statutory and punitive damages for your copyright infringement.”
On March 25th, Odysee e-mailed the Associated Press. They reiterated that they follow copyright law, and confirmed the video had been removed from the platform.
