Whose getting Rock Band?

Whether the artists are has-beens or their career is in the toilet is irrelevant.  They made a recording that was liked by the public.  It must be good if the game developers chose to include it in their game.
 
Try to see this from the musician\'s perspective.  That song may be your primary source of income, and you are surviving on the royalties.  You may not respect that kind of living, but I\'m sure no one here would turn it down if that happened to them.
 
A corporation comes along and records a perfect duplicate of your song instead of paying you a royalty for your master recording.  This isn\'t some other artist covering your song and doing their own variation on the lyrics & melody.  This is an EXACT copy calculated to cash in on the popularity of the earlier recording YOU created.  If they wanted it to be so perfect, they could have just paid you the royalty and used your master.  Instead, they made a budget decision to go cheap and record their own copy.  
 
The letter of the law may be on one side or the other, but in spirit, the corporations just made a greedy fiscal decision to avoid the royalty payment.  You may feel the need to side with the corporation against the little guy, and that\'s fine.  I just happen to disagree.

Whether the artists are has-beens or their career is in the toilet is irrelevant.  They made a recording that was liked by the public.  It must be good if the game developers chose to include it in their game.
 
Try to see this from the musician\'s perspective.  That song may be your primary source of income, and you are surviving on the royalties.  You may not respect that kind of living, but I\'m sure no one here would turn it down if that happened to them.
 
A corporation comes along and records a perfect duplicate of your song instead of paying you a royalty for your master recording.  This isn\'t some other artist covering your song and doing their own variation on the lyrics & melody.  This is an EXACT copy calculated to cash in on the popularity of the earlier recording YOU created.  If they wanted it to be so perfect, they could have just paid you the royalty and used your master.  Instead, they made a budget decision to go cheap and record their own copy.  
 
The letter of the law may be on one side or the other, but in spirit, the corporations just made a greedy fiscal decision to avoid the royalty payment.  You may feel the need to side with the corporation against the little guy, and that\'s fine.  I just happen to disagree.

did you read the article?

"According to Detroit Free Press, Activision secured permission from the band to use a cover of “What I Like About You” for the third Guitar Hero installment."

They shouldn\'t have agreed to let them do a cover if they are going to be jackasses about it.

So lets paint the real picture of what happened.  Activision approached them and asked if they could do a cover of their song for the game, they agreed and went on their merry way.  Some months later one of their friends was like, dude, do you see how much money this game is making?  So they call up their lawyer and go, we want to sue these guys to oblivion despite the fact we ALREADY AGREED TO LET THEM DO A COVER.

Edit: and it should be noted that there are plenty of bands that lend their real tracks to these games so I get this feeling its more on the side of the record company being asses about how much money they want then activision being this money hungry monster.

^^^^

What he said.

Core, you\'d have a point in any other instance... but given that the band, the band\'s label, and everybody involved agreed to let Activision use the song, it\'s really a moot point.

Instead, they made a budget decision to go cheap and record their own copy.

Have you heard some of the vocals in Guitar Hero cover versions? For that matter, have you heard most karaoke CDs? They sound like shit, for the most part. Harmonix is doing their best...

If somebody hears the Romantics in GH and adores them, what do you think they\'re going to do? Buy a CD, maybe? And Activision doesn\'t publish their cover versions like that. You\'d have to buy a Romantics CD.

For all intents and purposes, Guitar Hero is advertising the Romantics. And the Romantics are helping make Guitar Hero better. You scratch my back, I scratch yours.

Just please, don\'t sue me because you want to be a prick.

As everyone knows, the old revenue stream of CD sales is drying up very rapidly.  Musicians are depending more and more on movies, tv, ringtones, and game licensing deals to distribute their back catalog.  I would not expect GH3 to increase sales of a 25 year old Romantics CD.  If anything, the game publisher is receiving more benefit from including the track, and they should pay fair compensation to the artists for inclusion of that content.
 
The article said "Activision secured permission from the band to use a cover of “What I Like About You” for the third Guitar Hero installment."  That is probably misleading.  What usually happens is a corporation purchases the rights to record a cover version through an intermediary like ASCAP or BMI.  It\'s possible the band didn\'t know the specifics until afterword.  The structure for that cover version compensation is probably based on the traditional use of cover recordings:  Another artist recording the song in their own style... not a vehicle for the corporate entity to evade paying a higher master recording royalty.
 
On the other hand it\'s possible the band\'s lawyer did sign the deal and knew exactly how the cover was going to be used.  In that case I would agree that the Romantics probably have no leg to stand on in this complaint.  As more and more old songs are recycled for use in commercials and televison programming, artists might have to use more caution before selling their intellectual property.

It\'s an industry-wide epidemic. The fact of the matter is, if the band has signed and authorized for their label to do with their songs what they will (which they apparently did) and the label authorized the use of the song in Guitar Hero, then it\'s moot.

So you\'re saying that a cover version has to be significantly different from the original in order to be a cover version?

I don\'t think Activision would make a whole lot of money if we were forced to play a bluegrass or reggae-inspired version of Sweet Child of Mine in Guitar Hero II. They make it as album-perfect as possible for a damned reason.

While I agree to a point, and this is a question that I don\'t think anyone here can answer, is why some songs are covered and some are not.  If you look at GH3\'s set list, 50% of their songs are not covers.  If activision was truly looking for a cheap route, don\'t you think they\'d all be covers?  To be noted, as the franchise has gotten bigger, so has the inclusion of a number of original tracks.

Also why are the Romantics the only one to sue?  Every cover sounds identical to original recording and I\'m sure they aren\'t the only band in need of money so why isn\'t everyone in the game trying to sue?  I think after three installments there are probably close to 50 bands that have been covered, yet they are the only ones making a fuss about it.  Also, the quote from the lawyers just screams, "I\'m a money hoarding bastard"

While I\'m all for bands getting their fare share of pay, I just don\'t see this as being a case of a band getting screwed.  Especially since a lot of the unknown bonus bands are probably seeing a rise in concert attendance/cd sales.  I remember seeing CD\'s on display for Shadows Fall in a borders not too long ago.  I know for a fact that wouldn\'t be there if it weren\'t for that game.  Its just really hard to see activision as the bad guys here.

Now I don\'t know when the split between harmonics and all that happened, and it may be the case that harmonics had a better relationship with the bands and that now they are out of the picture activision has become a giant asshole, if thats the case, ignore everything I said before.

God, I hate being bored at work.

FYI
 
I just spoke with one of my coworkers who is an expert on these issues.  He told me that if an artist has already released his song to the public (like the Romantics recording their song "What I Like About You") they have NO option to deny other artists the right to record a cover version of the song.  Anyone can record a cover, but they do need to pay something for that.  Compensation for the cover version goes to the publishing company and the songwriter, so other musicians who simply performed on the original recording receive nothing.  If none of the band members wrote the song, they may have all been screwed.
 
It\'s possible the Romantics didn\'t want their song in the game at all, so they refused to license the original master recording.  However, they could not prevent someone from recording a cover version.
 
BTW, if your song has never been released to the public, you can COMPLETELY control who will be the first one to record it, perform it, or release it.

We\'ve all heard the song on a million commercials.

But noooo, noooooo... The Romantics aren\'t about the money. Impossible!

It\'s possible the Romantics didn\'t want their song in the game at all, so they refused to license the original master recording.  However, they could not prevent someone from recording a cover version.

Edit: nevermind, reread what you said, ignore me.

Is there a problem with my game/system or does the GH3/GH2 controller just not work with Rock Band? Whenever I try to hook up either guitar it just shows up in the same spot as the microphone and I can\'t use it. If they don\'t work that sucks because my Rock Band guitar sucks and to strum going down you have to push the thing all the way down almost as hard as possible for it to register. I think I may just have to omit some guitars and focus on drums and vocals (best two parts anyway).

From my understanding the guitars for GH and Rock Band are interchangable, don\'t have either game myself so I can\'t confirm that though.

One set is interchangeable and the other game\'s isn\'t.  I can\'t remember which though.

"At least, at that moment. Out of the three our group owns, two guitars will no longer activate star power and one strum bar no longer strums, though I suppose it is still technically a bar. It\'s a good Goddamn thing Guitar Hero instruments work with Rock Band, and not just because compatibility is a good policy that will insure the health of the genre for every product. It\'s a good thing because without functioning controllers, it is extremely difficult to play the game.  "

From Penny-Arcade.

Rock Band guitar = works with Rock Band only.

Guitar Hero 3 guitar = doesn\'t work with Rock Band.

Guitar Hero 2 guitar = works with both Rock Band, GH2, and GH3.

Is there a problem with my game/system or does the GH3/GH2 controller just not work with Rock Band? Whenever I try to hook up either guitar it just shows up in the same spot as the microphone and I can\'t use it. If they don\'t work that sucks because my Rock Band guitar sucks and to strum going down you have to push the thing all the way down almost as hard as possible for it to register. I think I may just have to omit some guitars and focus on drums and vocals (best two parts anyway).

there have been quality issues with the guitars breaking already - it seems thats why each box had the sticker on it that said if problem with controllers contact EA. atm they are shipping people with guitar woes new ones and paying for the shipping back to them.

you should be able to google a number or website for it