Bridging The Digital Divide: Green Day’s Tré Cool Donated 6 MacBooks To Disadvantaged Children, Locked Them To Green Day Songs, Then Sued The Kids For Copyright Infringement
Green Day's Tré Cool gave six children free laptops, then discovered the most teachable moment of all was federal copyright litigation.
Access to technology can change a child’s life, which is why it was so moving last month when Green Day drummer Tré Cool donated six MacBooks to a youth center in Oakland. Unfortunately, there was one small catch: the laptops were locked down so tightly they could only open Apple Music, a folder of Green Day lyrics, and a PDF called PLEASE RESPECT THE CATALOGUE.
Then, when the children sang along, Cool sued them for copyright infringement to teach everyone a powerful lesson about the dangers of accepting a free laptop from the drummer on “Longview.”
Damn.
According to staff at the East Bay Futures Learning Center, Cool arrived with the laptops in a black van, handed them to six students, and said, “These are yours now,” before adding, “spiritually, not legally.” Each MacBook came with a sticky note reading READ THE TERMS and a desktop wallpaper of Cool pointing sternly at a laminated sign that said NO FREE RIDES.
“We were thrilled at first,” said center director Maribel Aguayo. “A lot of our kids need computers for school, job applications, and basic stuff like emailing their aunt. But the first time one student typed ‘fractions worksheet,’ the screen started playing ‘Basket Case’ at a respectful but legally binding volume.”
Yikes.
Staff said the laptops redirected every Safari search to GreenDay.com, replaced the Dictionary definition of “homework” with “minor unauthorized performance,” and refused to open Pages unless the file name began with “Warning.” Attempts to use the calculator returned “39/Smooth” for every equation.
By Thursday, Cool’s attorneys had filed a 42-page complaint in the Northern District of California accusing the children of unlicensed chorus participation, reckless lyric eyeballing, and “knowingly pressing the space bar during the bridge to ‘American Idiot.'”
“I love kids and I love giving back,” Cool said in a statement attached to the filing. “But generosity does not mean I have to stand by while a fifth grader mouths ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’ in an after-school environment with overhead lighting. There are rules.”
The lawsuit seeks $150,000 per song, the return of all six MacBooks, and handwritten apologies from each child explaining the difference between charity and a limited promotional access event.
Oof.
Asked why he did not simply donate normal computers, Cool said America was “raising a generation that thinks a free laptop can just be used for Google Classroom, Minecraft, and making slideshows about sea turtles without first considering the drummer’s residual position.”
And honestly, that is pretty fucked up of him.
The laptops remain at the youth center for now, though staff said they have been unplugged and placed in a supply closet after one of them began playing “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” every time a student walked past with a Chromebook.
One thing is for certain: those children may not have reliable access to Microsoft Word, but they now understand publishing law better than most adults with a podcast.
