Nirvana Members Not Happy With Guitar Hero 5

Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, the surviving members of Nirvana, on Thursday issued a statement objecting to the use of the late Kurt Cobain’s likeness in the Guitar Hero 5 video game.

In the game players who unlock Cobain’s image can utilize him for any kind of song the player wants. Grohl and Novoselic have urged Activision (the maker of Guitar Hero) to ‘re-lock’ Cobain’s character to stop this usage.

Click below to read the joint statement from Novoselic and Grohl.

“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,” Novoselic and Grohl said in the statement.

The statement concludes:

“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.”

Activision has said “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.”

Courtney Love certainly doesn’t see it that way. The singer/actress/former wife of Cobain’s has been in a tizzy this week against Activision, using her Twitter page to explain, or, let’s say rant madly, about what she believes is the unauthorized use of Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5.

And yes, there was lots of cursing.

According to an AP report, Love claimed she never approved Cobain’s digital likeness, and that she thought Cobain would despise the game “let alone this avatar.”

Love is planning legal action.

It’s hard to know what Cobain would think about all this. Well, he’d probably not want his image in a video game, but Love clearly had the opportunity to avoid this ordeal with Activision, who claim they have the written agreement. And if they have a written agreement, that’s not going to help Love in court.

Entertainment attorney Mark Litvack, in an interview with cnet.com, said there might be little that Love can do to force Activision to make changes.

“It appears, she licensed her husband’s likeness and the fact that she licensed them away was her decision,” said Litvak. “I get the sense that this is a case of sellers’ remorse and as far as the law is concerned all she’s left with is her remorse.”

Well, she can also raise hell, which appears to be the strategy presently.

Do you think it’s disrespectful of Activision to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5?