It has been a “Hella Good” month for Gwen Stefani and her band No Doubt. The group announced they were reuniting and won a major victory in a right of publicity lawsuit against video game maker Activision. The lawsuit involves how No Doubt’s likeness was used in the popular game “Band Hero.”
No Doubt did authorize Activision to use each band members’ likeness in the video game, but alleges that the game maker exceeded the terms of their contractual agreement. Its entertainment lawsuit includes claims for fraud, violation of publicity rights, and breach of contract.
Rather than allowing users to use the band member’s avatars to sing the three songs approved by the band, the lawsuit claims that their likenesses are featured in over 60 songs, many of which were originally performed by other artists. For instance, the lawsuit alleges that users could use singer Gwen Stefani to perform suggestive lyrics from the Rolling Stones’ hit “Honky Tonk Women,” or have a bassist Tony Kanal sing his band’s hit “Just a Girl,” but with Stefani’s voice.
Firefox recommends the PDF Plugin for Mac OS X for viewing PDF documents in your browser.
We can also show you Legal Updates using the Google Viewer; however, you will need to be logged into Google Docs to view them.
Please choose one of the above to proceed!
LOADING PDF: If there are any problems, click here to download the file.
Published In:
Art, Entertainment & Sports Law Updates
DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
© Donald Scarinci, Scarinci Hollenbeck | Attorney Advertising