How To NOT Use A Celebrity Likeness 101

Activision's Guitar Hero5 has only just been released (well, over a week since it's US release, and under a week until its Australian release), and it's already under major fire for one of its big selling points. You see, the game includes a playable version of deceased Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, playing along to versions of "Lithium" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the latter a huge coup for Activision (since it's the only song from the Nevermind album to not appear in its competitior, MTV's Rock Band), but that's not the point.

The reason for the controversy isn't the fact that the game has a playable version of Kurt Cobain. It's kind of sad enough to think that, especially since this is exactly the kind of thing that Cobain never wanted to happen - being extremely anti-establishment and what not. No, the controversy comes in the way the Cobain character is used in the game. And let me tell you, it ain't pretty.

No, you weren't imaging anything. You DID just see Kurt Cobain acting like Flava Fucking Flav.

So what's the response by Kurt's widow and former Hole frontlady Courtney Love? Well, let me describe it

in her words, from her Twitter account (via Kotaku):

WE are going to sue the shit out of ACtivision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises

She then later goes on to mention that she reportedly didn't want Cobain in the game, though DID sign off on it. I say reportedly because she wrote this on her Twitter, and has it locked off.

Shortly thereafter, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, Cobain's bandmates from Nirvana, actually SUPPORTED Courtney Love in wanting Activision to fix this up, by releasing a statement (again, via Kotaku):

This is a statement regarding Nirvana, Guitar Hero and the likeness of the late Kurt Cobain.

We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate - we have no control whatsoever in that area.

While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in "re-locking" Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future.

It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.

So while there hasn't been a response from Activision yet, but yet, and I cannot believe I'm saying this, actually kinda agreeing with Courtney Love.

I mean, go back up and rewatch that video. It's Kurt Cobain, frontman of one of the most profilic bands in recent memory, and a staunch anti-conformist, singing a Bon Jovi song, amongst other things. A fucking Bon Jovi song.

Activision and Neversoft should've known better, and realized that maybe, just maybe, that it might be just a tad disrespectful to the legacy of Cobain. Yet you know what the ironic thing is? They actually do know how to show constraint and control when it comes to something like this. It's evident in 2008's Guitar Hero World Tour, wherein people could play as a recreation of iconic guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Unlike any of the other musicians in the game, Hendrix was only playable on tracks that Hendrix actually performed on. It wasn't possible to have him play Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher", for instance. It's also something that was alluded to in the statement by Grohl and Novoselic.

But yet, you really still can't have any sympathy for Courtney Love. I mean, she still would've had to have given her consent and approval for Cobain being in the game, and of course, pocketed from it. It's not the first time she's done it, and I won't be surprised if she's using this as a tactic to get more money. I still don't buy this "I didn't really want him in the game" argument.

Now let's see if the estate of Johnny Cash is going to complain about the same thing...