American pop rockers ‘No Doubt’ are suing Activision for the same reasons Courtney Love got her knickers in a twist over the Kurt Cobain avatar. The band say they agreed with Activision that their likenesses could be used in Band Hero to sing their own songs but are objecting to players being allowed to use Gwen Stefani to perform songs by other artists.
Activision has responded saying it “believes it is within its legal rights with respect to the use and portrayal of the band”.
Their manager, Jim Guerinot, has told Rolling Stone magazine they were “mortified” to discover their likenesses could be used to sing songs by other artists and that each member of the band could be used to sing songs which were written for the opposing gender. The law suit notes that through the game’s ‘Character Manipulation Feature’, Gwen Stefani’s avatar can be made to sing the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women.”
The band did contact Activision before the games release to voice their concerns and requested that they remove or disable the character manipulation feature in conjunction with the No Doubt avatars. Activision officials told the band that doing so would be “too expensive.”
“Perhaps most disappointing is when Activision was made aware of the problem, rather than make a fix they admit was technically feasible, they made a business decision that both the time and money required to do the right thing were too much,” Guerinot said. “I guess they are developing the next level of the game: corporate Rock Hero.”
Source: Los Angeles Times
