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Love, Nirvana Bandmates Challenge Activision On Cobain In Guitar Hero 5
by Leigh Alexander
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September 14, 2009
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The widow of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain says she plans to sue Activision over the use of her husband's likeness in Guitar Hero 5. Courtney Love said on her Twitter feed that a "breach of contract" had occurred; she referred to the publisher as a "bully" and indicated that she, on behalf of the grunge pioneer's estate, would "sue the shit out of Activision."
As for Activision, it told media outlets like consumer weblog Kotaku that it obtained Love's permission to use Cobain as a playable character in the game.
"Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain's likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5," the publisher said.
But Love's attorney says that Cobain's widow -- herself an accomplished musician with the 1990s band Hole -- only intended to grant Activision permission to use his name and likeness, not to allow him to appear as a character whom players could use to play any songs in the game, even non-Nirvana ones.
"Activision was not given an unbridled right to use Mr. Cobain's name and likeness," attorney Keith Fink told Kotaku.
Cobain is generally credited with popularizing grunge music in the 1990s with Nirvana. His best-known song, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' is widely-known in the music world as something of an anthem for its generation, and with Guitar Hero 5, Activision claims to be licensing the song for the first time in an entertainment property.
In his lifetime, the media-averse singer often expressed discomfort with Nirvana's massive popularity, and opposition to the scale of the commercialization of his music, once famously refusing to play 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' at MTV's 1992 Video Music Awards in favor of the more controversial 'Rape Me,' which biographers generally agree refers to Cobain's sense of violation in the spotlight of public scrutiny.
Following a struggle with substance abuse and increasing conflict in his marriage to Love, with whom he has one daughter, Cobain committed suicide in 1994, leaving a note that indicated he'd ceased to enjoy listening to and performing music.
"Kurt's songs have a special and unique meaning to his fans and his image and legacy are very important to Ms. Cobain," attorney Fink told Kotaku. "The agreement Activision has with the trust doesn't allow them to use his likeness in ways that denigrate his image."
"We would hope Activision would do the right thing on its own and prohibit game users from using Kurt's image to sing others songs and if they don't we expect the trust to take appropriate action to protect Mr. Cobain's image."
Love is asking that Activision lock Cobain's character in the game so that players can only use him to perform his own songs, rather than allowing him to exist as an avatar that can play whatever music the player desires. The two surviving members of Nirvana, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl released a joint statement to media outlets including The Associated Press to a similar effect.
"It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters," they said. "Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better."
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Here's the thing. Whenever I have worked on a game with licensing agreements their have been numerous occasions where the game is sent to the imitated group/person. They usually have plenty of time to review the game and approve their image. I doubt the producers for GH5 would have forgotten to do this.
I'm on the fence for this issue until I've learned more. I don't trust corporations, but I also don't trust Courtney even if she's sober.
The trouble is that any inclusion of Cobain in a commercial product is indeed denigrating not only his image but his feelings, specifically those that drove him to suicide. I've never liked Nirvana, nor Hole, and am no fan of the music influenced by either, but I do have some respect for the dead. That's mainly what's missing here. See Beatles Rock Band for a better approach.
RIP Curt Cobain
Lennon's death was tragic too. We can't really figure whether either Cobain or Lennon would be cool with Guitar Hero/Rock Band games at all, much less being featured in one, since they both died long before such a thing was even imagined. The best we've got is the people who control their images, and they signed off on this as far as anyone can tell.
I seriously doubt Cobain would have wanted to appear on Guitar Hero singing Bon Jovi. I'm pretty sure based on his own words. Not that Love cares, she has habits to support.
Lennon i'm not so sure about.
I disagree, to an extent. (I'm pretty much on the fence on this matter (see below) in general). I think it's a fair hypothesis that John Lennon would be happy with this, whilst Cobain would not. The Beatles game was fully endorsed by the remaining Beatles - and we're not just talking a shameful signature here: Paul and Ringo were up there on stage at E3 promoting it. Whereas the whole reason Cobain killed himself was his loathing of the media spotlight etc; and, well, we all know about Ms Love's chequered history and motives.
On the whole I didn't really care when this whole thing kicked up; but after watching the video montage of Cobain performing a variety of wierd songs, I agree with Dave Smith above. I find it a little distasteful.
At their core the music games give the player an extra element of connection to the music. One can listen to a Nevermind on their Itunes, but playing it give the user a whole new level of interaction with a song. Is it in opposition with Kurt's personal ideals? Yes. Is it cool as **** to pretend you are Cobain on a stage entertaining millions? Definately.
Making Kurt play songs from artists that he hated his whole life is the spiritual equivalent of putting the likeness of a dead pope in a porno. It goes against everything he believed in. I think making Kurt play only Nirvana songs is the best thing to do, but my realistic side doesn't see that happening.
RIP Kurt