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Following comments made by Courtney Love on Twitter, threatening to sue Activision for the inclusion of Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5, Activision has said it was Love herself that signed the agreement to allow Cobain’s likeness to be used.
“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,” Activision told Kotaku.
Kotaku also reports on a statement released by Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, the two surviving members of Nirvana.
“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,” said the statement. “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.”
You’ll find the statement in full over on Kotaku.
