Band Sues Guitar Hero Publisher
November 23, 2007 | by Nick Mokey
The Romantics have filed suit against Activision, claiming the cover of their song used in Guitar Hero is too close to the original.
Guitar Hero III may be the franchise's latest star as far as fans are concerned, but in headlines, it's Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s that's stealing the spotlight – and allegedly a song. The Romantics, an 80s rock band featured in the game, have filed a lawsuit against Guitar Hero publisher Activision, claiming that the game infringes on their image and likeness.
The battle is over the song “What I Like about You.” According to The Associated Press, Activision did acquire permission to use a cover version of the song in the game, but the issue is how closely the cover mimics the original. The cover, by Wavegroup Sound in San Francisco, may be so close to the original that it violates the band's right to it's own image, which is a separate issue from copyright violations.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in a U.S. District Court in Detroit,where the Romantics hail from. The band is seeking unspecified damages.
Post Your Comment...Comments
Comment on this article
Please keep your comments relevant to this article. Email addresses are not displayed, they are only required to verify you are human.
When you submit your comment, an email will be sent to your email address with a confirmation link. Once you have clicked on that confirmation link your comment will be posted.
HTML is not allowed.
RSS Feed
Geminate on Nov 23rd, 2007 at 3:56 PM:
Dead and Rotting
The Romantics were a crummy band with two okay songs, the rest was rubbish. IMNTBHO, I thought everything they came up with was garbage. I really believed these guys were dead by now.
Romantics - Do our song on Guitar Hero!!! :)
Romantics - Oh no, it's too good :(
Romantics - We gonna sue your asses >:(
Dear Romantics, please return to your graves and continue rotting.