Appetite for Litigation

Video games have put Axl Rose in an unusually chippy mood. Dave investigates

I was distressed to learn this week that hard-up musician Axl Rose has been forced into taking legal action against games developer Activision.

Renowned in the volatile world of hard rock as an unusually reasonable and even-keeled sort of a chap, the Guns N' Roses singer (whose name is a clever anagram of So, Relax) is suing the Guitar Hero maker for $20m. Several years ago altruistic Rose kindly licensed the song Welcome to the Jungle for use in the Guitar Hero III game.

But Activision dealt the fun-size frontman a pixellated slap in the face when the song was accompanied by a video game rendering of former GnR guitarist Slash (pictured). Having previously stated that the estranged bandmates would die before reuniting, Rose was far from happy to be confronted by the hat-wearing axe god. Even as an animation.

In the lawsuit filing the singer's legal counsel, Mr Brownstone, accuses Activision of "spinning a web of lies and deception to conceal its true intentions" and "reinforcing an association between Slash and Guns N' Roses and the band's song Welcome to the Jungle".

Good point. Until the idea was so carelessly reinforced, I certainly wasn't in the habit of forming associations between songs and the people who wrote and performed them. Now I don't know what to think...