The Beat Goes On: Gibson Sues "Rock Band" Game Creators

From the MMR E-Mail Newsletter

On Mar. 21 Gibson Guitar filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Viacom's MTV networks, Harmonix, and Electronic Arts relating to the "Rock Band" video game and Harmonix's previously developed game, "Guitar Hero."

The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Tennessee, relates to the same patent involved in another suit Gibson filed earlier against mass-merchant retailers of "Guitar Hero," including Wal-Mart and Target (MMR Update, Mar. 21.)

Gibson claims the games violate a 1999 Gibson patent for technology to simulate a musical performance.

Harmonix developed the first "Guitar Hero" game and was later bought by MTV. Electronic Arts publishes "Rock Band" and another company, Activision Inc.,{doesn't make sense} and the retailers either develop, distribute, or sell one or more of the games in the "Guitar Hero" series.

As reported in MMR Update on Mar. 14, Activision responded to Gibson's complaint by filing a preemptive suit against Gibson. Contrary to myriad online reports, however, Gibson has not filed a lawsuit against Activision on the 1999 patent claim.

The Activision lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for Central California to declare Gibson's patent invalid and to bar it from seeking damages.

Gibson has been a high-profile partner in the "Guitar Hero" games. Activision licensed the rights to model its guitar-shaped video controllers on Gibson models and to use their likenesses in the game.

Activision has said that by waiting three years to raise its claim, Gibson had granted an implied license for any technology.

Pittsburgh Pictures

I just came across this site - http://pittsburghskyline.com/

Some amazing pictures of Pittsburgh. It will make you fall in love with the skyline all over again.

Guitar Hero No More?

Gibson Files Suit Over "Guitar Hero"
Gibson has told Activision Inc that its popular "Guitar Hero" video games infringe one of Gibson's patents. Gibson said the game violates a 1999 patent for technology to simulate a musical performance. A copy of Gibson's patent included in the court filing showed a method for simulating a live performance using a musical instrument, a 3D headset with stereo speakers, and a pre-recorded concert.

"Based on our preliminary analysis, the 'Guitar Hero' software (including any expansion packs) and the guitar controller provided by Activision being used as a musical instrument (packaged with the software or sold standalone) are covered by the ... patent," Gibson's law firm said in its January 7 letter. "Gibson requests that Activision obtain a license under Gibson's ... patent or halt sales of any version of the 'Guitar Hero' game software."

On Tuesday, Activision filed a lawsuit asking the U.S. District Court for Central California to declare Gibson's patent invalid and to bar it from seeking damages.

Gibson made its claims in a letter sent to Activision in January, a copy of which was included in Activision's lawsuit. Gibson has been a high-profile partner in the "Guitar Hero" games, with Activision licensing the rights to model its controllers on Gibson guitar models and to use their likenesses in the game.

"Gibson is a good partner, and we have a great deal of respect for them. We disagree with the applicability of their patent and would like a legal determination on this," Activision general counsel George Rose said in a statement.

Activision said its games did not infringe Gibson's patent, and that by waiting three years to raise its claim, the guitar maker had granted an implied license for any technology.

(Source: Reuters)

Ticking package strikes a bad chord at Duquesne U.

Friday, March 14, 2008
By Anya Sostek, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A ticking care package shut down a Duquesne University building for several hours this morning.

A Pittsburgh Police bomb squad investigation revealed the culprit to be a metronome, which turned on as the package was transported. The package also contained food and medicine, said university spokeswoman Bridget Fare.

The building, Rockwell Hall, houses the campus mailroom along with the School of Business, various computing and technology operations and other offices.

A mailroom employee noticed the ticking sound around 7:30 a.m. and evacuated the building, said Ms. Fare. No classes were in session that early in the morning, she said.

Police gave the all-clear to re-open Rockwell Hall around 10 a.m., she said.

First published on March 14, 2008 at 10:47 am

How rockin' is your high school marching band?

I stole this from the YEA! website - wouldn’t it be great to have a Western PA band on this show?
Is your high school marching band rockin' enough for MTV?
The network's producers want to know!
MTV News & Docs is casting a new show which will chronicle the inner workings and outside lives of a high school marching band.  The chosen band will share their experiences of rehearsals, half-time performances, competitions and fundraisers all the while balancing the normal pressures of high school.  The network is looking for outgoing, interesting, diverse band members to share their lives with them… and a proud, dedicated school that’s willing to open up their doors to its producers.
Interested parties should contact Claresa Mandola, Casting Director, to discuss making a video application: (212) 654-4871 or mailto:castingspring08@mtvstaff.com. 

TV News Attitude

This is a riot - good thing TV people don’t have big egos...

And The Band Played Badly

I’m an avid New York Times reader and love the Sunday Times. The Op-Ed page this week took one small break from politics and had this article. There is this movement known as “Recreational Music Making.” So many in the school music world push for “perfection” in music. It’s great to see people who enjoy making music - just for the sake of making music. This piece is an example of that - and these folks don’t strive for perfection at all - just for fun.


OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
And the Band Played Badly

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By ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH
Published: March 9, 2008
WHY should real musicians — the ones who can actually play their instruments — have all the fun?
Some years ago, a group of frustrated people in Scotland decided that the pleasure of playing in an orchestra should not be limited to those who are good enough to do so, but should be available to the rankest of amateurs. So we founded the Really Terrible Orchestra, an inclusive orchestra for those who really want to play, but who cannot do so very well. Or cannot do so at all, in some cases.
My own playing set the standard. I play the bassoon, even if not quite the whole bassoon. I have never quite mastered C-sharp, and I am weak on the notes above the high D. In general, I leave these out if they crop up, and I find that the effect is not unpleasant. I am not entirely untutored, of course, having had a course of lessons in the instrument from a music student who looked quietly appalled while I played. Most of the players in the orchestra are rather like this; they have learned their instruments at some point in their lives, but have not learned them very well. Now such people have their second chance with the Really Terrible Orchestra.
The announcement of the orchestra’s founding led to a great wave of applications to join. Our suspicion that there were many people yearning to play in an orchestra but who were too frightened or too ashamed to do anything about it, proved correct. There was no audition, of course, although we had toyed with the idea of a negative audition in which those who were too good would be excluded. This proved to be unnecessary. Nobody like that applied to join.
Some of the members were very marginal musicians, indeed. One of the clarinet players, now retired from the orchestra for a period of re-evaluation, stopped at the middle B-flat, before the instrument’s natural break. He could go no higher, which was awkward, as that left him very few notes down below. Another, a cellist, was unfortunately very hard of hearing and was also hazy on the tuning of the strings. As an aide-mémoire, he had very sensibly written the names of the notes in pencil on the bridge. This did not appear to help.
At the outset, we employed a professional conductor, which is a must for anybody who is reading this and who is already planning to start a similar orchestra.
Find somebody who is tolerant and has a sense of humor. The conductor also has to be sufficiently confident to be associated with something called the Really Terrible Orchestra; after all, it does go on the résumé.
Our initial efforts were dire, but we were not discouraged. Once we had mastered a few pieces — if mastered is the word — we staged a public concert. We debated whether to charge for admission, but wisely decided against this. That would be going too far.
So should we go to the other extreme and pay people to come? There was some support for this, but we decided against it. Instead, we would give the audience several free glasses of wine before the concert. That, it transpired, helped a great deal.
We need not have worried. Our first concert was packed, and not just with friends and relations. People were intrigued by the sheer honesty of the orchestra’s name and came to see who we were. They were delighted. Emboldened by the rapturous applause, we held more concerts, and our loyal audience grew. Nowadays, when we give our annual concert at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the hall is full to capacity with hundreds of music-lovers. Standing ovations are two-a-penny.
“How these people presume to play in public is quite beyond me,” wrote one critic in The Scotsman newspaper. And another one simply said “dire.” Well, that may be so, but we never claimed to be anything other than what we are. And we know that we are dire; there’s no need to state the obvious. How jejune these critics can be!
Even greater heights were scaled. We made a CD and to our astonishment people bought it. An established composer was commissioned to write a piece for us. We performed this and recorded it at a world premiere, conducted by the astonished composer himself. He closed his eyes. Perhaps he heard the music in his head, as it should have been. This would have made it easier for him.
There is now no stopping us. We have become no better, but we plow on regardless. This is music as therapy, and many of us feel the better for trying. We remain really terrible, but what fun it is. It does not matter, in our view, that we sound irretrievably out of tune. It does not matter that on more than one occasion members of the orchestra have actually been discovered to be playing different pieces of music, by different composers, at the same time. I, for one, am not ashamed of those difficulties with C-sharp. We persist. After all, we are the Really Terrible Orchestra, and we shall go on and on. Amateurs arise — make a noise.
Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the forthcoming novel “The Miracle at Speedy Motors.”

MySpace

Based on some advice from a colleague who uses MySpace as an additional web presence for their store, Progressive Music now has a MySpace. You can visit it at www.myspace.com/progressive_music It's very basic and boring now - but I promise - as I begin to figure out how to use MySpace - you will see the page grow. Please add us as a MySpace friend.

Standardized Music Test in Florida

Yes, I have not blogged in a long time. I am going to attempt to start correcting that. Take a look at the article below. Once of the things that music advocates always look for are facts. There has been no national study of access and cause/effect with regard to music. While there was some sense we would see that just a few months ago when we saw Sens. Dodd and Alexander call for a national study on arts education access. The study would have helped lawmakers make crucial decision regarding No Child Left Behind. Speaking of NCLB - haven't heard much about education policy on the campaign trail have we? Let's hope the subject does come up.

Interesting article below - regular blogging to begin again soon.

First results from Florida's first standardized music test (yes, you heard that right, music test)
posted by LesliePostal on Feb 25, 2008 6:24:00 AM
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More than two years ago, the Florida Music Educators' Association devised a 30-minute standardized test for fourth graders. Last spring, association members gave it to nearly 10,000 kids. Last week, they shared the results from this first pilot session.

The major ones:

--Kids who take music class at school know more about music than kids who do not (hardly surprising, but music teachers say it shows that if you want kids to learn about music, well, you need to send them to music class).

-- students who do well on the music test also do well on FCAT

-- minority students, as a group, do not lag as far behind white classmates on the music test as they do on FCAT reading, math and writing exams.

"One subject -- music -- gives students a greater chance to succeed, regardless of ethnicity," the group said.

The Florida Music Assessment, or FMA, was given at 106 schools in 42 counties. The test has students answer questions, sometimes after listening to snippets of music. This pilot project was paid for with state money, but it is not clear yet if the state will fund more or bigger administrations, said James Perry, executive director of the music association.

That question likely will be answered in the coming session of the Florida Legislature. Meanwhile, the association is working to develop middle and high school music exams, too.

The group devised the test as a way to spur improvements in music education and to highlight its importance in public schools. It comes as some schools, feeling pressure to improve students showing in more academic fields, have cut back on music education.

In the 106 pilot schools, some students had no music classes and a few at a magnet school had daily instruction. The average was about 38 minutes a week.

Students who took music and took it more often did better on the test than those who had the class less often or not a all. So, Perry said, "it would certainly be unreasonable to start lessening the time you have in music."

Good scores on the FMA also correlated with good scores on FCAT, suggesting that improving one might improve the other, the association said.

The so-called achievement gap between minority and white students was smaller on the music test than on FCAT, confirming national studies that also show music lessons "reach across all ethnic and socio-economic boundaries" in a way some other subjects do not, Perry said.