Composer Marty O’Donnell has been found in contempt of court over his use of Destiny assets even after he left Bungie. He will now have to pay the studio tens of thousands of dollars in fees.
According to Eurogamer, O’Donnell violated the terms of a previous lawsuit. Bungie argued that his usage of the Destiny music assets was illegal.
O’Donnell was ordered to return all Destiny-related material to the studio after he was fired in 2014. However, he started to upload videos and other audio materials to Bandcamp and his YouTube channel in 2019. There also were versions of Music of the Spheres, which was composed with Paul McCartney and became the musical foundation for Destiny.
The court has now sided with Bungie and imposed a few sanctions on O’Donnell:
- His electronic devices will be examined to delete all Destiny-related assets;
- He will have to delete all illegally used material from the internet;
- O’Donnell will have to post a message on his social media, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud, saying that he wasn’t allowed to use any of those materials;
- He must pay Bungie all money he received from uploading and selling these assets. The whole sum that the studio asked for is close to $100,000.
O’Donnell’s representatives, however, argue that such fees are “unreasonable.”