royalties | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Mon, 14 Feb 2022 09:17:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png royalties | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Original Halo composers could block TV series release as Microsoft faces lawsuit https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/original-halo-composers-could-block-tv-series-release-as-microsoft-faces-lawsuit/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/original-halo-composers-could-block-tv-series-release-as-microsoft-faces-lawsuit/#respond Fri, 11 Feb 2022 13:50:43 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=550071 Marty O'Donnell, best known for his work as a composer at Bungie in the days of Halo, and eventually, the early days of Destiny, has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft. O'Donnell and fellow composer, Mike Salvatori, claim that Microsoft owes the pair royalties dating back 20 years.  As reported by Eurogamer, the lawsuit was filed …

The post Original Halo composers could block TV series release as Microsoft faces lawsuit first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Marty O'Donnell, best known for his work as a composer at Bungie in the days of Halo, and eventually, the early days of Destiny, has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft. O'Donnell and fellow composer, Mike Salvatori, claim that Microsoft owes the pair royalties dating back 20 years. 

As reported by Eurogamer, the lawsuit was filed at a Washington state court in June 2020, but has been kept behind closed doors for the most part as legal teams from both sides conduct depositions and collect evidence. Next week, the case will go to mediation, but if no agreement can be reached, the lawsuit will be handled in court.

Due to the on-going lawsuit, O'Donnell and Salvatori may even move to block the release of Microsoft and Showtime's upcoming Halo TV series, which is set to debut on Paramount+ in March.

According to O'Donnell, he has been trying to get clear answers for questions over the lack of royalties from Microsoft for many years but to no avail. While Microsoft claims the Halo music was created under a work-for-hire contract, O'Donnell and Salvatori maintain that it was supposed to be a licensing deal.

Assuming the case is not settled beforehand, there will be a pretrial conference in May, after which, a trial date will be set.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: O'Donnell also previously sued Bungie over his work composing music for Destiny and won, so Microsoft could be heading towards a situation where it needs to pay out for Halo as well. 

The post Original Halo composers could block TV series release as Microsoft faces lawsuit first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/original-halo-composers-could-block-tv-series-release-as-microsoft-faces-lawsuit/feed/ 0
CD Projekt Red stands its ground as The Witcher author demands additional royalties https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/damien-cox/cd-projekt-red-stands-its-ground-as-the-witcher-author-demands-additional-royalties/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/damien-cox/cd-projekt-red-stands-its-ground-as-the-witcher-author-demands-additional-royalties/#respond Tue, 02 Oct 2018 10:30:10 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=389193 Back in the early 2000s, CD Projekt Red managed to obtain the videogame rights to Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy series, The Witcher. At the time, Sapkowski had the option of obtaining a percentage of the profits as part of the agreement. However, the author declined this in favour of a larger upfront sum, as he thought …

The post CD Projekt Red stands its ground as The Witcher author demands additional royalties first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Back in the early 2000s, CD Projekt Red managed to obtain the videogame rights to Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy series, The Witcher. At the time, Sapkowski had the option of obtaining a percentage of the profits as part of the agreement. However, the author declined this in favour of a larger upfront sum, as he thought that there would be no future profits in games. We all know how that turned out, with The Witcher games going on to be critically acclaimed successes. Now, Sapkowski is hoping to recover from his loss, demanding that CD Projekt Red pay up.

Last year, former head of CD Projekt Red Sebastian Zieliński revealed that the studio managed to acquire exclusive video game rights to The Witcher for just 35,000 Polish złoty, which translates to roughly £7,250 nowadays, but would differ greatly a decade ago. Sapkowski went on to admit his mistake, stating that he was offered a “percentage of the profits” but declined on the basis that there “will be no profit at all.” An action he later called “stupid” in an interview with Eurogamer.

Now, as Gwent spin-off Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales gears up for release later this month, Sapkowski is clamouring for a piece of that profit by demanding a further 60m Polish złoty from CD Projekt Red, equating to £12.4m / $16.1m / €14m. CD Projekt Red promptly declined the demand, seemingly due to the size of the payout.

The-Witcher-3-Money-Bag-555x250.jpg

“The Management Board of CD Projekt … hereby announces that on 1 October 2018 the Company received an official demand for payment filed by plenipotentiaries of Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski. The notice indicates that Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski expects payment of additional royalties beyond what had been contractually agreed upon between himself and the Company,” explains the notice.

In the eyes of Sapkowski, the original contract “concerned only the first in a series of games,” making the sequels and download content allegedly “unlawful.” CD Projekt Red disagrees, calling the demands “groundless with regard to their merit,” assuring that it “had legitimately and legally acquired copyright to Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski's work.”

The developer wishes to “maintain good relations with authors of works which have inspired CD Projekt Red's own creations,” stating that the board is prepared to “go to great lengths to ensure amicable resolution of this dispute.” This suggests that there is an undisclosed offer is on the table, but one that “must be respectful of previously expressed intents of both parties, as well as existing contracts.”

It’s difficult to know whether or not Sapkowski has a case on his hands without seeing the original agreement. It seems that CD Projeky isn’t afraid of the legal action, however, posting the letter in its entirety. Only time will tell which way the winds blow.

KitGuru Says: Sapkowski already has his hands full with Netflix’s The Witcher television series, making it questionable whether he is truly in this for the money. The long time it’s taken to put in a claim for profits could potentially stem from the imminent release of Thronebreaker, but that remains speculation at this time. What do you think of Sapkowski’s claims?

The post CD Projekt Red stands its ground as The Witcher author demands additional royalties first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/damien-cox/cd-projekt-red-stands-its-ground-as-the-witcher-author-demands-additional-royalties/feed/ 0
Spotify pays out $500m in royalties – sounds sweet https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/harrison/spotify-pays-out-500m-in-royalties-sounds-sweet/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/harrison/spotify-pays-out-500m-in-royalties-sounds-sweet/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2012 07:44:56 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=118037 Should artists be paid for their work? If so, how much? Should it be, at any stage, OK for people with little/no money to enjoy the artist's work without paying? Should IP be policed harder or is sharing the fault of middle-man companies that want to charge too much. These questions have been key to …

The post Spotify pays out $500m in royalties – sounds sweet first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
Should artists be paid for their work? If so, how much? Should it be, at any stage, OK for people with little/no money to enjoy the artist's work without paying? Should IP be policed harder or is sharing the fault of middle-man companies that want to charge too much. These questions have been key to the music rights battles that have raged, globally, for a number of years. But detent is being reached in many quarters. KitGuru stops downloading long enough to report.

Metallica's war with Napster is probably more famous then 90% of the band's actual recordings. While many artists sat back and encouraged the music sharing revolution founded by Sean Parker called Napster, Metallica had the distinct sense that it was being ripped off – and fought tooth and nail to protect its rights. Parker's latest incarnation is as a board member of Spotify – the ‘make your own radio station on the fly' music service. Yesterday, Parker and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich shared the stage for Spotify's rather interesting announcement on royalties.

Spotify founder and CEO, Daniel Ek, stood on stage and announced that not only has his company now paid $500M in royalties to recording artists, it is also seeing a phenomenal increase in popularity – which means that next year's announcement will be even healthier for the music business that once so hated sharing and sharers.

To show how much the past has been buried, Ulrich and Parker engaged in a minute long kiss on stage. Er. Hold on. No. That's not right. Ah, OK, we have it. Sorry. They actually agreed to bury the hatchet, agreed that they'd both acted inappropriately in the past and that – as a show of good faith – Metallica would now load its entire back catalogue (trailing back almost 30 years) onto Spotify.

That kind of endorsement will almost certainly encourage other bands/labels to follow suit.

Lars gives his sweaty kit a good licking while the gorgeous Sean Parker looks on

KitGuru says: The key figure here is that Spotify managed to add 1 million paying subscribers in the USA in just 1 year. Consumers, as a whole, don't want to engage in criminal activity – they're just looking for a deal that makes sense. Spotify is providing that. What impact will this have on Amazon/iTunes ?

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

The post Spotify pays out $500m in royalties – sounds sweet first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/harrison/spotify-pays-out-500m-in-royalties-sounds-sweet/feed/ 1
YouTube loses landmark case in Germany https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jules/youtube-loses-landmark-case-in-germany/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jules/youtube-loses-landmark-case-in-germany/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:21:28 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=88685 It does not take a genius to know that if you mule drugs within your body and get caught, then you can expect a stiff prison sentence. So far, most of the data carriers around the world have managed to avoid being done by authorities – even when they are clearly ‘muling' the product. KitGuru …

The post YouTube loses landmark case in Germany first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
It does not take a genius to know that if you mule drugs within your body and get caught, then you can expect a stiff prison sentence. So far, most of the data carriers around the world have managed to avoid being done by authorities – even when they are clearly ‘muling' the product. KitGuru snaps on a pair of rubber gloves and prepares to inspect YouTube a little closer.

In Germany, around 60,000 music artists and associates etc, are part of an organisation called Gema.

Gema is responsible for collecting royalties and making sure that every stinking rich artist gets as much money as they can eat. It also makes sure that any budding artist, who wants to get their work out, is also putting their hand out every time someone wants to listen.

The row between Gema and Google-owned YouTube started around the end of 2009 and a court in Hamburg has now ruled that YouTube IS responsible for making royalty payments when music that is covered by Gema is played. Shocking stuff. Almost on a par with ‘Man asked to pay for Big Mac meal in McDonalds' and ‘Woman forced to pay for petrol at the pump'.

Opinions on this kind of suit vary within KitGuru's global offices, but there is one underlying consensus, and that's “We shouldn't have to buy the same thing twice”.

The various creative industries can all club together and send mothers to prison and bankrupt ISPs etc, but the bottom line is that paying a monthly subscription for a TV service and a second subscription for a music service ‘should be enough'. Organisations who want to charge you to listen to a track when you are ‘out and about' using whatever service is available, which you have already bought at home, are skating on thin ice.

Similarly, shouldn't you be allowed to listen to music that you have legitimately purchased on disks/tapes/records – but where the original physical material has developed a fault?

The media owners POURED content across the airwaves for decades without wondering if they were setting up a precedent that consumers would expect ‘free content' in the future. Companies like Sony made billions selling radio/cassette systems with the ability to record radio – then made billions more selling tapes for the recording to happen… yet now put their hands up in shock and surprise when sharing happens that does not involve Sony tapes or recording devices.

If the music and film industries carry these suits to their logical conclusion, then we will never have 4G/5G mobile networks or gigabit internet to the home. You install phat pipes to carry phat content. If users have ALREADY paid for phat content, then it's completely unreasonable to ask them to pay twice or three times or more.

Come on chaps, sort it out.

We all know about Zardon's Endless Love for Shania, but should 85,986 voyeurs have been allowed to see her express the way she feels about him? Also, who should have paid for all this love making?

KitGuru says: It makes no sense to attack the carriers/search engines/providers. It makes much more sense for the music/film industries to accept that people only want to buy media once – at a sensible price – and that they are willing to pay for that to happen. The pricing eco-system for media needs to change and everyone needs to stop making lawyers rich with stupid law suits.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

The post YouTube loses landmark case in Germany first appeared on KitGuru.]]>
https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jules/youtube-loses-landmark-case-in-germany/feed/ 1