Mark Nicholas Onofrio, from Houston, Texas, filed a complaint in Los Angeles federal court claiming that Reznor used five of his songs on The Downward Spiral, and also declared that the song Burn on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack is incredibly similar to another track he had sent to Reznor.

Onofrio claims that he met Reznor in a chat room in the summer of 1993. (Haven't all chat frequenters met Golda Meir, Weiland or Reznor in some remote part of the Web at three in the morning?) Onofrio claims he asked Reznor if he would listen to some of his work. Reznor gave a positive reply via e-mail and supplied his address. Onofrio claims he then Fed Ex'd a demo to Reznor's house.

When The Downward Spiral was released back in '94, Onofrio noticed that five tracks on the album were based on four songs from his self-produced Elephant Man collection that he allegedly sent to Reznor. The lawsuit claims that the NIN songs "Closer" and "Mr. Self Destruct" are strikingly similar to the Onofrio-penned "Voice," "March of the Pigs" is allegedly ripped off from Onofrio's "Nothing." "Hurt" is supposed to be derived from Onofrio's "Real", "The Downward Spiral" is hypothetically taken from the tune "Dinner With Jeff." Onofrio also claims that one of Reznor's contributions to the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, "Burn" is strikingly similar to his tune titled "This Hell."

Onofrio's lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for copyright infringement, and seeks injunctions against the further distribution of The Downward Spiral and Natural Born Killers- both the movie and the soundtrack. The complaint names Reznor, NIN, Interscope Records (Reznor's record label), Warner Bros. (the movie studio behind Natural Born Killers) and others. Onofrio is indeed taking on the system. But the system has yet to react. As of the press time, no hearings have been scheduled.