Cobain Parody Video Yanked, Activision Shows Iota Of Decency, Sorta
Ok, maybe not decency per se, but at least the good sense to know that the Guitar Hero 5/Kurt Cobain mess doesn't need any more embarrassing footage of the beloved grunge rocker being pimped eight ways from Sunday.
A fan-created montage of in-game footage showed Cobain whoring it out as Flavor Flav and Bon Jovi (as XBLA avatars and Cobain-clones joined in the fun) has been taken down from YouTube at the request of Activision, which cited a copyright claim.
But the damage was done well before the video was removed - Guitar Hero 5 has been lambasted by fans and crazy hookers alike for making Cobain a playable character with whom the player can perform songs by other artists - something anyone even distantly aware of the dead Nirvana front man could tell you was a horrible, terrible, soul-selling idea. The kind of soul-selling idea that - probably - influenced his suicide in the first place.
The YouTube user who posted the video has been banned, but video posts from his new account name, corporalgregg3, are all of Guitar Hero competitor Rock Band. Even in triumph, Activision loses face.
Kurt Cobain Parody Vid Taken Down on Activision's Request [Kotaku]
tiny dancer
Posted to Video Games on 15 October 2009
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: activision, courtney love, guitar hero 5, kurt cobain, nirvana, rock band, youtube
I wonder, why does nobody think of the people who did'nt like Nirvana or Cobain?
Why can't we let them have the satisfaction of seeing him, as it was aptly said, whoring it out?
Because generally most people have the decency to respect the dead, even if you didn't like them.
Seriously? Get over it, people. Its not like they put him in a tutu and made him do the macarena. Its just a computer simulated likeness of the musician making music. His fans should be honored that Activision thought high enough of him to take the time and effort to recreate his likeness instead of inserting another "Stereotyped Rocker" character.
What's so holy about Cobain? Plenty of dead rock stars in the world.
Wait...aren't montages legal? Why is this copyright infringement? People make AMVs all the time on youtube which normally are left alone. And I've seen plenty of game footage and Couldn't the video be sanctioned as an Art Video?
If these fanmade art videos really can be up for copyright infringement, then I can't believe America is still stuck in such a primitive mindset.
So, it's illegal to record your walkthrough/game performance/fighting match/etc and share it on youtube? If so, that's quite a pity.
..even when a video artist is making up a story by splicing up ingame footage to create a fictional plot for the sake of comedy...the reason being 'just because I can'?
Or...is this Activision's way of saying, "no, we don't condone this, and this video expresses an opinion that can be misunderstood as coming from our company which such opinions do not belong to us."?