20 years after a PS2 game is released the artist who created the soundtrack discovered he’d been robbed without credit
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Hope you find resolution.
Perhaps you need to post this also in another subreddit to get better coverage about your case and legal action
Its been 20 years, the crime probably already passed its statute of limitations (hope thats the correct term)
Japan takes copyright infringement very seriously, will probably have a strong case if he takes it up over there.
What’s the artists name?
It’s gonna be an interesting ride for him knowing he basically gave every bit of personal information away in his music files. I mean, it’ll help prove it’s his but he’s gonna need all the royalties to help fight identify theft.
What was the composer’s reply? You said he was very polite but didn’t say what he said.
Was this actually a popular game?
I am a bit suprised he isnt that angry and didnt already talk with a lawyer.
You have a hell of a case there. Cash in
Does he have a case against the game devs or just the composer?
I think his name is Michael Walthius. Back in the midi file days I find one called Echoes by him that’s haunted my dreams to this day.
Interesting, if that is the case, I hope he can get this resolved.
Nathan Fielder has experience with copyright laws. I’m sure he could help.
does anyone have a link to the music so i can hear what’s been stolen
I loved this game, the music is pretty solid but getting stranded at the bottom of the ocean was the best part
Here is the youtube video that the artist mentions that pointed out there stolen or plagiarized with the tracks.
Potentiality it looks like the Japanese team might have thought these where royalty free music on the net and just used it.
There where released for non commercial use and they used them for commercial use.
Big oops and its going to cost someone.
Do your due diligence when handling any assets on the net.
I actually write music that I put private on youtube and share with friend. I don’t make any money from my music as I am doing it for fun. But I added some of my music in cheap games and mods that I made. I would be offended if someone would take credit of my music and make money from it. I totally understand the feeling and stress this guy must have.
For anyone who can’t watch the video, the PS2 game is called *Road Trip*.
He needs that attorney from Silicon Valley who makes a living out of suing people for copyright violations
The forethought to put your social security number and birthday in the files is S rank big brain move. Don’t know if it’s common practice for creators in his space, but it’s clear that this move will basically make this case a slam dunk.
Would be interesting to see if he could rip the audio off the disc. Perhaps they’re just using unaltered files in there lmao
That’s messed up bro. Hopefully, you get all that sorted out.
HOLY SHIT old memories unlockwd. Forgot all about this game. I played the shit out of it back in the day. I remember the music was so unique to me, this dude is a sick composer.
[deleted]
Lawyer up
I’m one of the people who properly licenced Michael Walthius’ music back in the 90s when we were both getting started in our careers. I’d love to reconnect with him. OP where was this originally posted?
What did he say? You asked him how did it happen? He said?
This guy reminds me of General Sam for some reason
Wow I can’t wait to see what comes from this. Thank you for your music, sorry it happened this way, I hope you get what you’re owed
Copyright issue aside, Road Trip Adventure was a fantastic, unique take on open-world rpg gameplay for it’s time
You start of as a car in a small suburban town where you race to earn money and buy parts to upgrade your car. You can choose to explore the world, visit various cities and do small tasks for the residents and play mini games to get upgrades for your car and even build up a team to participate in races and climb the ranks.
The world is fairly big and has many unique cities you can visit. There’s a Kyoto style city, a Las Vegas style city in the desert, a mountain city, a Christmas city in the snow, a Hawaiian island city…. etc.
You can watch the gameplay here:
Yeah copyright is for big companies that’ll own your ass if you have a few seconds of “their” song in the background, it’s not designed nor intended to protect individual creators. You know how I know that? What’s the point of copyright applying for decades after the creator dies? It’s so the publisher can keep making money off of it. And that, kids, is how we ended up with like 3 companies owning 95% of pop culture and little guys like this dude getting the shaft. So let’s just fix this, globally, by reducing copyright back to the 28 years it first was, *retroactively*. No more endless remakes, reboots and copyright strikes for shit that’s older than any of the audience. *That* will encourage creativity.
I would’ve let him borrow my PS2
I hope this guy is buying identity theft protection because now we know his social security number is leaked along with his birthday.
It’s pretty smart to put an ID in code but not your social – especially not telling everyone. I hope it was hashed with a salt only known to him or something.
So glad that Michael Walthius finally found out about this. I was familiar with “Echoes” from INFINITY.WAD for Doom and recognized it instantly when listening to the Choro-Q OSTs. Choro Q Wonderful also [stole](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StSA4dUh90s) a MIDI called [“Mystic Travels” by Jeff Lawson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XI2AsS8GkA). Sadly, I can’t seem to find any contact information for this artist.
I like his voice, he’d do a great TED talk I’m sure
I guess I’m misinformed but I thought copyright was only something regulated nationally? It’s why it’s not illegal to sell bootleg media and merch in other countries
There’s a lot of history of Japanese published games playing fast and loose with stolen music. Being from a different country used to afford more protection from discovery until the days of the internet.
The best known song from Parappa the Rapper is stolen. I don’t remember exactly which, but either the name of the song or the band has something to do with turtles, and I want to say they might be a Finnish or Swedish band.
The ending song of the first Gameboy Mario game was playing when I was a kid, and my mom yelled out “Oh I know that song!” and started singing the lyrics that I didn’t know existed till that moment. I know these are only like 2 examples, but I’ve constantly heard of more.
I love the bit about him hiding his social in the files.
I went to school for Graphic Arts (not working in that field) but where I went to school there’s a well known clothing store headquartered in the same city who is known to straight up steal artwork from student art shows and galleries. They rely on the fact that the students won’t have the knowledge or money to pursue them.
So I was thinking one night like oh obviously the easiest way to prove you own something is to hide your name in it. So I would do that with everything I made. It’s incredibly easy for me to do that.
I think all artists should do this. It won’t help you when someone just steals your idea and makes a half assed version of it but it certainly will for the people dumb enough to just copy your shot directly.
This stuff matters. Music is SO important in entertainment like movies and video games.
Some overworked Japanese guy, who was probably in his 14th hour working that day, got cornered to a deadline and submitted his music.
I think MGS1 also had a copyright claim and the were found early so they never included the song for a long time
Not sure I’m understanding the part about putting his social security number and birthday into the code. Sounds like a way to prove it’s his file but also sounds like an identity fraud case waiting to happen.
You know it’s good when they dedicate whole YouTube videos to songs
Listened to the OST and this man put out banger after banger. Hope he gets paid.