Charlie Daniels, the writer and musician responsible for 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia,' has hit out against Guitar Hero 3 for perverting the meaning of his music. "[The song] is supposed to be a lighthearted novelty about a fiddling contest between a country boy and the devil and the devil always loses," Daniels posted on his personal website. ... » Read More

VG247: Activision's offering you the chance to get into the next edition of Guitar Hero.

How do you do it? It's very simple: make a video recording of yourself imbuing anything from a guitar to a Guitar Hero controller to a tennis racket with the mystical power of rock; shred to the best of your ability to your favourite rock song and administer lordship over the universe through whatever axe you choose to wield. Then register on www.releaseyourrockstar.com and upload your video.

The movie that gets the most views...
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VG247: Actress Jodie Foster is a terrible musician but is good enough at Guitar Hero to beat her six and nine year-old children.

"I have no musical ability," she said. "I tried in my life. I tried to learn the trumpet, that wasn't so good. The good thing about Guitar Hero is you can just go 'blue, green, green, green, blue, green, green.'"

Not much more to add to that, is there?
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Calling all Guitar Hero III players!

Think you have what it takes to become a rock legend? Sign up now to compete in our Guitar Hero III Rock-tacular, and show off your most amazing licks and riffs. We'll be flying four finalists out to our studio in San Francisco to compete for $1000 in prizes!
Registration for GameSpot's Guitar Hero III Rock-tacular begins March 24, 2008.
To register, click here to go over to guitarhero.com. You will need to create a profile and link it to your Xbox 360, Wii, or PS3 game.

As always, we'll broadcast the finals live on GameSpot Tournament TV. You'll get to see your favorite GameSpot editors provide analysis and commentary on the competition, as well as interviews with some of the top players. Be sure to tune in!
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Gibson Guitar are suing both Wal-Mart and other major consumer retailers in relation to them selling Activision's Guitar Hero series of games. It should getting very interesting, but in the meantime the parties have each issued press releases.
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Wal-Mart is one of five big-box retailers being sued for selling Guitar Hero 3, and in fact the entire Guitar Hero franchise.
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Activision has released a statement in response to Gibson Guitar's claims that the publisher's popular Guitar Hero series of games infringe upon one of its patents.

Activision said in a statement released on Thursday, "Gibson's lawsuit is a transparent end run around an impartial court that Activision asked on March 11 to rule on patent assertions that Gibson knows have no merit."

"Our Guitar Hero retailing partners have done nothing wrong. We will confront this and any other efforts by Gibson to wrongfully interfere with Activision's relationship with its customers and its consumers."
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Martin Bandier, a top executive at the music publishing company that owns the Lennon-McCartney song writing copyrights, has said he'd be interested in a dedicated edition of Guitar Hero for the Beatles."It's something we have talked about and something I'd like to pursue," said Bandier to the Los Angeles Times.Traditionally, the rights to cover Beatles tracks have been notoriously hard to obtain, but copyright owner Sony/ATV Music ... » Read More

The L.A. Times reports:

"The latest sign of a video-game "Revolution"? You may soon be able to plug in and play guitar in "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Martin N. "Marty" Bandier, the top executive at the music publishing company that owns the John Lennon- Paul McCartney copyrights, said he liked the idea of a dedicated Beatles edition of Guitar Hero, Activision Inc.'s hugely popular video-game franchise.

Activision announced last month that Aerosmith would be the first act with a dedicated version of Guitar Hero.

"It's something we have talked about and something I'd like to pursue," said Bandier, who last year took over as chairman and chief executive at Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

The company has loosened its approach to the Beatles' music. Producers of " American Idol," for instance, had for years sought permission for contestants to perform Beatles hits on the show but were turned down again and again.

That's changed: Tonight's episode is the second week of an "all-Beatles" format for the show, which Bandier calls "a wonderful way to get this legendary music in front of an audience of 30 million people in an exciting way."
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On Thursday, March 20th, the Dallas Mavericks will launch the Guitar Hero Challenge where aficionados will have the chance to show off their skills on the AT&T Plaza outside the South Entrance of American Airlines Center. The grand prize, the chance to play Guitar Hero during a quarter break at a First Round Playoff game, two-tickets to the game, an autographed Mavs Authentic jersey.
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Here is a brief but rather interesting XBOX Live Marketplace update for Thursday 13th March 2008:

Name: Guitar Hero III: Dropkick Murphy's Track Pack
Price: Free
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
Description: [ESRB: T (Teen) MILD LYRICS,MILD SUGGESTIVE THEMES] "Famous for Nothing", "Flannigan's Ball", " Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya" as performed by Drop Kick Murphy's. For all song credits please visit www.redoctane.com

Continued at the source.
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Reuters reports:
Guitar manufacturer Gibson says Activision property violates copyright over music simulation software

Just hours after it transpired that developer Harmonix had filed and then withdrawn a lawsuit against Activision over alleged unpaid royalties, Reuters reports that guitar firm Gibson has made a move to sue the Guitar Hero publsher for patent enfringement.

The manufacturer said that Guitar Hero, which was published by Red Octane and developed by Harmonix until Activision acquired the former in 2006, violated a patent over 'technology for simulating a musical performance'.

Gibson made the complaint in a letter sent to the publisher in January - Activision has already fired back, said Reuters, asking the U.S. District Court for Central California to declare Gibson's patent invalid and bar it from seeking any damages.

However, Gibson and Activision have worked together before, with officially licenced Guitar Hero controllers modelled on the guitar firm's products.
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Red Octane and a few other sponsors are holding a Guitar Hero III tournament, the proceeds of which will all go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
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Kotaku writes: Activision will be kicking off the St. Patrick's Day celebrations with a special free track pack from the popular Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys that will be available mid March. Straight from the band's sixth album, The Meanest of Times, the Dropkick Murphys pack will include master recordings of "Famous for Nothing," "(F)lannigan's Ball" and "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya." The track pack will be available for free to download on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PLAYSTATION®Store.
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These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade, full versions purchased this week. Here are the top 3 for each charts, see the source for the complete top 10 list.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles
1. Call of Duty 4
2. Halo 3
3. Guitar Hero III

Top Arcade Titles
1. N+
2. Rocketmen: Axis of Evil
3. Triggerheart Exelica

Original Xbox Top Live Titles
1. Halo 2
2. Star Wars: Battlefront 2
3. Counter-Strike
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New downloadable songs for Activision Inc.'s Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock are set to storm living rooms across the globe with the release of two new track packs.

Available today is the Modern Metal pack which let's players jam to master recordings of Deftones' "Hole in the Earth," Avenged Sevenfold's "Almost Easy" and Thrice's "The Arsonist."
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With the massive Activision Blizzard merger looming, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick held court today at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in Dana Point, California. And while many presentations by executives to analysts prove snooze-inducing, Kotick brought up several subjects which perked up the ears of the game industry.
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These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade, full versions purchased this week. Here are the top 3 for each charts, see the source for the complete top 10 list.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles:
1. Call of Duty 4
2. Halo 3
3. Guitar Hero III

Top Arcade Titles:
1. N+
2. Triggerheart Exelica
3. Worms

Original Xbox Top Live Titles:
1. Halo 2
2. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
3. Counter-Strike
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Check out the gobs of stuff added today to the Xbox Live Marketplace. In addition to the abundance of Spiderwick Chronicles videos, there are also some free History Channel customizations, a very interesting Alone in the Dark Video, and a bunch more stuff. Full details following the breakage.
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Torrence Davis of The Bitbag writes, "And the hits just keep coming! The amount of downloadable content that is available for GHIII is overwhelming at this point. Pretty soon you won't need another version of the game, just more music. "
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