According to a report posted by website Daily Gaming, old-school metal band Metallica have filed a lawsuit against Activision (who recently bought Red Octane) and Harmonix for copyright infringement. The suit accuses the three gaming companies of illegally distributing copies of Metallica songs in the upcoming games Guitar Hero III and Rock Band. Lawyers characterized the games as a "licensed music to player" system, or LM2P network. The suit states that both companies planned to package and distribute Metallica music illegally through their video games. Metallica is apparently "fearful that album sales could decline" if their fans were able to simply walk into any Gamestop or Best Buy and purchase a rhythm game which contained one of their songs.

""The band learned its lesson the hard way with file sharing in the late 90s," a Metallica representative told reporters in a statement released after the filing. "This time they want to do a pre-emptive strike before the music gets out there."

Attorneys for the gaming companies named in the lawsuit seemed bemused by the situation, stating "Our company paid a licensing fee to feature the track 'One' by Metallica in Guitar Hero III," a representative for Activision/Red Octane told reporters. "We don't understand why Metallica would turn around and sue us, unless they've gone from insane completely batshit insane since 2001, but we're confident that the law and our contracts will be enough to have this thrown out."

This is pretty stupid, I think. The companies in question who stand-accused, have licensed the band's music for use in their games. So where's the problem? Has one arm of Metallica's marketing-machine out of touch with the other? Were they not aware of the song being licensed out to the games? It's a pathetic allegation, too. No-one listens to music by playing Guitar Hero. That's a fact. The song's presence on the games will have no negative bearing over album sales. Idiots.