According to a report by Bloomberg, Robert Prince has filed a lawsuit against Gearbox Software and Valve for allegedly not acquiring permission to use his music in Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour.
The lawsuit says that 16 songs were used in the orignal version of Duke Nukem 3D with permission for the developer Apogee to be used by Prince, but said company did not own the rights to the music. Saying:
“Apogee had a limited right to use Mr. Prince’s music in Duke Nukem 3D in exchange for a royalty equal to $1 per unit sold.”
Prince even has a Certificate of Registration SR221-908 to prove he owns the music.
When Gearbox Software re-released the game on Steam, they included the original tracks and did not notify Price to come to some sort of agreement regarding the music.
Prince also claimed that he personally reached to Gearbox head Randy Pitchford to ask for royalties with Pitchford telling Prince that he would be
“taken care of,” but has still never received a cent and he refused to remove the music from the game.
Valve comes into play as Prince says that he reached out to the company regarding the distribution of the game on Steam, but they have ignored the takedown notice and ignoring the DMCA.