# Marty O'Donnell ordered by court to tell fans to destroy Destiny music



## Nimrod7 (Nov 21, 2021)

That's really sad, a composer that don't have the rights to release his own music:









Former Bungie Composer Tells Fans To 'Destroy' Destiny Music He Published Against Court Orders


Marty O'Donnell released a court-ordered video asking people to stop sharing all the music he published without permission




kotaku.com


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## CT (Nov 21, 2021)

Stupid situation.


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## Xiheua (Nov 21, 2021)

100,000$ fine? That's unfair


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## darkogav (Nov 21, 2021)

It seems it was a work for hire. The other company owns it and didn't use it for whatever reason.


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## Soundbed (Nov 21, 2021)

Nimrod7 said:


> That's really sad, a composer that don't have the rights to release his own music:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Call me insensitive but I fail to see what's sad ... from what I can tell, it wasn't "his" music in the eyes of the law. Maybe you're lamenting the state of copyright law?


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## Nimrod7 (Nov 22, 2021)

Soundbed said:


> Call me insensitive but I fail to see what's sad ... from what I can tell, it wasn't "his" music in the eyes of the law.


That's true, if you parse the situation as black and white (as the law does).
You are hired for a job, you get paid, the company holds the copyright. That's it.

However, this situation was not anticipated, and I am not sure how many of us will sign the contract in the first place, if we knew that our 2 years of hard work will never see the light of day, and it will get buried by the corporate.

Usually you sign up a contact, because you want to work in that movie / game, and you put 120% of yourself into the work to shine. You expect your hard work to be out there, heard by the fans.
It's also the part that there are usually follow up independent releases (e.g. streaming services), which the composer collect extra royalties, which never happened since this music was never released.

So the question is:

Will any of us sign a contract to compose for a film, knowing from the start that it will never released, the music will never heard, and they will be no extra royalties?

The human thing, is to release the copyright to the creator but I know it's not how law and contracts work.

So from my point of view, yeah the law is the law, but what happened it's still sad.


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## Henu (Nov 22, 2021)

During my career, I've always operated with a mindset that "nothing irreplaceable was lost, I can make a thousand better ones because nobody owns my mind and creativity" which sort of protects me for getting too deeply in love with my creations when they are finished. Sure, the wasted time and effort is annoying but at least I got paid for that and usually learned a few tricks in the process. Even though I'm always 100% proud on what I provide (I have a autism-level quality control on anything that I shoot out from my brain) , I still usually never look back but always go forward into the next project.

Having been experienced quite a many cancellations and last-minute changes to plans during the years, it's always been perfectly understandable for me that if I work as an in-house composer I _don't own the rights_ to whatever I provide under the contract. Yes, it kinda sucks, but it's the price we pay for getting paid in advance despite of everything that may or may not happen.

From the company point of view, it's a risk that they take every time when paying people. They're throwing obscene amounts of money away for something they don't know if it pays off- and if it doesn't, they want to make sure that the stuff they've paid for is at least usable in the future on their own terms, because that's what they paid for.


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## youngpokie (Nov 22, 2021)

Nimrod7 said:


> Will any of us sign a contract to compose for a film, knowing from the start that it will never released


This sounds like such a strange question...

Will anyone offer you a contract to compose music that they know they will never release?


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## darkogav (Nov 22, 2021)

Nimrod7 said:


> That's true, if you parse the situation as black and white (as the law does).
> You are hired for a job, you get paid, the company holds the copyright. That's it.
> 
> However, this situation was not anticipated, and I am not sure how many of us will sign the contract in the first place, if we knew that our 2 years of hard work will never see the light of day, and it will get buried by the corporate.
> ...


It seems, from the order or events I was able to put together, he got hired to do the work, there was some corporate shuffle, and things happened to the score that no one expected to happen. It doesn't change the fact that it was a work for hire and owned by someone else and not his to share, distribute and release.


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## Brasart (Nov 22, 2021)

Marty created the mess he's in right now, his music is absolutely fantastic but his mindset and the way he burned bridges are... puzzling, to say the least


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## chocobitz825 (Nov 22, 2021)

It’s not pleasant, but isn’t this the unfortunate nature of the entire industry? Games get scrapped, movies get shelves, albums never get release dates…it’s frustrating but for some reason or another some part of the deal appeals enough to us for us to decide to gamble away our art/product. Not much sympathy here.


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## darkogav (Nov 22, 2021)

Brasart said:


> Marty created the mess he's in right now, his music is absolutely fantastic but his mindset and the way he burned bridges are... puzzling, to say the least


Things that happen within a workplace are always puzzling when you are not privy to the information of what really happened. Social media bickering does not reveal much other than just drama. (And in this case, high interest in the music and persons. I remember that game, as my kids were young and we bought it and I recall the videos and ad campaigns for it. I was supersized that someone like Paul McCartney does games. Can't blame them for going with him. It was good marketing at the time to use his name and his brand to get more exposure for the game title.)

There is nothing wrong with burning bridges to make a stand to do the right thing. From my own personal experience, corporate re-shuffling almost always results in a mass exodus of good people that were committed to the previous leadership.


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## darkogav (Nov 22, 2021)

chocobitz825 said:


> It’s not pleasant, but isn’t this the unfortunate nature of the entire industry? Games get scrapped, movies get shelves, albums never get release dates…it’s frustrating but for some reason or another some part of the deal appeals enough to us for us to decide to gamble away our art/product. Not much sympathy here.


There are tons and tons of stories about film composers that did scores for films that got scrapped and replaced at the last minute.


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## chocobitz825 (Nov 22, 2021)

3DC said:


> In Hollywood there is a whole industry in stealing intellectual property trough so called rewrites of screenplays and film scores. The amount of money they spend in this shameful practice is really unbelievable. Usually way more then the cost of original work.
> 
> And they all do it including big studios.


The first step of that process would be signing away your works to the party that pays you enough for it though….it’s pay to play, not highway robbery. It’s sleazy, but it operates because we agree to the terms until it inevitably goes south.


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## Macrawn (Nov 22, 2021)

Seems sad to me. I don't think the issue is even the ownership of the music it's that he spent a lot of time composing music for a series of games and all of it is being buried such that nobody will ever be able to hear it. It's like being hired to make a sculpture and then it's melted down before anyone sees it. He worked with these people for a long time (Bungie) and you would think he would have been treated better. Why not just release the music if it's not going to be used? They too worried it's better than the music they got?


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## Brasart (Nov 22, 2021)

darkogav said:


> Things that happen within a workplace are always puzzling when you are not privy to the information of what really happened. Social media bickering does not reveal much other than just drama. (And in this case, high interest in the music and persons. I remember that game, as my kids were young and we bought it and I recall the videos and ad campaigns for it. I was supersized that someone like Paul McCartney does games. Can't blame them for going with him. It was good marketing at the time to use his name and his brand to get more exposure for the game title.)
> 
> There is nothing wrong with burning bridges to make a stand to do the right thing. From my own personal experience, corporate re-shuffling almost always results in a mass exodus of good people that were committed to the previous leadership.


Oh but all the information there is to know about this case was made public, it's absolutely not speculation if you've been following what's been happening the past years -- he literally created the mess he's in right now, bragged about it among other weird tweets, and now it's finally coming to an end.
There's not much to say except that his music is some of the best I've heard, but his behavior is some of the worst I've seen


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## chocobitz825 (Nov 22, 2021)

Macrawn said:


> Seems sad to me. I don't think the issue is even the ownership of the music it's that he spent a lot of time composing music for a series of games and all of it is being buried such that nobody will ever be able to hear it. It's like being hired to make a sculpture and then it's melted down before anyone sees it. He worked with these people for a long time (Bungie) and you would think he would have been treated better. Why not just release the music if it's not going to be used? They too worried it's better than the music they got?


Deals with the devil. Just because you made it doesn’t mean you get a guarantee it’ll ever be used the way you intend. I get his frustration and disappointment, but it’s not like it was some kind of deceit. It was plain to see in black and white that this is the deal. They pay for it and have no obligation to use it, nor any charitable incentive to hand over his creative works funded by their money. It sucks. It’s a waste of great art, but anyway you shake it, the moment he signed on the dotted line, he acknowledged the terms and the risk.


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## KEM (Nov 22, 2021)

I hate this had to happen to Marty because the music was great and deserves to be heard and celebrated, he is the sound of Halo and Destiny and I hate that he’s being shut down like this


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## darkogav (Nov 22, 2021)

Macrawn said:


> Seems sad to me. I don't think the issue is even the ownership of the music it's that he spent a lot of time composing music for a series of games and all of it is being buried such that nobody will ever be able to hear it. It's like being hired to make a sculpture and then it's melted down before anyone sees it. He worked with these people for a long time (Bungie) and you would think he would have been treated better. Why not just release the music if it's not going to be used? They too worried it's better than the music they got?


I guess becuause it's not his music to release. My understanding is, based on the info from the site, it's owned by someone else. That other entity gets to make the call whether that music will get released or shelved.


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## d.healey (Nov 22, 2021)

youngpokie said:


> Will anyone offer you a contract to compose music that they know they will never release?


Yes. Sometimes productions are created just to keep the rights to a title without any intention to make it public. Rare but it happens.

Look up the Blazing Saddles TV series, a whole show (4 seasons) that was never intended to be released.


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## Brasart (Nov 22, 2021)

d.healey said:


> Yes. Sometimes productions are created just to keep the rights to a title without any intention to make it public. Rare but it happens.
> 
> Look up the Blazing Saddles TV series, a whole show (4 seasons) that was never intended to be released.


Happens in games too, you write music for prototypes which are only meant to be used for pitching or shown internally during early production, happened to me a few times and I'm guessing this would be the same for TV pilots


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