The former Bungie composer now owes the studio tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Former Bungie composer Mary O'Donnell has been found in contempt of court after it was found that he was using Destiny music assets. This use of assets from Destiny broke the terms of a 2015 lawsuit between himself and Bungie. As a result of this ruling, O'Donnell now has to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to Bungie.

According to Eurogamer, O'Donnell had uploaded videos related to Destiny to his own YouTube channel and other platforms. Some of the videos uploaded were early musical versions of what eventually became Music of the Spheres, the "musical foundation for 2014's Destiny."

In 2014, O'Donnell had won a lawsuit against his former employer after he was fired. Despite winning that lawsuit, O'Donnell was still ordered to return all material related to Music of the Spheres and Destiny. He was also blocked from sharing or performing any of it as part of a 2015 injunction. "All materials" means all materials. This includes Music of the Spheres in their final state, all prior versions, all variations, and all components of the tracks.

In 2019, O'Donnell apparently thought it was a great idea to begin uploading videos and materials related to Music of the Spheres and Destiny to his YouTube channel in addition to Bandcamp. O'Donnell also posted tracks and an album titled "Sketches for MotS" to Bandcamp, where O'Donnell was accepting monetary payment from fans. Bungie says that "O'Donnell's very possession of such materials proves he did not comply with the order to return 'all material' to Bungie."

Bungie says that these actions were a contempt of court and a violation of the prior injunction. On July 12th, judge Regina Cahan of the Superior Court of Washington King County ruled in favor of Bungie.

The court is has ordered a number of sanctions against O'Donnell. In addition, a third-party forensic team must examine O'Donnell's electronic devices to delete any remaining assets related to Music of the Spheres and Destiny. He must also remove all relevant material from the Internet, which has has apparently already done. He must also write to any third-party he is aware of who posted the material and ask them to remove it.

The court has also ordered O'Donnell to "post a message, the wording of which the parties agree to, on his Twitter, YouTube, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud sites/channels stating that he did not have legal authority to possessor provide material related to Music of the Spheres or Destiny and asking anyone who previously downloaded any such assets to delete them and refrain from sharing and will destroy any copies of them."

He is also not allowed to make "any direct or indirect public comments regarding these posts." This includes making any responses to people asking about why he's making those posts. He will have to "let the message speak for itself."

The biggest part of this ruling is that O'Donnell must pay Bungie all of the money he received from the sale of the related materials. He is also ordered to pay the "reasonable costs" to Bungie associated with the entire contempt legal proceeding. This includes attorney's fees and fees associated with the third-party examination of his devices. This will come out to be tens of thousands of dollars, possibly nearing $100,000 (USD).

Currently, O'Donnell is working on the controversial Six Days in Fallujah. He seems to spend his free days on Twitter peddling right-wing propaganda and complaining that people aren't forcing gender roles on babies. He probably also has a fair bit of money saved up after he switched to Dollar Shave Club after Gillette released an advertisement in 2019 that had the audacity to condemn things like sexual harassment and toxic masculinity.