No Doubt Winning Lawsuit Action Against Activision

The glam-pop-alternative, whatever you want to call them, band No Doubt has won the latest round in the case against Activision and the use of the bands likeness in Band Hero.

No Doubt (Gwen Stefani, Tom Dumont, Tony Kanal, and Adrian Young) were peeved that their 'Hero likenesses can be used to perform other musicians' songs.

Speaking to the LA Times last year, the band's manager Jim Guerinot claimed that Activision "transformed No Doubt band members into a virtual karaoke circus act".

That’s a bit of a stretch isn’t it? Adding:

"The band are bitterly disappointed that their name and likeness was taken and used without their permission. They agreed to play three No Doubt songs as a band... Activision then went and put them in 62 other songs and broke the band up [and] never even asked."

They do understand it’s a virtual thing right?

Stefani in particular is very unhappy about the singing of the Rolling Stones' Honky Tonk Woman, stating that:

"[T]he Character Manipulation Feature results in an unauthorized performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about having sex with prostitutes."

Once again, they do realise it is just a game yeah? Activision responded and claimed that it's "within its legal rights".

On Thursday, Los Angeles County Superior Court issued a tentative ruling rejecting Activision's effort to invoke freedom-of-speech protections.

I suppose it’s understandable, I mean these bands work hard on their image dammit! And if it isn’t about the image then what’s the music industry about? Oh right yeah, music!