Who owns the Faulconer productions music?

[cRookie_Monster]

Earlier I posted some links on a court battle between Faulconer Productions and Funimation...but the results were simply that they settled out of court and Faulconer got paid like 600k$. Now I've found some juicier details:

http://www.legalmetric.com/cases/copyri ... .html#s146

The interesting part is near the bottom:

02-09-2006 165 AGREED FINAL JUDGMENT orders as follows: All claims of all Parties are dismissed with prejudice; Faulconer Productions and/or Bruce Faulconer shall continue to be entitled to receive the composer's share of any performance royalties administered by Broadcast Music Inc for the music that FRMC and/or Bruce Faulconer composed and delivered to Funimation Productions LTd and/or Funimation Production Inc including specifically, but without limitation, all music which is subject to the Litigation (the Music). Funimation and Funimation Productions shall not be obligated to pay any royalties for any use of the Music in any media, except the composer's share of any television performance royalties for which Funimation or Funimation Productions Inc becomes obligated to pay to BMI for broadcast by Funimation or Funimation Production Inc of the Music on a Funimation or Funimation Productions Inc-owned and/or operated television braodcast network and Funimation and/or Funimation Productions Inc agree to secure a license with BMI for administration of such performance royalties, or pay to FRMC or Bruce Faulconer directly the amount which would otherwise be payable to BMI; FRMC and Bruce Faulconer have acknowledged, agreed, and affirmed that Funimation is the sole owner of any and all copyrights, rights, title, and interest in and to the Music, notwithstanding FRMC's and/or Bruce Faulconer's aforementioned composer's share of the performance royalties; FRMC and Bruce Faulconer have assigned any interest they may have in any copyrights in the Music to Funimation, notwithstanding FPMC's and/or Bruce Faulconer's aforementioned composer's share of the performance royalties; Funimation is the sole and exclusive owneer of all right, title, and interest, including all copyright interests, in the Music, notwithstanding FPMC's and/or Bruce Faulconer's aforementioned composer's share of the performance royalties; To the extent that wording of this judgment concerning the Parties' agreement conflicts with the wording of the Compromise Settlement Agreement entered by the Parties, the Compromise Settlement Agreement will control. Signed by Judge Richard A. Schell on 2/9/06. (ttm, ) (Entered: 02/10/2006)

So in the end, Funimation still owns the copyright...explaining why Faulconer can't release anymore CDs, but Funimation has to pay Faulconer royalties in some weird case which I honestly couldn't completely parse. I could see why they are not interested in even using the Faulconer Productions music anymore. God what a mess Bruce got himself into. 3 years of court battle cause he threw a fit over not getting GT. That's what I think happened.


[edit]
Was just reviewing this stuff....I don't know why it didn't make sense to me back then. Bruce still gets BMI royalties off of *any* usage of the music, Funimation usage included, which is probably why they don't bother. Buuut, the rights still go to Funimation like I stated above.

[Fionordequester]

...Does this mean our chances of ever having the rest of Faulconer's music released have pretty gone down the drain?

And honestly, I don't see him not getting GT as too much of a loss. That wasn't a very good show anyways.

[xzero]

So in the end, Funimation still owns the copyright...explaining why Faulconer can't release anymore CDs, but Funimation has to pay Faulconer royalties in some weird case which I honestly couldn't completely parse. I could see why they are not interested in even using the Faulconer Productions music anymore. God what a mess Bruce got himself into. 3 years of court battle cause he threw a fit over not getting GT. That's what I think happened.

Faulconer gets royalties for any time the original DBZ episodes are "broadcast by Funimation ... and/or [on television]." Thus, if the original DBZ episodes ever make a return to TV, Faulconer gets paid royalties for them. It's unclear from this quote whether this includes any online streaming services through Funimation, though I would assume it does if "streaming" constitutes a "broadcast."

Funimation can continue to use Faulconer music on DVDs, Blu Ray, etc. for the foreseeable future without paying any royalties.

That's the gist of what it says.

[cRookie_Monster]

The thing that struck me as really odd was:

Funimation or Funimation Productions Inc-owned and/or operated television braodcast network

Sounding like the clause only activated if it was Funimations' own channel airing the show.

I guess I can buy that now that I think about it. Maybe CN or Nick airing it was already out of Funimations' hands or something like that. Given the "screw it, just leave everything as it is and lock everything else down" resolution...they decided to not penalize Funimation for the existing relationship(s).

[xzero]

Was it even on CN in 2006 with Faulconer's music? I thought at that point, the only thing that might still be airing would be the ultimate uncut episodes of seasons 1 and 2. Also, I would assume if Funi bought out some time (e.g., buying a 2 hour timeslot on CN every week or daily to air Funi shows), that would be covered under the purview of this agreement depending on how "operated" was defined. Otherwise, using its normal definition, it would pretty much have to be the Funimation Channel.

I remember the thing that began this whole problem way back in 2002 or 2003. It was around the time that I got an email from Faulconer (as did anyone who ever contacted him to request music on CDs or give praise or criticism) asking me to send an email to the personal Funi email addresses of several of the executives requesting that he be given the GT contract. I was in late high school at the time, so this was way before going to law school, but as I'm reading this, I'm thinking, "Wow. I don't think he's supposed to be giving that information out. All he's going to do is piss off the Funi execs when their inboxes get flooded; he's never going to get GT this way."

[Fionordequester]

Wow, really? Jeez, talk about shooting yourself in the foot. I mean, the guy not only had a pedigree of who knows how many years of musical training (according to his interview), and he's been working on every single Episode of this show from Season 3 onwards. Had he just been a big man about the whole thing, I like to think that he probably would've gotten GT, if not at first, then probably as soon as Mark Menza's music started proving how lacking it was, or at least he probably would've been more active in composing music for Dragon Ball Z related things. You know you've done something wrong when the Executives pick Mark Menza over you.

[Coycoy88]

Lol, how things stand now, I'm guessing that the only way We'd get any of the unreleased tracks now is if someone at Funi who had access to the episode BGM's, risked losing their job and "leaked" the music onto the internet. If something like that happened, drama of epic proportions would ensue, aha. I guess we'll just have to make do with our fan rips. Better than nothing I suppose.

[Fionordequester]

Speaking of fan rips, did you get that new computer yet? There's some tracks I'd really like, both for pleasure, and for the sake of the "Dragon Ball Z - FUNI and Japanese Episode Comparisons and Opinions" thread I made on the General Franchise section of this forum. Care to check it out? I've done two Episodes so far.

[cRookie_Monster]

Wow, really? Jeez, talk about shooting yourself in the foot. I mean, the guy not only had a pedigree of who knows how many years of musical training (according to his interview), and he's been working on every single Episode of this show from Season 3 onwards. Had he just been a big man about the whole thing, I like to think that he probably would've gotten GT, if not at first, then probably as soon as Mark Menza's music started proving how lacking it was, or at least he probably would've been more active in composing music for Dragon Ball Z related things. You know you've done something wrong when the Executives pick Mark Menza over you.

I don't think he would have gotten GT either way.

http://www.animecauldron.com/dbzuncenso ... racts.html

Person 2: I mean you should hear the VA's talk shit about him. Its funny

I've hung around Sabat, Schemmel, Evan Jones(mixing guy), and others a couple times. Even with the associations I had, I was able to tell they weren't big fans of Bruce.

Check this video out as well (Sabat and Schemmel discussing music)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf6qeO-Wd2c

[Fionordequester]

I've hung around Sabat, Schemmel, Evan Jones(mixing guy), and others a couple times. Even with the associations I had, I was able to tell they weren't big fans of Bruce.

What about the other musicians? Like you, Bud Guin, Mike Smith, and whoever else helped out Bruce?

By the way, Bruce Faulconer composed music for Lord Slug and Cooler's Revenge, right? Those were the 4th and 5th DBZ movies. If he did, did he recieve any help from Mike Smith and all those other guys the way he did for the Dragon Ball Z series?

[cRookie_Monster]

I've hung around Sabat, Schemmel, Evan Jones(mixing guy), and others a couple times. Even with the associations I had, I was able to tell they weren't big fans of Bruce.

What about the other musicians? Like you, Bud Guin, Mike Smith, and whoever else helped out Bruce?

By the way, Bruce Faulconer composed music for Lord Slug and Cooler's Revenge, right? Those were the 4th and 5th DBZ movies. If he did, did he recieve any help from Mike Smith and all those other guys the way he did for the Dragon Ball Z series?

Since we worked for Faulconer we couldn't compete with him in the same area so soon after leaving his studio...yeah when you're a broke kid trying to start a new job\career you don't want to risk lawsuits from a $#% like Bruce. Did you read he almost sued John Allen? He's already tried to sue me because of my more recent activity (never took it to court)

Now-a-days it's open season...but I'm pretty settled in at Microsoft now. Might be ok for Julius or Mike but I don't know if they'd feel comfortable...and even so, Funimation has changed. They aren't even considering changing the score anymore, why would they? That costs money, and the Kai score has been updated.

I believe Julius Dobos was there helping with the movies. There were really four main guys on the Faulconer music crew, Mike, Bruce, myself, and Julius. (5 if you count Ben, the music editor) I didn't overlap much with Julius so I wasn't quite sure of his level of involvement, but now I'm pretty darn sure he was heavily involved with all of the Buu music. So yeah, Julius was as much (if not more) of a contributor as myself and possibly Mike.

Budd was a freelance studio musician who came in for a couple days to record the opening theme's guitar leads.(I was still a really new employee who had yet to prove myself) I'm not sure Budd is into doing arrangements and stuff, though being a pro player he probably could.

[Fionordequester]

Since we worked for Faulconer we couldn't compete with him in the same area so soon after leaving his studio...yeah when you're a broke kid trying to start a new job\career you don't want to risk lawsuits from a $#% like Bruce. Did you read he almost sued John Allen? He's already tried to sue me because of my more recent activity (never took it to court)

Now-a-days it's open season...but I'm pretty settled in at Microsoft now. Might be ok for Julius or Mike but I don't know if they'd feel comfortable...and even so, Funimation has changed. They aren't even considering changing the score anymore, why would they? That costs money, and the Kai score has been updated.

Um, I think you misunderstood what I was asking. What I meant was, did Sean and Chris have the same low opinion of the music you, Mike, and Julius made that they did of Faulconer? Did they actually make a distinction between the music that you three guys did and the music Bruce did, or did they just lump it all in the same category, like most people do?

Honestly, I'm not sure I'd want to listen to another dub soundtrack for Dragon Ball Z unless all of you guys (besides Bruce, if he doesn't straighten his act out) came back to do it, because otherwise, if it was just say, you, I wouldn't feel like I'd be getting the full package, the full experience. It'd be like Stratovarius losing one of their most valuable members, do you know what I mean? I mean, you guys all composed great stuff, so it'd kind of feel like a loss to lose any bit of that.

I believe Julius Dobos was there helping with the movies. There were really four main guys on the Faulconer music crew, Mike, Bruce, myself, and Julius. (5 if you count Ben, the music editor) I didn't overlap much with Julius so I wasn't quite sure of his level of involvement, but now I'm pretty darn sure he was heavily involved with all of the Buu music. So yeah, Julius was as much (if not more) of a contributor as myself and possibly Mike.

I see. Darn, I was hoping to find some project where Bruce was more or less by himself, so I could see just how good he really was on his own. Maybe I could check out "Lady Death" sometime, or that one sitcom he did (can't think of the name).

Budd was a freelance studio musician who came in for a couple days to record the opening theme's guitar leads.(I was still a really new employee who had yet to prove myself) I'm not sure Budd is into doing arrangements and stuff, though being a pro player he probably could.

Oh really? Huh.

[cRookie_Monster]

What I meant was, did Sean and Chris have the same low opinion of the music you, Mike, and Julius made that they did of Faulconer? Did they actually make a distinction between the music that you three guys did and the music Bruce did, or did they just lump it all in the same category, like most people do?

Ah that's hard to say. They didn't really have visibility into who did what given their only source of info was mostly through Barry, who only talked to Bruce. They learned some from me, Evan Jones who I connected with more closely seemed to be into the stuff I worked on...but that's him talking directly to me...so maybe he was just being nice, I don't know.

Ah trying to get an idea of Bruce's music by himself...I would just point to specific tracks:
Ginyu Transformation
Cell Jrs
DBZ opening theme/Goku's theme
Scenes from Last week
Outro music
Guru's theme (the big choral one)
Goku dies (the trumpet dirge)
Some of the frog music (Ginyu) was Bruce, he was real proud of how he quoted the opera Tristan and Isolde as a clever joke.

lol, Turtle's birthday music was a tune he sang to me in the hallway...err I arranged that so nevermind...

[jjgp1112]

To answer a question asked earlier in this thread, Z aired on CN with the dub music in 2006 on weeknights and then around 2007 moved to Friday nights and eventually to Toonami and stayed on there until Toonami was canned.

[Lord Exor]

It dismays me to no end how individuals deride the dub merely because of the sample quality--which isn't even all that poor.

[xzero]

It dismays me to no end how individuals deride the dub merely because of the sample quality--which isn't even all that poor.

As I recall, a lot of those critics couched their argument in terms of "It's not orchestrated or live, ergo it's low quality."

Granted, some of the old guitar samples weren't the best, but I always personally enjoyed it. There's just something about the synths in the dub that get to me whenever I listen to the soundtracks. I really, genuinely like them.

I also found it really funny that some of the same people who criticized the dub's samples often point to Battle Points Unlimited as one of their favorite tracks in the original series, and it's the closest thing to the Faulconer score that the entire original score ever had to offer.

[Lord Exor]

I concur. The synth goes a long way in granting the score a unique character. I also don't mean to offend anyone here, but I find it rather droll that so many individuals--such as Sean Schemmel--praised the Kai soundtrack, yet 80-90% of it was plagiarized.

[Castor Troy]

Since we worked for Faulconer we couldn't compete with him in the same area so soon after leaving his studio...yeah when you're a broke kid trying to start a new job\career you don't want to risk lawsuits from a $#% like Bruce. Did you read he almost sued John Allen? He's already tried to sue me because of my more recent activity (never took it to court)

Why did he want to sue Jon Allen?

Jon did make fun of him at my house in 2003...

[cRookie_Monster]

Why did he want to sue Jon Allen?

Jon did make fun of him at my house in 2003...

According to the article:

But yet, despite all this, Bruce Faulconer got so angry that he almost sued Jon Allen (the guy who interviewed him a while back ago) over it! Why? Because Jon hadn't told Bruce that he wasn't getting the job for DBZ movie 6, and remaining loyal to those at Funimation who had given him that information and didn't want Faulconer to know just yet. That much hatred... to threaten to sue someone to have them locked away in a "don't drop the soap" prison or take a lot of their money away JUST for that?

http://www.animecauldron.com/dbzuncenso ... racts.html

[Castor Troy]

Sounds like he was Bruce "Raging Blast" Faulconer.

Maaaaybe I should take that movie down....