That’s some optimism, there.
Former Bungie composer Marty O’Donnell made a number of Destiny assets available against the agreement he made with the company after his (fairly acrimonious) departure years back. And now, to keep with that agreement, he wants all copies of these assets that are floating around to be “destroyed”.
He gave a prepared statement via both his Twitter and YouTube accounts.
Much of what is being referred to are early sketches of tracks from Destiny which would become Music of the Spheres. In 2019, O’Donnell began uploading videos including these pieces for the purposes of instruction. This, however, ran afoul of the agreement made when he left Bungie; he was required to turn in all material related to Music of the Spheres and Destiny when he was fired from the company in 2014. This was meant to include all variations on the music used, as well as any other versions or components. Furthermore, as part of a 2015 injunction, he was blocked from sharing or performing any of these pieces in any form.
Bungie’s motion in regards to his use of these tracks read: “Mr. O’Donnell’s very possession of such materials proves he did not comply with the order to return ‘all material’ to Bungie”.
Moreover, they took note of the fact that he was selling an album titled Sketches for MotS on Bandcamp in pretty clear violation of this agreement. They argued that all of this activity was essentially contempt of court, as it was in violation of the 2015 injunction.
O’Donnell’s lawyers did their best. Per their statement to the court, they argued that Bungie “tacitly approved” his conduct in these matters, and insisted that these materials were given to him by Bungie (more on that in the statement below), that they were publicly available, and that their usage here constituted fair use under the federal Copyright Act. Moreover, they argued that his usage was transformative, as most of these videos featured him speaking over them, as the videos were meant for instruction. They finally argued that the tracks used weren’t from Music of the Spheres, but precursors to those tracks. Their statement to the court:
As the Court can surmise, this was a bad breakup between Bungie and Mr. O’Donnell.
As in many breakups, Mr. O’Donnell gave back all the materials (CDs, mugs, etc.) he thought belonged to Bungie in full compliance with the Order. Bungie took its time, looked through the materials, and gave back the materials it did not want to keep (literally, CDs of music). Mr. O’Donnell has since moved on with his life.
To the extent he is using any materials, he is using those that predate Music of the Spheres or that he received back from Bungie or that are publicly available – to teach and educate other young composers. But Bungie simply can’t let go of the relationship. Bungie insists on dragging Mr. O’Donnell back to Court for sanctions on untenable grounds. The Court should reject Bungie’s desperate attempts to entangle Mr. O’Donnell and allow this matter to come to its natural and final end.
The court agreed with Bungie, however, and judge Regina Cahan of the Superior Court of Washington King County gave her verdict in favor of Bungie on July 12th.
The court placed a number of sanctions on O’Donnell, among which was the requirement of a third-party forensics examination of his devices intended to delete any assets or files pertaining to Destiny or Music of the Spheres. They also made a requirement of the following, from the court order:
[O’Donnell must] post a message, the wording of which the parties agree to, on his Twitter, YouTube, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud sites/channels stating that he did not have legal authority to possess or provide material related to Music of the Spheres or Destiny and asking anyone who previously downloaded any such assets to delete them and refrain from sharing and will destroy any copies of them.
Mr. O’Donnell will refrain from making any direct or indirect public comment regarding these posts, including responses to those inquiring regarding basis for such posts, and will let the message speak for itself.
He has now fulfilled that part of the order. But you probably won’t listen to him anyway, will you?
Source: Eurogamer
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