Bentley Jones Possibly Pursuing Legal Action Against Sega
Tristan Oliver | March 16, 2010
“I will not list nor promote” what’s in question
Uh oh.
Quick on the heels of another fan art slip, Sega may have another case of plagiarism on its hands, but it could have much more serious consequences this time.
Today, Bentley Jones announced on his blog that “the latest SEGA / Wave-Master releases relating to the Sonic series” contained works by him that were used and sold without his permission or consent. Bentley makes specific mention of the 2009 release of True Colors: The Best of Sonic the Hedgehog Part 2. That album contains original and remixed songs produced by him, as well as his likeness.
Jones, real name Lee Brotherton, says Sega has denied him royalties from the purchase of this specific album, and that “legal investigations” into the matter are ongoing.
“The only people who have been profiting from the exploitation of me and my music are SEGA,” he said.
Though Jones makes a broad statement implying “the latest…releases,” let’s make clear that he so far is only referring to the True Colors album. For the moment, there’s no indication that the ongoing investigation involves Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, which Jones produced an image song for, and was recently the subject of its own bout of plagiarism, though we are putting in for comment to get that clarified.
Jones’s full statement is below. Thanks to Milo the Echidna for sending this in to our News Tips system.
It disappoints me to announce that the latest SEGA / Wave-Master releases relating to the Sonic series have proceeded without my consent, approval or notification. Specifically regarding the “True Colors” album, I wish to stress that I have not paid any direct contribution to its production at any point and is therefore not an accurate representation of my work. Furthermore; the music, vocals, production, engineering and my likeness(es) that appear on these albums do so without my permission, proper crediting and, in some instances, by breaching the copyrights of my work.
The royalties that I would normally be entitled to for any music that I have written have been denied, and so the only people who have been profiting from the exploitation of me and my music are SEGA.
The delay in issuing this statement has been due to legal investigations, and because of ongoing inquiries it may not be possible to comment on this area of my work through any medium: my sincerest apologies to the fans. Under protest, I will not list nor promote these albums as I do not consider them to be official additions to my discography.
I hope that my fans will understand and sympathise with this situation and I hope it will be resolved very soon.
Filed Under Business & Industry, Gaming News, In Court, Sega
Bentley shouldn’t have done this, if it wasn’t for SEGA people would never knew him, he wouldn’t be what he is right now…
But I personally like Bentley Jones music a lot…and I hope that Sega and him do more things like that together
He made music for a game and SEGA released the game music. They can do whatever they want with their own music as far as I am concerned.
But regardless of that, Bentley Jones is an annoying queer and his music sucks. Good riddance.
Well, since Bentley worked on 1/6th of the album (3/18 songs), SEGA should give him at most, 1/6th of the profits. It’s only fair. Well, it’ll probably get resolved soon, so who knows what will happen.
Also I just noticed Tristian still thinks that stolen character art taken back by SEGA is ‘plagiarism’.
SEGA owns that character, fanart is not the property of the owner. Get over it. This will not get you ad clicks.
Great, the guy is such a rancid little twat, maybe now Sega wont work with him anymore, he can fade away into obscurity and I wont have to listen to any more of his terrible half J-pop half gay club german techno trash.
Geez, you all are a load of pricks, aren’t you?
Still, SEGA owns Lee’s (mostly awesome) music, so there’s no need for legal action.
I actually quite like Bentley Jones’ music. But regardless, I’m not so sure about this… I have mixed opinions on this whole thing.
First of all, as others have pointed out, Bentley Jones really owes his career to Sega. Sega made Remix Factory popular, and in turn Bentley Jones through his initial song, Dreams of an Absolution.
As far as I can see, Dreams of an Absolution is technically Sega’s song, even if he sung it. Regardless, Sega does usually pay artists for songs, correct? I’m not so sure about “royalties,” though… unless if Bentley Jones/Sega signed a contract saying that he would get royalties for the song…
I understand why somebody wouldn’t like his music but understand that, whether popular or not, the average musical contract would call this copyright infringement.
Heck, all this copyright infringement stuff (Starting with the SatBK artwork) might start getting SEGA in financial trouble!
As crazy as it sounds, Milo is right.
Some contracts involving intellectual property actually do have clauses that let the creator retain rights to his or her work. I know the guy who made the Coco drawing for Conan O’ Brien’s comedy tour has such a clause, and it’s very possible Lee’s contract with Sega does, too.
This prolly won’t be solved as easily as the ASR situation was, and speaking of that…
@Epicenter: There actually is some debate as to whether Sega or DiC Entertainment owns Sonia. It’s fan debate, and I don’t think Sega is dense enough to relinquish something like that, but last week the debate was loud enough that I’m considering exploring that issue in an upcoming Good Question segment. If it’s the latter, it is plagiarism, bar none.
-T
Sega should have told Lee to be fair, It Is his music.
I have nothing against Bentley Jones or SEGA. I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding. Let’s hope this gets resolved without any fireworks.
Kits’Okami: I’m sort of with you. Its not about his music being good but rather, the possessor of the music in question. I suppose if they didn’t tell him about that he could question Sega on things such as royalties.
Epicenter712 : Aren’t you being a little over analytical about all of this. One should try to get some of the facts.
Dang, that sucks. I feel for him.
Sega, you got to be careful. You been slipping up on leaks, plagiarism, etc. You lost Naoto Ōshima, Hirokazu Yasuhara, and Yuji Naka the former Sonic developers. Don’t lose Jones or else Crush 40 disbands .
More Sonic fan dramaz oh noes!
But seriously, who’s slacking off at Sega? They’re always slipping up with something.
Wow, some of you people are…really, really dumb. It’d be funny if it weren’t sad.
Sharky wrote: “Great, the guy is such a rancid little twat, maybe now Sega wont work with him anymore, he can fade away into obscurity and I wont have to listen to any more of his terrible half J-pop half gay club german techno trash.”
This man speaks nothing more than the truth. Down with Bentley!
wow. this is the first picture I’ve ever seen of him.
(EDIT – Inflammatory -T)
if this does end in him leaving sega, i say whatever – no big loss.
in fact, dreams of an absolution only sounds halfway decent in the jun senoue remix.
also, his song for Sega all stars racing was really really dumb – i mean, did it even need one? it was just a racing game.
Bentley was supposed to do music FOR SEGA, not with them. He just does not understand how this industry works.
I personally do not like him or his work at all anyways, so this is an improvement if anything.
“Great, the guy is such a rancid little twat, maybe now Sega wont work with him anymore, he can fade away into obscurity and I wont have to listen to any more of his terrible half J-pop half gay club german techno trash.”
… BRAVO!!!! *stands up and claps as fast as I can* HIS MUSIC SUCKS! Although I do like J-pop and Dreams of an absolution…
They never had this problem with Dreams Come True. Though they had different problems with Michael Jackson. Still, artists get royalties from their songs no matter where they’re played, on the radio, compilation discs, or official DJ’s.
[...] quick on the heels of a possible legal battle brewing between him and Sega, Jones–real name Lee Brotherton–has advised fans and website [...]