Do celebrities own their avatars?

As we approach the end of the year, it's good to see some new controversy brewing in our video game industry. It brings attention to games, puts them in the spotlight, and constantly keeps us questioning just how serious a medium this really is. Well, if you were in doubt, look no further than today's hot issues, ripe with journalistic intrigue and scandalous accusation!

Celebrity Showdown

Activision's Guitar Hero franchise has generally gained favor amongst musicians, with a few exceptions pending, but it seems their use of Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5 just rubbed Courtney Love the wrong way. As she is the owner of pretty much everything Cobain-affiliated, the fact that you could use Kurt Cobain's avatar to sing songs from other artists in the game was enough for her to threaten Activision with a lawsuit.

“We are going to sue the shit out of Activision,” Love was quoted in the U.K. paper, The Guardian. “‘For the record, this Guitar Hero shit is breach of contract on a bully’s part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction.”

Now that's courtroom jargon you can't get on television! I'd love to see this courtroom drama play out, especially when we get to the cliffhanger where Activision points out that Courtney Love already gave her written permission to use Cobain's likeness.

What makes this such a big issue, is that popular music group No Doubt is following up with a lawsuit of their own.

“The band [members] 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.” said band manager, Jim Guerinot.

I'm reminded of wrestling games, where you could create your own wrestler and use him to do the speeches and cinematics, no matter how ridiculous you made him look. Now you have the option to select characters to sing songs, and use them to sing other songs as well. Is this illegal? Should it be?

My Take

While there is some merrit to these lawsuits, it may change the way Guitar Hero games incorporate celebrities in their games. While I do find the idea of Kurt Cobain singing Taylor Swift songs somewhat disturbing if not slightly humerus, being a celebrity puts you in the public domain. Suffice to say, you should know what your getting into when you decide to put together a rock band and sell your image on t-shirts and posters. If someone were to make an action figure of Kurt Cobain, and then use them at a tea party with Barbie and Mr. Potato Head, whose to say we can't sue for that?

Think I'm wrong? Tell me about it!

image from That Videogameblog