Former Bungie star songwriter Martin O'Donnell (Marty for short) has been found in contempt of court for commercially using his work on the music of Destiny, when he was not allowed to.
The result of such disobedience: thousands of dollars to be paid to Bungie and the removal of all content relating to his work on the Destiny soundtrack.
Read also:Activision and Bungie separate, the latter retains the Destiny license
Six years later, the same refrain
Surely you remember the case that shook Bungie fans at the time. In 2014, Marty O'Donnell, cult composer of video game music for the American developer – at the origin of the soundtrack for the Halo series in particular – was fired from the company, according to him without reason. After a lawsuit won by the person concerned in 2015, it was thought that the story would end there. Nay!
Beginning in 2019, O'Donnell began posting tracks, demos, and rehearsals from the Destiny soundtrack, Music of the Spheres, to his YouTube channel and Soundcloud. The problem ? Although he won his case against Bungie for his dismissal, the composer was banned by the Court of Justice from using these materials. He was even supposed to return all of his productions to his old company. Of course, making money by overriding a court order doesn't sit well with Bungie. The firm then filed a complaint for contempt of court last April.
The judgment was delivered by Washington King County Superior Court Judge Regina Cahan. Our colleagues from Eurogamer were able to follow the whole affair as well as the verdict: Marty O'Donnell is found guilty of having disobeyed a court order and is given a very severe sentence, equivalent according to Bungie to the damage suffered.
Read also:
PlayStation Japon recruited Kiichiro Urata, former PDG of Capcom USA et Europe
pay and apologize
O'Donnell will therefore have to reimburse Bungie for all the money he may have earned by selling his tracks from the Destiny soundtrack here and there. The company estimates the sum to be reimbursed at $100, but O'Donnell's lawyers are said to be negotiating for it to be reduced. And that's not all.
Because the composer was required to return all of his resources related to Destiny's music following his lawsuit and he failed to do so, the Court ordered a panel of third-party experts to examine his electronic devices to make sure everything is destroyed. O'Donnell should also write to any person or company it knows of in possession of these materials to tell them to remove them. He must also, of course, remove all traces of these works on the internet, whether on his YouTube page or his Soundcloud for example.
The Court finally ordered him to post a message, validated upstream, on all his networks. He must thus explain that he had no right to own or distribute musical material related to the album Music of the Spheres and enjoin his fans to remove the productions that they could have downloaded. He is prohibited from making any comments in public on these posts. At the time these lines are written, the contents have been deleted but no message has yet been published from him.
