The Doobie Brothers Sent Bill Murray a Cease-and-Desist and It's Hilarious

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Sep 24, 2020

While cease-and-desist letters are typically never a laughing matter, today they are, thanks to what the Doobie Brothers have fired off to beloved actor Bill Murray.

The legal threat has to do with Murray's golf apparel brand William Murray Golf (yeah, we didn't know he had a golf apparel brand either). Apparently, the company is selling a shirt called Zero Hucks Given, and to do so, it's been running ads featuring the classic rock band's 1972 hit "Listen to the Music." The thing is, though, William Murray Golf apparently hasn't secured the proper rights to use the track.

Because of this, the Doobies' lawyer Peter Paterno has taken Murray to task — but in a rather hilarious way.

"It seems like the only person who uses our clients' music without permission more than you do is Donald Trump," Paterno writes in his cease-and-desist to Murray.

And he doesn't stop there.

"This is the part where I'm supposed to cite the United State Copyright Act, excoriate you for not complying with some subparagraph that I'm too lazy to look up and threaten you with eternal damnation for doing so," the lawyer continues. "But you already earned that with those Garfield movies. And you already know that you can't use music in ads without paying for it."

Paterno then goes on to even diss the shirts themselves.

"We'd be almost OK with it if the shirts weren't so damn ugly. But it is what it is," he writes.

As of press time, Murray has yet to respond. But it's going to be hard to top the Doobies on this one.

UPDATE (9/26, 5:40 p.m. ET): Bill Murray's legal team has now issued a response, and it's pretty great.

You can find the Doobie Brothers' full complaint down below.

Doobie by eriq_gardner6833

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