The Legal Microscope

[horacejesse]

Ran across this entry in Wikipedia. Quote:On November 21, 2007, The Romantics filed a lawsuit against Activision, RedOctane, Harmonix, and Wavegroup Sound over the cover of the song What I Like About You used in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s. While the game developers did secure appropriate rights to cover the song in the game, The Romantics claim that the cover is "virtually indistinguishable from the authentic version" and thus would "[confuse] consumers into believing that the band actually recorded the music and endorsed the product". The lawsuit is requesting the cessation of sales of the game and monetary damage.You have to have a hit song and be able to afford the attorneys first. The Romantics might be more aggressively vigilant now because they had to sue a manager in the late 80's for liscensing some of their material without their knowledge. They beat the weasel but lost five or six years of their careers while everything was tied up and they couldn't record either. Oh well, that's a song I really love.Has anyone heard further on this?

[horacejesse]

Here is the follow up. Romantics lose.http://www.newsrightnow.org/articles/27 ... Page1.html

[mojobone]

Good catch. It's actually similar to the suit Fantasy Records brought against John Fogerty for sounding too much like his old self on records they didn't own the rights to. Maybe the Romantics should have argued that it actually was their version used in the game if the fake was so close even the band couldn't tell. In any case, the judge was right to throw it out.