Music of the Spheres is one of the most outstanding composition made for the video game world. The studio/corporation/publishers owns this Mona Lisa. Imagine releasing posters made with a xerox machine and with some missing parts. See visual explanation pic above. As an artist and art lover, I find it just odd. I have tried not get too involved with the details of this story as it depresses me to no end but unfortunately read most of the judgement. The composer has no rights to his composition/collaboration: Music of the Spheres. Although preposterous, that was the judgement following U.S. laws. Had the composer not being contracted as work for hire*, or in Australia, the U.K. or other European countries, things may have turned out differently. The master, copies and other related audio files (and coffee mugs...) were returned to Bungie/Publishers. Bungie/Publishers have the right to this symphonic and choral suite in eight movements. I'm asking for a release of the complete suite to the public. You know, publish it, so we can legally buy it instead of looking for it all over the internet and try pasting it together. Judging from YT views, I'm not the only one who enjoys the composition. If you have an answer to this question, please don't send me back to reading court documents, but instead, enlighten me. Thanks in advance. * [i]According to copyright law in the United States and certain other copyright jurisdictions, if a work is "made for hire", the employer—not the employee—is considered the legal author. In some countries, this is known as corporate authorship. The entity serving as an employer may be a corporation or other legal entity, an organization, or an individual.[/i] TL;DR Question is why publish an incomplete version of a work of art? If you know the answer, let me know.

Short Version The work was created whilst the composer was employed. Under US property rights law, the works is the property of the employer if created whilst under their employ (one axiom of capitalism). Therefore it's up to Bungie to determine whether or not the works ever sees the light of day. The composer was required to surrender any copies of the works to the employer as part of the settlement. The Composer complied. EDIT : Close reading of the judgement and associated commentary and reports and Bungie-Activision Contract suggests that the decision to publish or not is strongly influenced by Activision CEO Bungie and Bungie ownership group. What they will ultimately decide is influenced by maximising returns, contractual obligation and emotion. How this will land is too hard to guess.

Thank you. That is exactly what I understood from the judgement, hence my original question, why not publish it? Digital publishing has lowered the cost of selling music and other forms of entertainment, taking away major expenses and risk/cost of manufacturing hard copies. Destiny 1 OST which includes MotS excerpts, has been successfully received by the media (see partial list of awards above) and the public. As a fan and a music lover, it pains me to see this masterpiece locked away because it hinges on an emotional response from top execs. From an outsider's perspective, it certainly looks more like a vendetta than a business decision. The only problem is, the audience/fans are the ones losing the most in this battle of wills. [spoiler]As an artist, and originally not from the U.S., it was a painful discovery to find out art can be taken from its creator, including any rights to it. The artist can even be completely omitted from any credits in a final release. It doesn't seem right to me but again, I am looking at this from the artist's perspective. [/spoiler] Edit: Terrible grammar :(

In the US, when you work for a company nothing you create is yours. You sign an employment contract with them that forces you to give up any publishing rights to anything you make while working for them. If bungie were to release the soundtrack then they would have to pay marty fees and other monies. Since they own the publishing rights, this is how they have in effect "won" the lawsuit. Marty can't profit from his work, and Bungievision can afford to not profit from it either.

Are you sure they would have to pay anything? MotS is part of the Destiny soundtrack which they are still using. Even TTK and beyond have O'Donnell written all over it. I know if you are "work for hire" contract, you can forget having any rights or attribution to your work if the corporation decides to completely take you out of the equation. At least, that is what I understood after reading the U.S. law. To me it sounds more like an emotional response to put it politely. [spoiler]Emotional response>Giant FU[/spoiler]

If they released it, then Marty would be able to sue them again for royalty rights, thus costing bungievision money(not that they can't afford it...). Not saying that he would win, but them not releasing it IS a giant -blam!- you to Marty. I think that the music already in the game was covered in the original lawsuit and allowed to stay. I'm not a lawyer, but I do have friends who work in the music industry(I live an hour from Nashville, TN so there are lots of them! (: ) and it's always been a tricky matter.

Mmmm... not sure Marty ever sued them for royalties. Thought it hinged on vacation pay and other things I can't quite remember, but more importantly stocks in the corporation.

That's just it. If they released the entire soundtrack, he COULD sue them for royalties. That's the big -blam!- you from Bungie.

*noises of my head bumping the keyboard and loud screams echoe in quiet neighborhood*

Lol!