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Geek Culture / No Doubt Sues Activision For Improper Use Of Their Likeness In ‘Band Hero’

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fallen one
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 16:43 Edited at: 10th Nov 2009 16:44
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Keeping up with the sueing, do we see a trend here.

The game ‘Band Hero’ allegedly misused their likeness against their wishes by not even asking how their likeness would be used in the game … as a result, No Doubt is suing Activision.

Rock band No Doubt has filed a real-world lawsuit over its virtual role in the just-released Band Hero edition of the Guitar Hero video game series, claiming that the game has "transformed No Doubt band members into a virtual karaoke circus act," singing dozens of songs the group neither wrote, popularized nor approved for use in the game. In a suit filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Full article here
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/11/no-doubt-sues-activision-over-band-hero.html

Blummin Pervert http://www.avantivitastudios.com/
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zeroSlave
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 17:09
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hehe. It should have said "transformed No Doubt band members from a karaoke circus act into a virtual karaoke circus act"

There's something in this room that makes you can't speak well.
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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 17:55
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I stopped caring about all these music games after the third one came out. To me it's gross how many remakes and new versions are being developed just because they know it turns a profit. Companies have to make money, I know that. But enough already. How many variants are we going to see? It's like everybody and their brother hopped on this band thing and now it's overdone and ridiculous.

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
Current Project: http://strewnfield.wordpress.com/ (Last updated 06/11/09)
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Conjured Entertainment
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 18:45 Edited at: 10th Nov 2009 18:58
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Quote: "I stopped caring about all these music games after the third one came out. To me it's gross how many remakes and new versions are being developed just because they know it turns a profit. Companies have to make money, I know that. But enough already. How many variants are we going to see? It's like everybody and their brother hopped on this band thing and now it's overdone and ridiculous."

Sounds like someone couldn't make it through the medium level to get their Golden Guitar...Just kidding

Seriously though, these games are FUN, and they won't stop making them until fans have all their favorite songs converted because that is when sales will drop.

As far as that law suit... there is No Doubt in my mind that someone forgot to read the fine print in the contract, because you know RockBand (Activision) did a cya on the likenesses.

If I were the Judge on this case I would have to side with No Doubt. (I've always had the hots for Gwen)

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demons breath
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 19:11
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Quote: "there is No Doubt in my mind"


oh dear...

I'm not a huge fan of these games to be fair. Mostly because people seem to assume that being good at them has some sort of link to musical ability. I've heard too many comments about that sort of thing so it's kind of a knee jerk reaction I guess to not like them - not sure I'd like them anyway (prefer just really playing an instrument) but the respect some people seem to get for getting good at it? The amount of positive comments on the endless youtube videos? (You don't get that for other types of games, really, why so much for this one?)

But anyway back on topic, although I don't know all the facts, it sounds like No Doubt haven't read their contract properly - the lawyers for Activision are much more likely to have worked a clause like this in and the lawyers for the band/record label to have missed or misinterpreted it, than for Activision to have put something they weren't allowed to into it. Let's face it, you want to do something and you're not sure if you're allowed, first thing you do is go to your lawyers. It was probably just a vague clause somewhere which they needed to be able to use it in adverts and stuff, you know "the company will be allowed to use these images in any format it deems neccessary" sort of thing. But all dressed up in fancy legal jiggery-pokery.

"The fools may crash down upon us in thunderous waves, but we shall Jeku slap them back from whence they came"
-BiggAdd Oct 28th 2009
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BearCDP
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 19:11
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Music games won't stop being developed, though they may start becoming developed less often, and become cheaper. Music games are going to become one of the primary cash cows of the modern music industry. This lawsuit is a little ridiculous, but it's sort of indicative of how things may start to go in the future--you start introducing real-world likenesses of bands and you run into a lot of IP and trademark issues.

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Phaelax
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 19:51
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Didn't a band already sue for something like this before?

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demons breath
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 20:02
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It's got stuff about some Kurt Cobain-related hassle mentioned in that article.

"The fools may crash down upon us in thunderous waves, but we shall Jeku slap them back from whence they came"
-BiggAdd Oct 28th 2009
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Conjured Entertainment
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 21:17
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Quote: "Music games won't stop being developed"

Until they make a Cher version... "Do you believe in life after love, love, love" STOP THE MUSIC!

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Roger Wilco
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 22:21
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I love the Rock Band games, especially the recent The Beatles Rock Band. At least when Harmonix made their game incarnations of the band, they used a more stylized approach rather than trying too hard to make them look real. IMO, it's just creepy to see rock stars reanimated like Neversoft (GH-series since number three) make them, especially since most of them look like zombies.
To make matters worse, they had Kurt look really ridiculous when singing some non-Nirvana songs.
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Ocho Geek
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 22:59
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law suit, how rock and roll

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My Tastebuds it please; oh yes, i love cheese.
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Jeff Miller
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 23:12 Edited at: 10th Nov 2009 23:40
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Edit - I posted in the wrong thread. Sorry
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fallen one
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 23:25
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Jeff you mean here, this is the one for Activision not Sony

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=160679&b=2&p=1

But its good to see people with knowledge of law on the forums, I was going to post a case up that's stirring things a bit on the iphone with a trademark claim with a case that I find quite disconcerting for iphone developers (and any game developer for that matter), its done the rounds at a couple of developer forums, but nobody was skilled on law to tell if its a hoax, a scam, or just publicity, Ill post it in a thread here on Geek culture and see what what people make of it.

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Jeff Miller
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Posted: 10th Nov 2009 23:54
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Fallen one - start a thread and I'll likely jump in. I've specialized in trademark and copyright cases for 35 years, and was the in-house trademark counsel for the company that owned Sega back in the early 1980's when the lawsuits were flying fast and furious in the "arcade" video game industry. I was into suits concerning gaming infringements on the old home computers that predated the PC, like the Tandy's and Commodore 64 and the like.
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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 11th Nov 2009 00:41
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Quote: "I stopped caring about all these music games after the third one came out. To me it's gross how many remakes and new versions are being developed just because they know it turns a profit. Companies have to make money, I know that. But enough already. How many variants are we going to see? It's like everybody and their brother hopped on this band thing and now it's overdone and ridiculous."


heheh, there's a guitar hero (and friends) isle in the best buy where i live :/
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