A year after Gibson filed infringement charges against Guitar Hero maker Activision, a California court has dismissed the case saying "As a general observation, no reasonable person of ordinary skill in the relevant arts would interpret the [Gibson's] Patent as covering interactive video games".
Source: Gamasutra [ more info ]

I read this news item yesterday, whilst pressing my fingers to my mouth to stifle a "Tee Hee". Last year I commented on this law suit, deeming Gibson's suit as a blatant money grab and a petty attempt to weasel money out of Activision after finding out they were not going to renew their marketing and support agreement with the guitar maker. Now a California District Court has basically agreed with me and Gibson gets the Big Fat "L".

I'd like to think this will put to rest all the frivolous lawsuits surrounding the plastic guitar centered rythm games, but even as you read this MTV Games is wrestling with Warner Music group because Warner CEO, Edgar Bronfman Jr., feels the company is not being paid enough money for the inclusion of their songs in music-based video games. **rolls eyes violently** It's not a legal battle yet, but at some point Bronfman will probably convince investors that they've been had by the game industry and they'll come up with some lame excuse to try to sue for "damages".

Freakin big money music companies. Less greed, more realizing these games are actually helping you move your product. Ask Aerosmith what they think of Guitar Hero.

Ehm... does not MTV Games already have a license agreement that specifically details how many royalties must be paid for the licensed music? Are they trying to claim that MTV Games is going beyond what the contract specifies like the writers guild is stupidly doing with the Kindle's text-to-speech supposedly infringing into their audio-book license? (Witch btw is a hilarious story of greed of its own.)

$$$ makes the world go around.

And let's be real here, Edgar Bronfman Jr. is not fighting for the rights of the artists, he's fighting for a bigger piece of the pie for him and the Warner stockholders. He's about as hypocritical as the RIAA when they say they are protecting the rights of the "artists". It's utter BS.

I have got to say though I am glad to see EA win this. Overall I think we are going to be seeing these types of things echoing out for a while and this "Win" is going to hopefully make some grounds for future rulings in some of the other oddball cases out there.

I'm glad to see that Gibson lost the suit.

And the issue with Warner Bros.? Really? I'd love to see that go to court.

"You see, you're honor...we believe we're not being fairly compensated."

"Uhm. Is this your signature on the Licensing Contract."

"....."

This comic made me ----> ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately its the kind of thing you want to avoid going all the way to court because once the contract expires, they may decide to just pull the plug on MTV and take their business somewhere else. Off course, that is provided there is somewhere else to go, if Rockstar becomes the iTunes of this market, they will be forced to take it or take it (why the music industry hates apple: they cant bully them into giving them a bigger chunk off the pie.)

I'm also glad to see Gibson loose. one less company riding the coattails of another. WOOHOO!

As for the Warner thing.... WMG isn't trying to get more money for the current contract/licenses, they apparently want more money for a new contract with new music. MTV wanted to make a new contract licensing more songs and WMG wanted more money than they were getting before. Look like MTV isn't going to ask for more licenses for WMG songs till they work out the pricing issue.
Source: Billboard.biz [ more info ]


record labels need to realize these games help push the music. I know there's a bunch of bands I never heard of till I played Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Then I bought their albums.

I wonder how the plaintiff's opening statement will sound like in the MTV thing?

"My client feels that the defendant is not giving us enough money, we would like to sue him for a ridiculous amount until my defendant can buy a small island off the coast of Hawaii that has caught his eye recently, thank you very much, MTV is proud to provide the most mind numbing content available to us and we will continue to strive to reduce the average viewer's global concern and accepted reality"

Originally Posted by Woody:

...even as you read this MTV Games is wrestling with Warner Music group because Warner CEO, Edgar Bronfman Jr., feels the company is not being paid enough money for the inclusion of their songs in music-based video games.

The worst part about that sentence is that it shows how the rights to a song belong to the production company, not the artists who wrote and/or played it. This is why I support local bands who release EPs burned on their own comps with a recording studio in a friend's basement.

Back on point, thank god Gibson lost. The concept of patenting a "System and Method For Generating and Controlling a Simulated Musical Experience" is mind boggling. That's like saying every car in existence infringes on the first car patent because they are basically carts propelled by engines on some variety. Screw Gibson. I'm glad that my bass has an Ibanez logo.