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DMCA takedown removes River City Ransom Underground from Steam

If she believes she has legal copyright if the music then she's justified in filing the DMCAs. The issue here is that it *appears* she misunderstands how copyright works in regards to work for hire on these games.

Yep.

She signed work-for-hire contracts with Imagos, so the court saw it justified to remove her ability to claim copyright on Starr Mazer.

I guess RCR just need to show a judge their contract as it sounds like it was also standard work-for-hire.
 
What's the story behind this music drama? Is this completely baseless claim or was there some legal fallout over the rights ?
 
What's the story behind this music drama? Is this completely baseless claim or was there some legal fallout over the rights ?

It's baseless. Mauer's literally mentally ill and lashing out at any/everything she's worked on in an effort to make them pay. Who's them? Who knows.
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
The more this game sells, the more likely she is to see payment.

This move is in direct conflict with her desired outcome.

As one of my favorite video game's characters eloquently stated, "Sounds simple enough, but all battles are easily won in the minds of the delusional."
 
What's the story behind this music drama? Is this completely baseless claim or was there some legal fallout over the rights ?

Alex took down 60+ youtuber's videos of Starr Mazer DSP claiming that she never was paid by the devs. Couple youtubers started covering the issue, Alex sent death threats to the youtubers and continued to issue DMCA.

Devs for Starr Mazer DSP produced the contract showing Mauer signed a standard work-for-hire contract and thus the music belongs to devs.

Now Alex is going after RCR. So, if RCR's devs show a judge the contract, and if it is the same standardized contract, she'll be unable to cause issues with RCR.

Until she goes to court for all of this (which is coming) injunctions are the best that can be done.
 
Alex took down 60+ youtuber's videos of Starr Mazer DSP claiming that she never was paid by the devs. Couple youtubers started covering the issue, Alex sent death threats to the youtubers and continued to issue DMCA.

Devs for Starr Mazer DSP produced the contract showing Mauer signed a standard work-for-hire contract and thus the music belongs to devs.

Now Alex is going after RCR. So, if RCR's devs show a judge the contract, and if it is the same standardized contract, she'll be unable to cause issues with RCR.

Until she goes to court for all of this (which is coming) injunctions are the best that can be done.

What the fuck. Why do I barely see any coverage about it?
 

Ozigizo

Member
So I guess the question is what other games did she work for? I assume those will be the next targets once River City blocks her ability to DMCA.
 
Alex took down 60+ youtuber's videos of Starr Mazer DSP claiming that she never was paid by the devs. Couple youtubers started covering the issue, Alex sent death threats to the youtubers and continued to issue DMCA.

Devs for Starr Mazer DSP produced the contract showing Mauer signed a standard work-for-hire contract and thus the music belongs to devs.

Now Alex is going after RCR. So, if RCR's devs show a judge the contract, and if it is the same standardized contract, she'll be unable to cause issues with RCR.

Until she goes to court for all of this (which is coming) injunctions are the best that can be done.

Thanks for this. Now I'm more informed.
 

Ozigizo

Member
Oh and Sidalphas video has a garbage freeze peach argument in front of it that basically says: "I'll just put my hands over my ears and let hate speech run rampant in my comments so I can sleep at night."

Fucking youtubers and their loose morals.
 
What the fuck. Why do I barely see any coverage about it?

Well, as a person that has been there since pretty much the first Starr Mazer DSP DMCA wave, there are dozens of possible reasons, but two that seem most obvious are people being afraid of becoming targets of more rogue takedowns and people thinking that coverage is exactly what Mauer craves.
 

Shpeshal Nick

aka Collingwood
I don't get it.

If she worked with them on the music, how could a situation arise where they don't have the rights o said Music?
 

BitStyle

Unconfirmed Member
Shame that copyright/takedown trolling is still this invasive, but that is the price of these automatic content protection systems. DMCA systems suck.

Hopefully this gets resolved swiftly
 
Oh and Sidalphas video has a garbage freeze peach argument in front of it that basically says: "I'll just put my hands over my ears and let hate speech run rampant in my comments so I can sleep at night."

Fucking youtubers and their loose morals.

I don't follow you. Can you elaborate?
 

MLH

Member
I don't know what she's trying to accomplish here but shes making enemies of everyone. I can't believe one person is able to take down so much content, seems like a real abuse of the DMCA, there should be repercussions if it's found that she doesn't own any of this music.

People hearing your music, even when it's out of your control, is a great way to get yourself known. This isn't, she'll never get hired/ contracted ever again (Thankfully, she sounds toxic), which is a real shame.
 

Head.spawn

Junior Member
Not as obvious as it seems. It doesn't prevent a rogue DMCA notice anyway. On the other hand, if you paid for it and didn't screw up the contract, then why the hell would you take it out?

To keep her out of their business life, if seems like it'd be worth it.

She's actively harassing their customers, reviewers, youtubers, their company, she got their game taken down....

If her music is gone, all of that goes away and they could sue her like they should be doing.

I don't get it.

If she worked with them on the music, how could a situation arise where they don't have the rights o said Music?

IIRC she worked under contract and was paid for her work, then needed time off for issues, then permanently leave. Then made claims that she wasn't paid and started DMCA'ing the hell out of everyone and anyone that has a bit of her music in it.

They have the rights to the music and claim to have paid her. Her claim is that she wasn't paid so she retains rights. (I'm not sure if I'm remembering that correctly).

edit: Actually this is a second developer she is going through all of this with again. No idea if it's the same situation.
 

Ozigizo

Member
I don't follow you. Can you elaborate?

Basically, he saw rampant hate speech and doxxing in his comments, and decided it wasn't his responsibility to deal with it.

Pretty much the equivalent of offering a safe space for that behavior.

But, this is off topic and I apologise for bringing it up.
 

Protome

Member
What a bizarre and crazy way to end your career. Hopefully this doesn't impact the RCRU devs too hard but not being able to make any money off your game from the biggest point of sale around can't be good for them.
 

Head.spawn

Junior Member
Alex took down 60+ youtuber's videos of Starr Mazer DSP claiming that she never was paid by the devs. Couple youtubers started covering the issue, Alex sent death threats to the youtubers and continued to issue DMCA.

Devs for Starr Mazer DSP produced the contract showing Mauer signed a standard work-for-hire contract and thus the music belongs to devs.

Now Alex is going after RCR. So, if RCR's devs show a judge the contract, and if it is the same standardized contract, she'll be unable to cause issues with RCR.

Until she goes to court for all of this (which is coming) injunctions are the best that can be done.

I thought Alex was the one who got death threats? Or was it both?

She definitely mentioned that she reported them to police.
 

Knurek

Member
Basically, he saw rampant hate speech and doxxing in his comments, and decided it wasn't his responsibility to deal with it.

So, what's your solution?
He can't disable comments on videos, can he?
Pretty much every video of his I saw starts with him asking commenters to stop with the kind of behavior you mention.
 

Ozigizo

Member
So, what's your solution?
He can't disable comments on videos, can he?
Pretty much every video of his I saw starts with him asking commenters to stop with the kind of behavior you mention.

Delete the comments?

Disable the comments entirely?

It's his channel, and turning the blind eye is as bad as supporting it.
 

CazTGG

Member
So, what's your solution?
He can't disable comments on videos, can he?

Yes, he can...but he doesn't because "muh 1st Amendment" (he said something along those lines during a Yooka-Laylee video as to why he rarely turns them off).
 

entremet

Member
Alex took down 60+ youtuber's videos of Starr Mazer DSP claiming that she never was paid by the devs. Couple youtubers started covering the issue, Alex sent death threats to the youtubers and continued to issue DMCA.

Devs for Starr Mazer DSP produced the contract showing Mauer signed a standard work-for-hire contract and thus the music belongs to devs.

Now Alex is going after RCR. So, if RCR's devs show a judge the contract, and if it is the same standardized contract, she'll be unable to cause issues with RCR.

Until she goes to court for all of this (which is coming) injunctions are the best that can be done.

Wow. She is killing her career.
 
If her music is gone, all of that goes away and they could sue her like they should be doing.

My understanding of the DMCA safe harbor regulations is that they basically work just like SOPA was supposed to work, except on service scale instead of DNS scale, in that the service is supposed to take down content on accusation and not proof of any illicit content within. Furthermore, I also understand that you and the service in question (Steam/YouTube) don't have personal data of accuser necessary to sue for DMCA strike interfering with your activities on the notice, as it is actually not required to contain such at first - apparently some sort of contact data in case of service deciding to act on not guilty plea by the content uploader is required, but that's not sufficient to sue. If you have data claiming otherwise, please share.

Under assumptions above, there isn't really that much of a difference between getting taken down due to content that is claimed to be someone else's but was actually made for you, and getting taken down due to the very same content that actually isn't in your game anymore, or heck, any content that wasn't in your game ever. All are wrong, and with all you can't do anything about it at first if you're using safe harbors. Situation is somewhat different if your content redistributor is not using safe harbor provisions, but that appears to imply at the very least manual screening for the most blatant offenses, something that is not an option for YouTube, for instance.

Taking the music down can also be taken publicly as an admission of guilt, which is not really something you want to do, I think.

tl;dr: I think you're wrong and it's a bad idea though I wouldn't bet my body parts on it as I'm not a lawyer.
 
IIRC she worked under contract and was paid for her work, then needed time off for issues, then permanently leave. Then made claims that she wasn't paid and started DMCA'ing the hell out of everyone and anyone that has a bit of her music in it.

They have the rights to the music and claim to have paid her. Her claim is that she wasn't paid so she retains rights.
I haven't been following this super closely, but I think this is the crux of the situation, she began working for the devs, then had to stop for personal reasons. The devs understandably stopped paying her, but used what she had produced thus far under their understanding of the contract. She thinks that paying her less than the full amount listed in the contract is a breach of that contract. The devs and their lawyer disagree.

In order to make her point, she started the takedowns. The affected creators were understandably upset and confused as were their fans. I imagine harassment of Alex began and led her to more and more inexplicable behavior.

I thought Alex was the one who got death threats? Or was it both?

She definitely mentioned that she reported them to police.
This is the internet, death threats are a virtual currency. I'm sure they went both ways.
 

Perona

Member
Apparently she took back her original DMCA takedown complaints because doing them all at once only gave youtubers one strike against their account. She then started doing them separately so that the youtubers would get 3 strikes and their channels would get shut down.
 
Wait I am lost on this one.

Is River City Ransom Underground published/created by the same guys? Like is Imagos the same company that makes RCRU? Are they related at all?

If not this is a pretty shitty move on her part which will only hurt her.
 

MUnited83

For you.
Oh and Sidalphas video has a garbage freeze peach argument in front of it that basically says: "I'll just put my hands over my ears and let hate speech run rampant in my comments so I can sleep at night."

Fucking youtubers and their loose morals.

Sidalpha is a jackass, lately he has been defending an idiot that got banned from Friday the 13th. Apparently calling girl players "whores" and little kids playing the game "faggots" shouldn't be bannable.

So, what's your solution?
He can't disable comments on videos, can he?
Pretty much every video of his I saw starts with him asking commenters to stop with the kind of behavior you mention.
Of course he can. Takes like one second, and the comment section is entirely worthless anyways.
His audience has been attacking the F13 devs as well.
 
They should replace her tracks with a techno style reading of a long statement saying that she is not allowing them to use music she wrote for the tame
 
Mauer need mental help and she needs to reverse course ASAP. She's completely destroying her career at this rate by burning too many bridges.
 
Apparently she took back her original DMCA takedown complaints because doing them all at once only gave youtubers one strike against their account. She then started doing them separately so that the youtubers would get 3 strikes and their channels would get shut down.

It's amazing how much damage a single unhinged person can do, due to how utterly broken the DMCA and youtubes copyright policy are.
 

ultracal31

You don't get to bring friends.
It's amazing how much damage a single unhinged person can do, due to how utterly broken the DMCA and youtubes copyright policy are.

What's amazing to me is how YouTube continues to do nothing and probably will keep on doing nothing until Mauer decides to stop on her own
 

AppleMIX

Member
I seriously still don't get her reasoning.

She is essentially threatening you tubers lively hood and she seriously thinks that they'll take her side?
 
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