I read about this a few nights ago and couldn’t for the life of me figure out where. Then of course, trusty old Perez Hilton came to the rescue. First to cover the story before NYT or LAT was on top of it.

According to the above listed sources, No Doubt is suing Activision, the makers of the popular game Guitar Hero, for the unwarranted use of the bands likeness throughout Guitar Hero III. No Doubt feels that the game has “transformed No Doubt band members into a virtual karaoke circus act,” featuring the band singing songs “the group neither wrote, popularized nor approved for use in the game”.

No Doubt agreed to appear as themselves within the game but for only three songs the band agreed upon. However, their avitar counterparts are featured in up to 60 songs many of which are inappropriate to feature Gwen Stefani as the lead singer. According to the suit filed in LA Superior Court, ‘”[w]hile No Doubt are avid fans of the Rolling Stones and even have performed in concerts with the Rolling Stones,” the complaint says, “the Character Manipulation Feature results in an unauthorized performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about having sex with prostitutes.”‘ -  EWW!

No Doubt’s suit says the executives at Activision refrained from disclosing the use of the band’s likenesses throughout the game and refuse to correct the issue claiming it is “too expensive”.

This isn’t the first time Activision has had complaints from celebrities about the unauthorized use of their likenesses in Guitar Hero. Courtney Love, the widow of late rocker Kurt Cobain, along with two of his band mates also complained that the game put Cobain’s avitar at the front of songs the band had no association with.

Sounds like Activision needs to get their act together.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 11:10 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.