To go back to Cody's example, how would history look back on Michelangelo if ten years after painting the Sistine, he spent another ten years standing outside of it yelling that he wanted to be paid more because he had used some of his own sketches as reference for the work he was commissioned to do, and demanding that the church paint over his work so that no person could see it otherwise if they didn't pay for every person that came in and looked up.

First of all, there's virtually no chance for an injunction against the TV show. Injunctions are only issued if there isn't any other legal remedy, and if the harm in not issuing an injunction is irreparable. Neither seems plausible. If Marty and Mike are owed royalties for the music used on the show, the remedy is to pay them after the fact what they are owed plus some damages. So it will premiere as scheduled.

It has nothing to do with sketches or reference work. Licensed music was in Halo 1. Copyright for said music was transferred to MS, and in that contract were provisions for ancillary royalties. Marty and Mike were paid, but the numbers didn't add up. MS refused to show them the numbers.

It would be like if the Pope and Michelangelo agreed he'd get a dollar for every person who comes and looks at the ceiling. He gets some money, but there are way too many people visiting for the number to be accurate. He asks the Pope "Show me the numbers of how many people visit here", and the Pope going "Nah man. Just trust me."

I never said anybody should do stuff for free.

To go back to Cody's example, how would history look back on Michelangelo if ten years after painting the Sistine, he spent another ten years standing outside of it yelling that he wanted to be paid more because he had used some of his own sketches as reference for the work he was commissioned to do, and demanding that the church paint over his work so that no person could see it otherwise if they didn't pay for every person that came in and looked up.

I never said anybody should do stuff for free.

To go back to Cody's example, how would history look back on Michelangelo if ten years after painting the Sistine, he spent another ten years standing outside of it yelling that he wanted to be paid more because he had used some of his own sketches as reference for the work he was commissioned to do, and demanding that the church paint over his work so that no person could see it otherwise if they didn't pay for every person that came in and looked up.

That said, Work for hire is one of those things that can feel crummy, and I do think that in itself is what companies use to make artists feel taken advantage of, but hey. If you got your check, can you really run around crying about it? Marty's just lucky that the terms of that specific contract had some weird and unclear language, so he and Salvatori might be looking at a loophole that can get them paid, but man. I just have no respect left for the guy at all if this is all it's coming down to.

Michelangelo did his work five hundred years ago, before mass media was a thing, before photography and printing and cheap ink made images so easy to reproduce. As soon as mass media became a developed market, the methods of paying artists for their work changed.

Don't compare Marty to Michelangelo, compare him to Mick Jagger or Stephen King. They get paid royalties on the work they produce, because the publisher can print out novels and albums for decades. Mick Jagger's music can also be licensed to other companies to sell cars and toothpaste, and Mick Jagger gets royalties on that use too. That's the way that the market works. You determine how much your work is worth by how much people are willing to pay for it, and you negotiate contracts that ensure you get paid for it. Otherwise, you're just leaving money on the table, and the big corporation is going to take it.

If the publisher violates that contract, you ask for that money back, because they're stealing it from you. It's theft, the same reason why it's called wage theft when your employer fudges the number of hours you worked in order to pay you less. And if you find that the company did this to you, you lawyer up and sue them for the lost royalties. That's how it's done.

It's why Alan Dean Foster sued Disney, because Disney stopped sending him royalty checks for the Star Wars novels he wrote and they're still selling. In fact, Eric Nylund mentioned that he hasn't gotten his royalty checks, so I hope he and Marty double-teams Microsoft's legal department.

That said, Work for hire is one of those things that can feel crummy, and I do think that in itself is what companies use to make artists feel taken advantage of, but hey. If you got your check, can you really run around crying about it?

You sure as Hell can if that check isn't what Microsoft promised in the contract. Or, in this case, if the paycheck isn't promised in the contract that Microsoft assumed when it purchased ownership of Bungie.

Marty's just lucky that the terms of that specific contract had some weird and unclear language, so he and Salvatori might be looking at a loophole that can get them paid, but man. I just have no respect left for the guy at all if this is all it's coming down to.

If that language is a license deal instead of a work-for-hire arrangement, it's not 'weird and unclear language'. In the article that was linked, Marty made some pretty specific claims as to what was in the contract he signed, and Microsoft hasn't upheld its end of the bargain.