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Guitar Hero World Tour Won't Allow Copyright Infringement

Posted by Soulskill on from the to-be-expected dept.

1Up did an interview with two of the developers for Guitar Hero: World Tour about the process of creating the game. One of the interesting things they mention is that they won't be putting up with people who use the song creation tools to make covers of existing songs. "We'll be actively monitoring the site. And, obviously, if the copyright holder complains, Activision will pull it down immediately. We can't condone people putting up covers of music. It's really there for original content." We discussed the creation tools themselves recently. Since then, Activision has announced that they'll be including a MIDI sequencer to assist with making your own tunes.

12 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. I wonder if... by megamerican · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder if "covers" of songs made with Mario Paint ever get DMCA take down notices.

    --
    If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
  2. Go Old-School by Jabbrwokk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Lame. Companies need to understand that fan-made content extends product life and popularity, and keeps their product selling off the shelves.

    Guess the kids are going to have to be old-school guitar heroes, playing their real guitars along to illegally downloaded MP3s of their favourite songs. Maybe they'll even develop real talents of their own, instead of making burned-out has-been rock star geezers even richer.

    1. Re:Go Old-School by westlake · · Score: 3, Funny
      Maybe they'll even develop real talents of their own
      .

      and maybe if they had talent they would be performing their own material.

      the geek's notion of creativity seems to begin and end in imitation - when he writes, it's fan fiction. when he plays music, it's a cover.

      give him a video camera and his first thought will be to recreate an episode of Star Trek: TOS.

    2. Re:Go Old-School by Khyber · · Score: 3, Funny

      Actually my first thought with a video camera was to record the girl next-door. Then to immediately record me killing a black widow with a stun gun.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  3. Woe to he who does a cover of..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Happy Birthday!

  4. Re:Does this mean no sampling too? by philspear · · Score: 4, Informative

    If memory serves me correctly, there was that song "bittersweet symphony" back in the 90s that sampled part of a rolling stones song. The guy who owned the rights to that song (not the rolling stones, I think it was a manager type who screwed the stones out of the rights to their song) sued them and eventually gained rights to that song as well. He promptly whored it out to nike or some other large corporation, against the wishes of the guys who actually made the song, in addition to keeping every last dime of profits. And you could argue also ensured the song would be overplayed, annoying, and that The Verve would be a one hit wonder everyone was sick of 3 months later.

    Certainly a strong argument against the status quo.

    Anyway, I'm assuming if given the chance, that particular asshole would try to sue activision for all they're worth if you did.

  5. Re:Does this mean no sampling too? by Cow+Jones · · Score: 5, Informative

    The song that the violin sample is from is the Andrew Oldham Orchestra's version of The Last Time. What really bugs me about the lawsuit is that the Verve actually did clear the sample! They had the right to use it in their song, but in the copyright holder's opinion (and the court's), they used too much of it. Go figure.

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Sweet_Symphony

    CJ

    --

    Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
  6. Get the PC version by rtechie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They're just MIDI guitar tracks, widely used with FretsOnFirehttp://fretsonfire.sourceforge.net/.

    There will almost certainly be a way to work around this on the PC, mainly because NOBODY is going to use the PITA creation tools on the 360 and PS3. It's almost infinitely easier to do it with a MIDI sequencer.

    Annoyingly, it looks like the MIDI songs will only be usable on the PS3, not the 360. It is probably due to their tools being MIDI-to-USB. The PS3 is pure USB so that's why it works on that platform.

    This is highly annoying for me, because I was going to get the 360 version and I wanted to import my own MIDI tracks. Looks like I'm going to HAVE to go with the PC version now. Does anybody know if the 360 instruments are the same as the PC instruments?

  7. Re:But but... by Tenek · · Score: 5, Funny

    No Stairway.

  8. Re:But but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Denied!

  9. Re:Yes but by Poltras · · Score: 3, Funny

    Guys guys. Let's not talk about Guitar Hero 5 DLC business plan right away, okay?

    --
    Of Code And Men
  10. Re:Who Cares? by skam240 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, instrumentals are obviously huge based off your long list of (mostly) fringe artists with extremely popular instrumental songs. I can't turn on the radio without hearing instrumental after instrumental.

    Wait, no. I can't remember the last time I heard an instrumental on the radio without tuning into a classical station. Now, I'm not saying a taste for instrumental rock (or any other instrumental music) is bad or anything but it is far from mainstream. Most people playing guitar hero are looking to play music with some relevancy to popular music.

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