No Doubt - Legal Issues

Legal Issues

On November 4, 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported that No Doubt had filed a lawsuit over its portrayal in the music video game Band Hero. The lawsuit alleged that the game had "transformed No Doubt band members into a virtual karaoke circus act", singing dozens of songs the group neither wrote, popularized nor approved for use in the game. The case was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and cited Activision, the game's distributor, as having exceeded contractual likenesses of the members of No Doubt.

On February 15, 2011, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District affirmed the trial court's denial of Activision's special motion to strike No Doubt's lawsuit as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, after an interlocutory appeal by Activision. The appellate court explained that the dispute arose from No Doubt's discovery, two weeks before Band Hero went on sale, that its band members could be manipulated in the game to perform songs they would never perform in real life. The court then explained: "The band also learned that female lead singer Gwen Stefani's avatar could be made to sing in a male voice, and the male band members' avatars could be manipulated to sing songs in female voices. The individual band member avatars could be made to perform solo, without their band members, as well as with members of other groups." The court then ruled that Activision's First Amendment defense was meritless, No Doubt had a reasonable probability of prevailing on the merits, and that No Doubt was entitled to recover costs and attorney's fees incurred in opposing Activision's appeal.