That's right Nike, back up off of Minor Threat! Now who wants a piece of Black Flag?

Nike backs down on using Minor Threat as a marketing ploy without actually asking Dischord Records if that was cool. The apology is a good one--by which I mean the PR person who drafted it did a good job, I'm impressed--but it rings slightly hollow. I mean, am I expected to believe that the sports marketing people at Nike didn't know that they should get permission? Did Nike of all companies not know that appropriating anti-authoritarian music from one of the seminal bands of a movement would bring about derission from fans and outrage from the artists themselves? I call bullshit.
Seriously, they've pulled this crap before with the Beatles' Revolution:

Twenty years later the song was subject to even more controversy, when the surviving Beatles sued shoe-manufacturers Nike for using it in a television ad.

This time they just figured that it was small-time enough to creep under the radar. But Nike didn't count on the awsome power (and obsessiveness with authenticity) of internet-based music nerds.

Don't worry though, the sweatshops are still there, so Nike's doing just fine.