The Week In Litigation

Gwen Stefani singing about boinking hookers is the new Kurt Cobain covering Bon Jovi apparently. No Doubt has followed suit, mind the pun, filing a formal complaint against Activision. The band claims that their agreement with the makers of Band Hero did not allow players of the new Guitar Hero title to use the No Doubt avatars to play songs not by No Doubt. Of course, everyone who has actually played Guitar Hero knows that’s how the game works.

Just as in the Nirvana / Guitar Hero 5 case, Activision claims to have a signed agreement from the band incontrovertibly clearing the not at all unusual use of the band’s avatars, a result of “extensive negotiations.” I have to wonder just how fine the ‘fine print’ is in this case. Especially after Courtney Love’s paroxysms.

Activision’s statement on the matter adds that the company is “exploring its own legal options with respect to No Doubt’s obligations under the agreement.” If I know anything about subtly ominous legal speak (and I do), they’re saying that if No Doubt insists on crying about the deal, they might get slapped with a countering suit for wasting everyone’s time and money.

In other news, BlueBeat has already been slapped with a lawsuit by EMI for, as we reported earlier, selling tracks from the Beatles catalogue at 25¢ a pop (plus 30¢ ‘processing’ fee). No surprise, of course. Sure, the DMCA laws only require a 9¢ royalty be paid to “transmit, relay, or publicly play” a song, with no clear distinction between a download and a DJ playing the song in a bar. But until the laws are cleared up a bit by people who actually understand digital technology, a reasonable judge will be left to eyeball it as unauthorized infringement.

BlueBeat’s timing is ironic, as at long last, the Beatles catalogue will actually be legitimately sold in a digital format, as of December 8th of this year. The catch is that it will be via physical apple-shaped USB drives, but these apples will contain 14 albums in 24-bit lossless FLAC (better than CD quality), as well as 320kbps MP3 files, 13 short documentary films, album art, “rare photos” and liner notes.

As Johnny reported earlier today, a Los Angeles judge has halted Sublime surviving members’ attempt to resurrect the band name owned and trademarked by the late Bradley Nowell, despite Nowell’s clearly and thoroughly documented wishes that the band never perform as Sublime without him. Nice try, scumbags.

Finally, despite already facing a possible jail term for “attempted” weapon possession (not sure how that works), rapper Lil’ Wayne is being sued, along with Cash Money labelmate Birdman, for using passages spoken in italian by Florida resident Thomas Marasciullo on their joint album Like Father, Like Son. Marasciullo claims that when he started asking for compensation for his work, his son was fired from his job as recording engineer at Cash Money. Ass, cash or grass, no one records for free these days.

Thanks to Mike & Fernando for research.