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Activision sues No Doubt

by Sylvie Barak on 11 December 2009, 08:58

Tags: Activision (NASDAQ:ATVI)

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Activision turns activist

In other words, No Doubt, you should have complained before Activision went to the trouble of making the game in the first place. No, no, don't speak.

Activision also said the band had "agreed to provide services, including marketing services, to promote the 'Band Hero' videogame," and despite receiving full payment from Activision, "No Doubt failed and refused to perform the services."

Therefore, says the games publisher, the band had "breached its agreement with Activision, including by refusing to perform promotional services."

Furthermore, according to the complaint, No Doubt "has been unjustly enriched by its wrongful conduct against Activision, including by retaining money paid to the band for services it then refused to provide."

Activision also wrote that the contract "speaks for itself," and denied any allegations of wrong doing.

And just in case there was any doubt Activision was seriously angry, the publisher is not only seeking judgment in its favour, but also "unspecified damages and interest," as well as a return from No Doubt of all benefits and payments, an order that the band pays the "full cost of this action" and "reasonable" legal fees, along with any further awards the Court "deems just and proper."

Nothing more, nothing less. 



HEXUS Forums :: 12 Comments

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I'm a huge No Doubt fan so I'd love to be biased in their favour but as far as I can tell they've really shot themselves in the foot and gone all “Courtney Love” over it.
This very much depends on what the contract says, and also when No Doubt found out that their avatars could be used with non-No Doubt songs. If the contract doesn't stipulate that Activision have either unlimited rights to the usage of the avatars or rights to use those avatars for non-No Douibt songs, they are on legal thin ice; if it does, or it can be shown that No Doubt knew their avatars could be used with other songs prior to the completion of the game coding (or at any time significantly prior to their complaint being submitted), Activision are probably safe.

tbh, It seems unlikely that a contract drawn up in the US would risk being ambiguous about such an issue, so I suspect that this particular action won't be particularly long or drawn out…
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tbh, It seems unlikely that a contract drawn up in the US would risk being ambiguous about such an issue, so I suspect that this particular action won't be particularly long or drawn out…

And I couldn't imagine Activision agreeing to a no-non-no-doubt-songs-avatar clause, either.
The full court document is a brilliant read, full of stuff like:

Answering Paragraph 22 of the Complaint, Activision states that it is without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations whether Plaintiffs member’s are “avid fans” of the Rolling Stones
Really does sound like they shot themselves in the foot. Activision need to be careful though, start sueing the artists your games based on and there might not so many willing to contribute material next time round…