The saga of Activision pissing off everybody in the music industry continues apace, with the evil publisher hitting back at No Doubt after the band filed suit over its Band Hero appearance. Citing a breach of contract and unjust enrichment, Activision has filed a counter-suit at No Doubt.
No Doubt was infuriated after it discovered that the band members' likenesses could be used to perform any song in the game, including music from Taylor Swift and Spice Girls. Activision argues that it did nothing wrong, with No Doubt failing to bring up its concerns in a timely manner:
Activision admits that although it is possible to program a videogame whereby particular in-game characters can only be selected when certain songs are played, Plaintiff first requested this only after the "Band Hero" programming was finalized, had been submitted to all of the U.S. console manufacturers for approval and had been approved for manufacture by most console manufacturers.
The publisher wants a ruling in its favor (obviously), unspecified damages, a return of all payments and benefits given to No Doubt by Activision, and a payment to cover the "full cost" of the suit along with "reasonable" attorney fees and anything else the court deems suitable. It doesn't want much, then.
Earlier in the year, Courtney Love threatened to sue the publisher over Kurt Cobain's Guitar Hero 5 appearance. Makes you wonder how anybody ever works together in the first place when they're all willing to sue at the drop of a hat.
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Contest:
3:00 PM on 12.09.2009
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wait...I mean No Doubt sucks!
So they can sue afterwards. Simple really.
Ahem. On-topic: If No Doubt didn't want their images being used like that, I would imagine that would be detailed in contract discussions. As awful as ActiBlizzard are, I gotta say neither side is clean.
Okay I backed Acti up to this point but that is ludicrous.
Fucking ungrateful pricks.
While your wording is strong I feel the same way.
However Activision asking ND to give back the royalties after ND let Activision use their work is utter bullshit and if this area of the suit steps even a toe into the realm of possibility I expect nothing less than a complete retaliation by the music industry.
I'm actually pretty pissed they had the gull to ask that. It's not their work to reel and deal with neither is it their work to profit from. It's their privilege to profit from with the graceful permission of No Doubt.
What do you call 10,000 lawyers chained together and sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?
I know, it looks like she has a negative a cup there.
Look, I dislike Activision as much as anyone else here, but this is nothing more than Love and No Doubt being pissed off that they didn't explicitly deny use of their images for songs other than theirs. Well, tough shit. This obviously wasn't a concern for them at the time they signed the contract. Sucks to be them.
It also goes to show that if you're an artist interested in producing music on the rhthym game genre, Harmonix is willing to bend over backwards to placate and appeal to your needs by comparison. They managed to land The Beatles AND AC/DC, two notoriously stodgy bands who dislike digital formats for different reasons.
If you've heard any music after the 1980s, then you realise they don't.