'The Romantics' Band Sues Guitar Hero

[zekrahminator]

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.

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[KennyT772]

This is pathetic, they just want to get rich off of the game. Rock stars suck.

 

[Fox34]

Thats completely ridiculous, they A already have enough money, and how would this game be a threat to their music anyway? Its not making an impact on anything to do with them, people prob. don't even know who they are. So selfish dude.

 

[Grimskull]

Who the funk are The Romantics????
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

 

[Cold Storm]

So... Its Napster all over again! Metallic was right and wrong... The Romantics are just plain wrong! I liked their music, but now I don't know.... I stopped listening to Metallic because of the whole Napster thing and look at their sells after that... No wait... look at the quality of music that they made. I'm a big Metallic fan, but they just fell off the earth after it... And now a band that all ready fell off the earth is trying to get back into the lime life...

 

[Woah Mama!]

That is so not the way of rock dude...


That is like they want to sue everybody who isn't actually very good at playing guitar.

 

[DaMulta]

For a hit game, hell yea I would want my pay day as well. I think they are doing the right thing in suing them.

 

[XooM]

i'd be more pissed that its a cover... if i was gonna get ripped off, i'd at least want to hear *me* performing it in game, rather than some terrible cover...

 

[PaulieG]

They have every right to sue? It is their material Maybe I would look into alternative ways to get royalties, but if legal action is the only way...they should get paid.

 

[Ongaku]

They should get payed...it is their song...

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

 

[DEFEATEST]

Here's the way I look at it. If you worked your whole life making music, touring, time away from familys, pour your blood sweat and tears to make the "big time", why the hell should people have any right to make money off what you invented??? It's different from downloading, because we are enjoying the music, not making money off of it. Whoever the hell makes the GH series is making a fricking mint off other peoples stuff. Now tell me if you wrote that song and you were sitting back looking at the success that GH has, wouldnt you think you deserve a piece of that pie? It's art. And if the Romantics own the rights to that song, then they deserve to get paid. Man, are there any musicians here or what? I'm really quite surprised at how many people think The Romantics should just sit down and take it. Washed up or not, it belongs to them.

 

[F-22]

Who the funk are The Romantics????
They should be happy that their not-very-good song is on Guitar Hero and they are getting some recognition!

FTW!!!!!!!!

 

[TUngsten]

It's shitty of a mega-game dev company to try and sleaze their way out of paying royalties for copyrighted material.

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

 

[surfsk8snow.jah]

Guitar Hero = Vanilla Ice

Hahahah1!1!!! oh man that's classic. EDIT: Man that's so classic it's goin in my sig. Greatness haha.

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.

 

[Taz100420]

Any way to get money. We Americans are sue happy. Man the Romantics need to cry me a river....

Personally I hate GH.....

 

[Basard]

I'd sue Guitar Hero, if I had a good reason to.

 

[wazzledoozle]

GH uses a sleazy tactic to get out of paying royalties. About time they got sued.

 

[KennyT772]

Guitar Hero has real versions of songs, in fact it's probably close to 50% of each, covers and real. This type of lawsuit sets a precedent for media though. If they win, you could be sued for quoting a scene in a movie, hosting lyrics to a song, being sued for covering a song in concert (which many many lesser known bands do), and who knows what else. It is bullshit. This could pave the way to copywriting phrases, oh wait already been done (Paris Hilton - That's Hot).

Those with money, rock stars, celebrities, music execs, they are only concerned about 1 thing, making more money than they will ever really need.

 

[wazzledoozle]

Yeah, but the GH devs and publisher are making buttloads of money off of these 'covers'.

It's a different situation when you copy the guitar riffs exactly for use in a rock-themed game.

 

[WarEagleAU]

The Romantics are an 80s rock band. What I like about you, Little White Lies, One In A Million (great song) are a UK band. They have this one good song, when they say something about Talking in your sleep, thats what it is. Thats a good one. Anywho, thats who they are. Kind of ridiculous to sue, unless they blew what little money they made.

 

[UnXpectedError]

i don't understand the people who are saying this is ridiculous... how so?

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

 

[Woah Mama!]

So why not sue the cover bands that get paid playing at pubs and small events all over the world whilst they are at it?

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!

 

[Eric3988]

Maybe next time they will pay the royalty and then we can get the real song and not a garbage-ass cover. The game is fun and everything, but that's what they get for being cheap and charging so much money for their game.

 

[Fuse-Wire]

Hey there old rock stars, they probably spent all their money on drugs n booze and now look for cheap excuses to sue people instead of going out and getting a job!! must rock to be them!!

 

[Snipe343]

its like it but is not it so they really have nothing to stand on