Friday, November 23rd 2007
'The Romantics' Band Sues Guitar Hero
It's no secret that to get many famous songs while avoiding ridiculous royalties (and to also avoid the inconvenience that half the artists included are dead anyways), the majority of Guitar Hero songs are "covers", or similar versions of the song performed by a completely different artist. 'The Romantics', a classic band that wrote such hits as "What I Like About You", recently picked up Guitar Hero 3. When they heard the rendition of one of their songs, and how it was "virtually indistinguishable" from the real version, they sued Activision. After all, nobody had asked The Romantics if they wanted their song included in Guitar Hero 3. The Romantics are seeking ridiculous amounts of money in compensation, and for Guitar Hero 3 to be pulled off the shelves.
Source:
Neoseeker
27 Comments on 'The Romantics' Band Sues Guitar Hero
They should be happy that their not-very-good song is on Guitar Hero and they are getting some recognition!
Edit: Sorry Zek! that way ok?
Edit 2: I liked it the way I had it :p
That is like they want to sue everybody who isn't actually very good at playing guitar.
I wish they´d take that game off the shelves...that game is for people who don´t want to take the time to learn to play a real guitar...it´s not that hard really lol...depends on what you start off with...I knew how to play Stairway to Heaven when I was 8
I'd sue them too, just like when Vanilla Ice ripped off Queen/David Bowie with a lame song and got sued...
Guitar Hero = Vanilla Ice
I definitely do agree that they should get their money, but guitar hero should be ready for this, they should know that out the dozens of bands they are sampling/covering, ONE of them is gonna bring something up. If they're smart, they'll settle out of court, although then a class-action could come out of it from all the other bands, and OH CRAP for GH Execs.
However, they are making so much money off other peoples' songs, so the creators/originators of those songs deserve the credit & earnings for their hard work.
Personally I hate GH.....
Those with money, rock stars, celebrities, music execs, they are only concerned about 1 thing, making more money than they will ever really need.
It's a different situation when you copy the guitar riffs exactly for use in a rock-themed game.
they made/invented the song and are not getting paid by a company who is making big bucks on it....
if that was me id be pissed off too regardless if it was the original material or not... it would still be my creation
I imagine that the creators of Guitar Hero could now work out deals with the artists whose songs they use, as the developer and publisher have situated the game on the market and it is quite popular, but I'm sure that if they had did it with the first, or the second Guitar Hero that artists would want nothing to do with it as the game was not solidly proven to be a huge success. Now all of the one hit wonder ass wipes who don't have the creativity to release any other song in what, roughly 30 years? They will start suing Guitar Hero developers too.
I don't know about you but I can't make sense of a bunch of randomly animated band members in Guitar Hero playing, and singing exactly like numerous bands. I think that could be another reason for the whole 'cover band' thing.
Yes the developers and publisher are making money from these cover versions of songs, but are the bands losing any? I'd think that people who play Guitar Hero, and find out about all of these cool songs they've not heard of before would go out and buy some albums from that artist to further appreciate their music, right? Or, I could be mistaken and those people would just download the music illegally and then the artists would get the shits even more, and then sue The Pirate Bay..... Oh wait! That has already happened this year! :rolleyes:
P.s for all of you who are like "who the funk is The Tragically Hip?" They are One of Canada's biggest bands ever! Great band! Check them out if you like bluesy rock.