The author of the notorious Sonic Adventure 2 track “Live and Learn” is suing Sega, claiming he owns the rights to the track partly, and alleging the corporate has been utilizing the track with out his permission and earning money off it during the last 20 years.
In a lawsuit first spotted by Polygon and in addition considered by IGN, John Gioeli, the author and performer for Live and Learn, asserts that he has maintained his songwriting registration for the track for over 20 years since he first wrote and recorded it for Sonic Adventure 2. However, he says Sega has been improperly claiming it’s the precise proprietor of the track and behaving as such, together with licensing the track to “no less than 25 video video games, tv reveals, dwell performances/occasions, and movies.”
Specifically, Gioeli’s swimsuit claims that Sega is basing its possession of Live and Learn off “a 2001 lyric settlement the place Gioeli was paid $3000 to put in writing lyrics for a as-yet-untitled track that may be included in Sonic Adventure 2.” He did so at his dwelling studio, utilizing his personal gear and personal vocals, allegedly with out Sega’s direct involvement. He did work with Sega composer Jun Senoue over the cellphone, with Senoue initially sending him a music demo that Gioeli was supposed to put in writing lyrics for. But the swimsuit claims that the scope of Gioeli’s work expanded over the course of his work on Live and Learn with out modification to the preliminary settlement, which was just for the lyrics. Allegedly, Gioeli revised the track considerably, speaking adjustments over the cellphone to Senoue.
As a end result, Gioeli says Sega claims it owns each the recording and musical composition, however argues this isn’t really the case and that there isn’t a settlement stating such. And Gioeli additionally claims that Sega has acknowledged up to now that the composition is “probably collectively owned”, with one Sega lawyer allegedly telling Gioeli at one level that he’s entitled to 50% of income from its use.
Gioeli allegedly was by some means unaware that Sega has been utilizing Live and Learn with regularity in various different codecs during the last 20 years. This is regardless of Gioeli working carefully with the corporate on various songs all through this time, all of which had much more particular agreements signed about who owned what. Per the swimsuit, he solely discovered about its myriad makes use of by way of a fan telling him, and has since recognized 25 video video games it exists in. These embody a number of Yakuza and Sonic video games, Super Smash Bros, Phantasy Star Online, the maimai sequence, and Monster Hunter Rise). Notably, Gioeli was concerned within the track’s inclusion within the latest film Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (which we have simply reviewed), and even signed the take care of Paramount for track placement.
Gioeli is in search of a courtroom determination as to the possession of Live and Learn, in addition to a restitution for any cash he’s owed and damages for breach of the 2001 Lyric Agreement.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can discover her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a narrative tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
