Guitar Hero Gets To Rock On For Now
from the can't-shut-me-down dept
Last month we wrote about how the 80s rock band the Romantics was suing Activision for a version of its video game Guitar Hero. That game used a cover of a Romantics hit, which was properly licensed. However, the Romantics claimed that the cover was too good and too close to the original and wanted to be paid for a full performance license, rather than just for the cover. Otherwise, they wanted to halt sales of the game. Luckily, a judge has turned down their request for a summary judgment, noting that an injunction right before the holidays would have a profound impact on Activision's sales of the game. The judge also noted that the band did not "show a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits of the case." Apparently, the judge was less-than-impressed by the fact that the band's own lawyer admitted that this was "all about the money."Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: copyright, cover songs, guitar hero, romantics
Companies: activision
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The problem with perpetual copyright...
Except thanks to the late Congressman Bono (R-Disney), they could still be doing this in the 22nd century.
This is now how copyright was supposed to work.
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Re: The problem with perpetual copyright...
Cheers!
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What would you do?
It's easy to criticize.
If I had written a song and was earning a patheticly low royalty while someone else was reselling it for big bucks, I'd feel ripped off as well.
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Re: What would you do?
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More Publicity
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Re: More Publicity
What CD? The Romantics have a new CD?! Another holiday miracle!
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Re: What would you do?
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
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Publicity Scam?
And just how can you demand a performance license if the people who performed the song actually were not the members of the band? Was there some spirit channeling going on?
Here's a suggestion, guys: practice! Then release a single, or something, which is "better" than the version on Guitar Hero. That is, if you can.
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guitar hero
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hmm...
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