The policing of GHTunes has begun: Mario and Zelda-themed tracks removed from service

By Jeremy Yerby | November 9, 2008

One of the more unique features of Guitar Hero World Tour over its Rock Band second-cousin is the ability for users to create a share custom made tracks via GHTunes. Though in the end this feature did not turn out quite as rich as some of us had hoped (and who really expected it to be a replacement for premium DLC, anyway?) but some crafty users had managed to make some pretty good recreations of the music from Nintendo’s Mario and The Legend of Zelda games. However, we had been warned previously that Activision would be scouring the service for copyrighted material and would be removing these tracks when discovered, and they have lived up to their threat promise

On the one hand, I can’t get mad at or blame Activision for protecting their own asses. However, I find it highly unlikely they could be held legally liable for user-created content in the first place, but I suppose in the event they were sued it would make for a better argument if they could show that they are actively removing copyrighted material from the service. Plus I’m sure it helps their relations with the music industry. But, of course, the gamer in me wants to be able to use GHTunes to supplement the so-far slow DLC releases. I remember people making a stink that the 20 Rock Band 2 Bonus Track were from a bunch of artists nobody had heard of; and thats pretty much how I feel about GHTunes now.