Attorneys for the Grammy award winning heavy metal band Metallica filed a lawsuit yesterday against Harmonix and Activision (who recently acquired Red Octane) for copyright infringement. The suit accuses the three gaming companies of illegally distributing copies of Metallica songs in the upcoming and highly anticipated games Guitar Hero III and Rock Band, both due out in late 2007.
The suit alleges that both companies planned to package and distribute Metallica music through their video games in what lawyers characterized as a "licensed music to player" system, or LM2P network. Metallica is fearful that album sales could decline if their fans were able to simply walk into any Gamestop or Best Buy and purchase an $80 video game that contained one of their songs.
"The band learned its lesson the hard way with file sharing in the late 90s," counsel for Metallica told reporters in a statement released soon after the filing. "This time they want to do a pre-emptive strike before the music gets out there."
Metallica's attorneys neither confirmed nor denied reports that they had issued subpoenas to major video game retailers asking for lists of customers who had pre-ordered copies of Guitar Hero III and Rock Band. When asked to comment, Gamestop representatives asked reporters if they were looking forward to Halo 3 and if they would like to maybe pre-order a copy to make sure they got one at the release.
Attorneys for the gaming companies named in the lawsuit were bemused. "Our company paid a licensing fee to feature the track 'One' by Metallica in Guitar Hero III," counsel for Activision/Red Octane told reporters. "We don't understand why Metallica would turn around and sue us, unless they've gone from insane to completely batshit insane since 2001, but we're confident that the law and our contracts will be enough to have this thrown out."
ing incredibly bad was St. Anger?
