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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Legal / Business / RIP Territorial Pissing (on Kurt's Ashes)

Posted by Eric Grandy on Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 3:18 PM

The latest words in the controversy over the use of Kurt Cobain's likeness in the most recent iteration of the Guitar Hero video game franchise:

From Activision:

Activision is responding to queries regarding the usage of Kurt Cobain's likeness in Guitar Hero 5 with the following statement "Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain's likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero® 5."

Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, the two surviving members of Nirvana, have no say whatsoever in the usage of Kurt Cobain's likeness.

From Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, who mostly just don't want Cobain's ghost lip-synching along to Bon Jovi:

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.

Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl

And as always, the ever eloquent Love herself:

# nor was going to and my quote on grphl stands, he financed his mothers home and his own with kurts etstae not his "own" money.about 1 hour ago from web

# activision know this aos very very bad press indeed wait til you see what MY lovely lawyer has cooked up, i never ever signed off on thisabout 1 hour ago from web

# all sorts of shit, and even then i had no intention of doing his btw we get NO money for this, travesty, Frances gets NO money for the rape.about 1 hour ago from web

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Comments (16) RSS

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Can't wait to beta test the Babelfish Courtney Love-to-English translator.

Posted by J. Burns on September 10, 2009 at 3:35 PM

In the meantime, you may enjoy CLtranslated. (ht: Idolator)

Posted by Eric Grandy on September 10, 2009 at 3:41 PM

I can't believe Courtney hasn't OD'd or died yet. She seems barely capable of functioning.

Posted by dan10things

on September 10, 2009 at 4:13 PM

"Shot through the (head) and you're to blame, you give Love a bad name."

Whoa, that mashup got meta.

Posted by Jeff Kirby on September 10, 2009 at 4:36 PM

#3 - it's the giant black pyramids and taxidermy turtles that are keeping her alive

Posted by Kelly O on September 10, 2009 at 5:05 PM

So, she licensed Kurt's name and likeness to one of the most lucrative game properties there is and did such a marvelous job of looking out for the estate's (i.e., Francis') interests that the estate gets nothing?!?!? No royalties? No fee? Well played. Fire your attorney. Shit, fire yourself.

Posted by California on September 10, 2009 at 6:05 PM

It's all pop music really. Are Smells Like Teen Spirit and Lithium really that far removed from Bon Jovi? Maybe Cobain would've danced more on stage if he hadn't been fucked up on heroin all the time.

Posted by T-Bone on September 10, 2009 at 9:22 PM

You know, as lame as this is, I'm pretty sure Kurt would find this absolutely hilarious.

Posted by The Baron on September 10, 2009 at 11:38 PM

If this video game contains ABBA songs, I'm *positive* Kurt would be really happy to see his avatar play them.

Posted by mackro

on September 11, 2009 at 12:30 AM

I love that there's all this hubub surrounding Kurt... but you don't hear anyone from Johnny Cash's estate complaining that his avatar can be forced to sing "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down.

Posted by MattyWorth on September 11, 2009 at 8:08 AM

The 10 year olds playing Guitar Hero don't even know who the guy in the sweater is.

Posted by Jason Josephes

on September 11, 2009 at 10:27 AM

Whenever I think of the fact that Francis Bean has just courney love as a parent I feel very sad for her.

Posted by scharrera on September 11, 2009 at 11:04 AM

Until Courtney Love can put together a proper sentence, no one is going to take her seriously...that's assuming any of us ever did.

Posted by very bad homo on September 11, 2009 at 11:50 AM

@12, Francis Bean has mostly been raised by nannies. I met one of them a few years ago, she was cool, and it sounded like Love was every bit the freak she is in private as she is in public. Anyone see her on stage in the Celebrity Roast of Pamela Anderson? Trainwreck!

Posted by dan10things

on September 11, 2009 at 2:51 PM

does daniel johnston get royalties for the use of his t-shirt? that's what i want to know.

Posted by tomo on September 12, 2009 at 9:54 AM

Holy crap, that game looks like shit. Is that the wii version with all the Miis jumping around on stage with Kurt?

Posted by Patr0ck