Chapter 20 - The settlement
We did not go to trial.
Some people hated that.
They wanted a jury.
A billionaire publicly destroyed.
Copyright cases can take years.
Appeals longer.
Chloe was ten by then.
I did not want Daniel’s music spending another decade inside litigation.
The settlement had several parts.
First:
Victor acknowledged Daniel Rowan as principal original composer of The Lantern Sea.
Second:
Future releases of Ashes Above the River would carry revised credit:
Music by Victor Blackwood and Daniel Rowan, incorporating substantial themes from Daniel Rowan’s The Lantern Sea.
Was that perfect?
My experts believed Daniel deserved stronger weighting.
Victor insisted he contributed enough new material for co-composer credit on Ashes specifically.
We compromised.
Third:
The Lantern Sea itself reverted clearly to Daniel’s estate for publication and recording without Blackwood control.
Fourth:
Victor paid additional compensation to Daniel’s estate.
Not hundreds of millions.
$2.4 million including settlement of disputed royalties, legal costs, and licensing resolution.
After taxes, fees, and estate obligations, substantially less remained.
Still life-changing.
Fifth:
My old confidentiality obligations were narrowed so I could discuss factual authorship history without disclosing unrelated Blackwood household matters.
Sixth:
No admission of fraud.
Victor would not agree.
We chose credit over a word.
That decision was mine.
Not Chloe’s.
Not Twitter’s.
May you like
Mine.
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