BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhuanet)-- Romantics, a Detroit rock band, has sued "Guitar Hero" publisher Activision, claiming that the game infringes the group's rights by featuring a sound-alike recoding of the hit "What I like About You," media reports said Friday. 

    The lawsuit against Activision seeks unspecified damages for use of the sound-alike recording. It's one of about 30 hit tunes featured on Guitar Hero Encore: "Rocks the 80s," released in July for Sony PlayStation game consoles.

    Wavegroup Sound, which records covers for the Guitar Hero games and strives for accuracy relative to the authentic studio recordings, is likely to take the suit as a compliment.

    The band's attorneys said that Activision properly secured permission to use the 1980 song, however the cover version imitates the original so well that the California-based company infringed on the group's rights to its own likeness.

    The Romantics hoped to stop the sale of Guitar Hero, in addition to receiving bag loads of money, for compensation.

    The Romantics formed in the late 1970s and enjoyed success within a few years; "What I Like About You" was a single off the band's first album, titled "The Romantics" and released in 1980. The band has remained active throughout the decades, releasing its most recent album, "61/49," in 2003.

    Guitar Hero was released in late 2005 in the United States and enjoyed great success, spawning within the next couple of years the sequels "Guitar Hero II," "Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s," and "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock."

    (Agencies)