It's being reported by Eurogamer today that the original composers on Halo are suing Microsoft over 20 years' worth of unpaid royalties, and it could even potentially have an effect on the release of the upcoming Halo TV show.
Marty O'Donnell and Mike Salvatori filed a suit against Microsoft back in 2020, and a date for mediation takes place next week, with the potential to go to court if an agreement can't be reached. In addition, the pair are reportedly trying to "explore the possibility of blocking the release of the upcoming TV show with a preliminary injunction."
O'Donnell and Salvatori say they "created and licensed the Halo music to Bungie", whereas Microsoft says it was "work-for-hire" and therefore the company qualifies as the author of it, which is where the dispute about royalties stems from.
Here's just a sample of what O'Donnell had to say about the situation:
"It was never work-for-hire. It was always a licence deal. So that's what we did with Halo. With the first Halo music ever, that was written and recorded in 1999 for the first time. It was licensed to Bungie. Bungie didn't get bought by Microsoft for over a year."
"At the time, the Halo music, for this very nascent beginning thing called Halo, was still owned by O'Donnell Salvatori and licensed to Bungie."
Despite what this might suggest, O'Donnell says that the dispute isn't about a claim of ownership over the Halo music, but rather a case of trying to figure out how much money is owed to the pair, and settling on an amount for damages.
In regards to the Halo TV show, he says he "felt disrespected" when he saw the trailers for it, saying "[they're] using our monk chant (calling it the theme to Halo) to also advertise and solicit subscriptions for Paramount+."
Part of the disgruntlement also relates to the release of Halo Infinite last year:
"I haven't seen Mike's name or my name on any of the [Halo Infinite] pieces. Most people know, well, this is Marty and Mike's music, right? I mean, people who care about it or paid attention, they go, 'Hey, this is great. We're hearing Marty and Mike's music again.' But they're not crediting us or giving us 20 percent or accounting for it or anything. So part of the lawsuit is to discover what the damages should be."
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 26
Wonder if this is no different to the licence deals for music on GTA (as an example). They aren't allowed to use certain soundtracks because the licence ran out? Wonder if the licence only was for the first specific Halo or for all Halo games and now it is being used for non game related entertainment?
Who knows - and imagine no one outside of the court case will actually know but will give their opinion anyway.
I say give them a lifetime GP subscription and let it be!
Edit: Ooh I have a conspiracy theory. Sony planned to buy Bungie on 2020 and realised Bungie own the licence so want to use it in their next exclusive! 😂
I hope they don't delay the TV show because of this. Don't punish the people that worked on the show that had nothing to do with this whole situation.
Tbh, I'm rooting for the Halo composers.
@IronMan30 I'm rooting for microsoft on this one, shouldn't take 20 years to realise
Marty does seems to get in a lot of legal strife.
Lets not forget that he was found in contempt of court and made to pay for publishing music owned by Bungie for free on his YouTube channel and performing it live for profit. Yes he had composed the pieces but had given up rights as part of his contract. i.e. he was paid to give them up, his choice, can't have you're cake and eat it too.
While he makes this sound open/shut here we'd need to hear the other side's position before forming an opinion.
@Xiovanni TV show is dropping is a great opportunity to force a quick settlement on a case you may not otherwise win on. Paramount and all involved may not want to miss the opportunity and money associated with the TV launch and they may want to make the problem go away quickly.
Dirty but smart. Or not their strategy and I'm reading into it.
@Vepra Marty's argument is that he's been beating this drum for 20 years, so who knows...
""On day one of signing my employee contract, I wrote this addendum at the back where you're supposed to, and I said, by the way, the Halo music up to now is licensed, it's owned by O'Donnell Salvatore, Inc., and I'm an ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) composer. And that's the way it needs to be going forward.
"And immediately, I was segregated out from all the other people and I was shunted into a little room with Microsoft biz guys and attorneys or who knows what? And they wanted me to explain what I was talking about."
@IronMan30 Same TBH. Marty and Mike have been getting the short for a long while now. As a creator myself, I couldn't imagine how much hell it would be to have your work used over and over with no credit.
And I'm. Willing to bet that this would have never happened if Microsoft had brought them back for Halo instead of hiring everyone under the sun to emulate their work.
Don't get me wrong 4, 5, and Infinite have had good work put into the sound tracks. But at the end of the day, even though there's a banger or two, there's never Ben the consistency you had from a classic Halo soundtrack where you'd listen to pretty much everything.
@Xiovanni There argument had some high notes that really struck a chord with me.
@Vepra That's a weird defense. If they are owed the money, they should get their money.
Marty has already been through the ringer with Bungie, and is having just a really bad time because if it, it would be nice if MS just does the right thing by him.
(and that would also re-enforce my feeling that Bungie is now scum and MS has massively improved compared to their roles back in 2000-2010)
@Richnj Wasnt it the case of him playing live and releasing music on youtube that was owned by bungie? They essentialy did to him what he is doing now, or am I wrong? Not too familiar with him and his lawsuits so a genuine question
@Vepra That was their latest spat, and yeah, from what I understand he shouldn't have been playing that music, and should have known that.
But before that there was a whole deal with Bungie forcing him out before the first Destiny released and tried to not pay him shares and royalities. And I think the aformentioned music playing may have been in some way linked to all the drama since they did that to him.
I had worried that this lawsuit on MS was to help him deal with hiis troubles with Bungie, but Mike still works for Bungie and did the music for Destiny 1 and 2, so it makes me feel like there's some weight to their claim.
Recall reading or listening to some documentary on this a while back, and supposedly this music was produced for free for that Apple conference Halo reveal like, a few days before the show? And since Bungie didnt have the budget to pay for the guys services, the condition was they would retain ownership of the music and it would be licensed on royalties.
I figured all this time MS would had simply bought those rights from the guy, but guess I was wrong. Still shocked it took 20 years, music royalty cases tend to be ridiculously common, and with enough documentation, its very common for the music owner to win the cases. Why wait 20 years???
Marvel (want say pre-disney) used same strategy to try and extort others artistic efforts for their financial gain with the, "work for hire" route.
Microsoft will throw them a billion dollars and call it a day 😂
I adore Marty and Mike's music in Halo. It's what makes Halo sound like Halo. And I think we can be sure that no matter what happens from this Halo won't have their themes anymore, and won't sound like Halo, and it may end up even getting retconned and patched out of Infinite.
OTOH, I do get the impression Bungie in particular has been ultra sleazy from the start regarding Marty. OTOH, Marty's been kind of a sleezeball himself and I've lost a ton of respect for him over the years despite adoring his earlier music.
I'm not sure I care who wins at this point, they're all kinda jerks. But I'm going to miss the music in the future if that's lost in the fallout to all this.
@NEStalgia On one end we know how corporations can be scummy and abusive. But on the other hand, I keep wondering how this guy keeps bouncing from one legal trifle to the next. After so many years as a composer, you would assume he knows his way around things but he continues to act like he was clueless about something back then and got robbed.
@BrilliantBill Yeah. I suppose there's an argument to be made that he was ripped off from Halo 20 years ago and has been in all the other legal trouble as he acts out, disgruntled from the early wrongdoing. But it also stands out that he didn't actually file a lawsuit until around the time he was finally shut down on his unauthorized distribution of music Bungie definitely owns and owed tens of thousands in legal bills.
It sounds from his own description like it's a solid argument, but then there's the question of why they would have hired the guy to work in-house as an independent external composer with contract terms that state he's just an independent external contractor they license that happens to be salary? And why he'd sit on that situation for 20 years, seemingly happy with the situation until he wasn't, while they, from the beginning apparently never treated him as an outside contractor?
Yet he also says that they do send royalty checks, so it must be agreed to some point. But he's suing because they don't provide numbers for where the amount comes from and it seems too low to him. It's all so sketchy.
The one thing he's probably right on though is not crediting him in Infinite. I did look for and notice the lack of credit, and was surprised by that. And Paramount using it for their products now. OTOH I can't imagine MS actually signed off on the full-time composer they hired for a decade saying that they don't own the content he produced during that time, which includes these themes. He may have a claim on Halo 1 recordings, but I can't imagine the legal terms say he has claim to any Halo after that.
Go home Marty, you're drunk.
Yeah it all seems a bit of a coincidence. Xbox are on a roll and spending and after more then Twenty years they decide to confront Microsoft.. Proabaly thinks its a good time to get some dosh.. Microsoft will pay up rather then risk delay to the TV show. And it will be like pennies to them and their be in good stead.
Yes you do hear often how corperations basically steal music via dubious ways and the original composers get shafted. But Twenty years just seems so long to get things moving.
Back in 1999 Halo would have been Dreamcast bound from what I have read. It was moved to Xbox after Sega's withdrawal from the Hardwear market in 2001... Wonder who the original Publishers would have been back then, if it was Sega, Sega would have gone , Yeah we got no money , go swivel.
I honestly can't tell if Marty is a big victim or if he just likes going to court. He's either suing someone, being sued by them, violating legal agreements or suing for violation. Did he never have an attorney till now and just played Law n Order by himself all this time?
If they were paid for their work they should expect nothing in the way of further compensation unless they had it drafted out in a contract when they first signed up for it.
@StonyKL Licensed music and hired composers are a completely different situation. If you could relate this to any GTA game it would only be GTA3 as that had original music created just for the game.
If the suit was filed in 2020 I can't see it being a litigious move based on the tv series coming out.
I don’t think this guy knows how to read a contract with how many legal issues he has. If he’s owed money, I hope he gets it. If he’s gold digging, I hope he doesn’t.
gold digger, why not right away?
Tap here to load 26 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...