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DMCA takedown removes River City Ransom Underground from Steam

S

Samaritan

Member
The only thing more frustrating than Mauer's flagrant and ongoing abuse of the DMCA is the way the games media is reporting on this story. Destructoid's article was beyond embarrassing and only served to empower and embolden Alex.
 
M

Meffer

Member
Samaritan said:
The only thing more frustrating than Mauer's flagrant and ongoing abuse of the DMCA is the way the games media is reporting on this story. Destructoid's article was beyond embarrassing and only served to empower and embolden Alex.
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It's like they didn't do their job.
 
L

Linkstrikesback

Member
Googled her name to catch up on the story and uh... Ended up on a Twitter account with her name that appears to be a woman holding a knife to their own throat. I don't know if it's really her account or someone being an absolute asshole, but... It seems like she needs help.
 
D

doctorcdcs

Member
If i were to buy the GoG version of RCR, it'll still have the original soundtrack, won't it?

edit: nevermind, i caved and bought a copy from GoG
 
R

RetroGameAudio

Neo Member
I hope there's a chance they'll rehire Dino and Rich to do the revamped soundtrack. They make great music and I'd rather they not get shafted in the process.
 
H

Head.spawn

Junior Member
Jobbs said:
Alex was subcontracted by their lead composer, from what I understand, and my guess is that maybe things are just too messy due to the possibly collaborative nature of music and it's easiest to just make a clean break.
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It's a shame it had to come to this, because her music is absolutely terrific.

Not at that cost though.
 
J

Justified

Member
Unreal Champ said:
I can't believe people had any sympathy for her in the first place.
Click to expand...

I can.

I want to be very clear that Im not comparing the two groups at all, but there is an opposite side to the same coin of gamer-gate, is the white-knight-gate.

And its not exclusive to gaming, where a guy will defend the female side no matter what, usually due to some false notion that women need to be "protected", right or wrong
 
K

KimonoNoNo

Member
I'm sure people at first sided with her because stories of the struggling creative being screwed by a game publisher happen quite often.

It's pretty unusual that someone would deliberately burn their career in an act of self immolation in the hope of blackmailing some indies she had worked for.

Edit: Just read through SirTapTap's timeline; Fuck she's some piece of work alright.
 
SerTapTap

SerTapTap

Member
KimonoNoNo said:
I'm sure people at first sided with her because stories of the struggling creative being screwed by a game publisher happen quite often.

It's pretty unusual that someone would deliberately burn their career in an act of self immolation in the hope of blackmailing some indies she had worked for.

Edit: Just read through SirTapTap's timeline; Fuck she's some piece of work alright.
Click to expand...

It gets worse. Admitted to court today (and added to my timeline) is...is...hell, just read it yourself. Text message conversation of her admitting to a coworker that her whole intent was to bankrupt Don Thacker with legal fees and try to turn his lawyer against him. That was from February. She's been doing this for 6 months with clear intent of malice. It's sickening.

It's also why I've been so mad at bad/softball reporting on this and why I published the timeline. Her factual actions are so maddening the story entirely speaks for itself.
 
A

Abilidebob

Member
Sir TapTap said:
It gets worse. Admitted to court today (and added to my timeline) is...is...hell, just read it yourself. Text message conversation of her admitting to a coworker that her whole intent was to bankrupt Don Thacker with legal fees and try to turn his lawyer against him. That was from February. She's been doing this for 6 months with clear intent of malice. It's sickening.

It's also why I've been so mad at bad/softball reporting on this and why I published the timeline. Her factual actions are so maddening the story entirely speaks for itself.
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Jesus Christ.
 
P

Parsnip

Member
Sir TapTap said:
It gets worse. Admitted to court today (and added to my timeline) is...is...hell, just read it yourself. Text message conversation of her admitting to a coworker that her whole intent was to bankrupt Don Thacker with legal fees and try to turn his lawyer against him. That was from February. She's been doing this for 6 months with clear intent of malice. It's sickening.

It's also why I've been so mad at bad/softball reporting on this and why I published the timeline. Her factual actions are so maddening the story entirely speaks for itself.
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Yikes.
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
Linkstrikesback said:
Googled her name to catch up on the story and uh... Ended up on a Twitter account with her name that appears to be a woman holding a knife to their own throat. I don't know if it's really her account or someone being an absolute asshole, but... It seems like she needs help.
Click to expand...

That's her account, alright. She throws around the idea of death (hers, and others) quite liberally.

Sir TapTap said:
It gets worse. Admitted to court today (and added to my timeline) is...is...hell, just read it yourself. Text message conversation of her admitting to a coworker that her whole intent was to bankrupt Don Thacker with legal fees and try to turn his lawyer against him. That was from February. She's been doing this for 6 months with clear intent of malice. It's sickening.

It's also why I've been so mad at bad/softball reporting on this and why I published the timeline. Her factual actions are so maddening the story entirely speaks for itself.
Click to expand...

It's so weird when people think they can game the law. Like they've figured out the "one weird trick", when people make their entire careers about studying and practicing it.

And just think about this: Even if her claims were true (which virtually all signs point to the opposite), she's now destroying her career over less than $9,000. Heck, even if she was mistaken or lying about it, she could've made a GoFundMe, "Hey, I'm a struggling indie musician, not paid what I was due, medical bills" yadda yadda, probably made up the difference, or better.
 
SerTapTap

SerTapTap

Member
Oh, she also said the image with a knife at her throat is her "official press photo, use only this photo". Haven't included it yet in the timeline since it's a bit of a tangent and I really don't want to link to that pic.

Azure Dream said:
It's so weird when people think they can game the law. Like they've figured out the "one weird trick", when people make their entire careers about studying and practicing it.

And just think about this: Even if her claims were true (which virtually all signs point to the opposite), she's now destroying her career over less than $9,000. Heck, even if she was mistaken or lying about it, she could've made a GoFundMe, "Hey, I'm a struggling indie musician, not paid what I was due, medical bills" yadda yadda, probably made up the difference, or better.
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I honestly don't think even she thinks she'll win. She's on probation for another crime, she's on disability allegedly, she doesn't appeared to even have attempted to make any music in the last 7+ months (and her 100+ video DMCA rampage shows she has PLENTY of time for personal projects). I think she doesn't think she has anything to lose, doesn't think she'll go to jail and doesn't have money to lose, but will probably keep her disability, so just do as much harm as she can. It sounds extreme, but the facts of the case are extreme.

And yeah, this could have been a super easy win if all she really wanted was money, which is why I don't think the case. People LOVE a good "I'm a small artist and I got screwed by a big nasty corporate contract" story (even if that last part isn't really true, no one would look into it).

Make a Kickstarter for a new album or a "recover my lost wages" gofundme, write a couple tracks, grow your facebase off the "tragedy". It's plain to see how successful it'd be, given the number of people who, reading only some of the facts of the case, assume Alex is in the right or at least is doing this non-maliciously.

There's too many indicators for me to not consider it malicious personally. It's so incredibly extreme and it's gone on so long.
 
Peroroncino

Peroroncino

Member
Sir TapTap said:
It gets worse. Admitted to court today (and added to my timeline) is...is...hell, just read it yourself. Text message conversation of her admitting to a coworker that her whole intent was to bankrupt Don Thacker with legal fees and try to turn his lawyer against him. That was from February. She's been doing this for 6 months with clear intent of malice. It's sickening.

It's also why I've been so mad at bad/softball reporting on this and why I published the timeline. Her factual actions are so maddening the story entirely speaks for itself.
Click to expand...

Well this is an interesting development.

Also, straight up refusing over and over a pretty decent advice of seeking some legal counsel/advice in a case like this is idiotic, but then again, this person didn't exactly get to where she's currently at by being too smart in the first place...

I hope she gets some sort of penalty for this bullshit.
 
SerTapTap

SerTapTap

Member
jholmes said:
The notes before the story are longer than the story itself. What a black eye on Destructoid.
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He's now admitting what's pretty obvious if you look into the case: Her intent is solely to cause harm.

Destructoid screwed up REAL bad, and IMO they should have pulled the article *entirely*, but they do seem to be learning. Holmes is admitting a lot more fault than any of the other article authors too so respect to him for that (but minus some respect from the start, since the dtoid article was also by far the worst to start with...call it even?)
 
K

Kin5290

Member
Sir TapTap said:
He's now admitting what's pretty obvious if you look into the case: Her intent is solely to cause harm.

Destructoid screwed up REAL bad, and IMO they should have pulled the article *entirely*, but they do seem to be learning. Holmes is admitting a lot more fault than any of the other article authors too so respect to him for that (but minus some respect from the start, since the dtoid article was also by far the worst to start with...call it even?)
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By the way, I saw your video on Mauer reapplying all the DMCAs from earlier this month. Major props to you for actually explicitly making clear that this fiasco is not a transgender thing, it is a "this person is a real asshole" thing. Also props for condemning any kind bigotry or transphobia.

I feel like a lot of the major voices covering this topic are not making clear that this whole case has nothing to do with Mauer being a trans woman and everything to do with YouTube enabling one asshole's vendetta against an innocent party, which further punishes other innocents. There's a lot of toxic bullshit building up around the fact of the former unfortunately.
 
poodaddy

poodaddy

Member
There needs to be hefty fine levied on abusers of the DMCA takedown system. That would curb this behavior me thinks.
 
A

Abilidebob

Member
The update to the Kotaku article is just sad.
UPDATE (7/19, 9:44am): After the publication of this story, several people pointed us to a message from Imagos Softworks’ lawyer, Leonard French, claiming that Mauer had sent him death threats. We reached out to Mauer about this and she confirmed that it was true. She said that she had been receiving her own set of threats in the wake of claims by French and other YouTubers, which she reported to the police. “The police told me it was ok for these people to make death threats to me because of freedom of speech,” she said in a private Twitter message. “So my immediate response was to issue death threats to the people who started the defamation crusade against me.”
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T

Type40

Member
Linkstrikesback said:
Googled her name to catch up on the story and uh... Ended up on a Twitter account with her name that appears to be a woman holding a knife to their own throat. I don't know if it's really her account or someone being an absolute asshole, but... It seems like she needs help.
Click to expand...

yea, Thats the right account.
 
N

nightside

Member
While reading sir tap tap time-line I thought to myself "she really really needs to seek help", then I got to the part while she (apparently) passed a psychological evaluation so... She's just an awful person?
 
H

hesido

Member
If she's wrong in this, I'm guessing she may be sued back for monetary damages. She's dug herself a hole. She won't be receiving more contracts anyway after this.
 
K

Kin5290

Member
nightside said:
While reading sir tap tap time-line I thought to myself "she really really needs to seek help", then I got to the part while she (apparently) passed a psychological evaluation so... She's just an awful person?
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No, really that kind of evaluation is to determine whether somebody poses an actual threat to them self or others, which may render them eligible for involuntary commitment. The US has extremely high standards for involuntary commitment to mental institutions, for obvious historical reasons. I guess whoever evaluated her determined that she wasn't going to act out violently and they couldn't hold her involuntarily.
poodaddy said:
There needs to be hefty fine levied on abusers of the DMCA takedown system. That would curb this behavior me thinks.
Click to expand...
The penalty for a false DMCA takedown is technically perjury, but the burden of proof is so high that nobody has actually been prosecuted for that. Basically, the DMCA recipient needs to prove that the issuer acted in bad faith when they filed a DMCA takedown, in other words that the issuer knew that the thing they were taking down wasn't a violation of copyright. This case might actually have the evidence of bad faith DMCA filing, since there is evidence that Alex Mauer acted deliberately to DMCA streamer channels in an effort to make them criticize Imagos, which can be argued is in bad faith.
 
N

nightside

Member
Kin5290 said:
No, really that kind of evaluation is to determine whether somebody poses an actual threat to them self or others, which may render them eligible for involuntary commitment. The US has extremely high standards for involuntary commitment to mental institutions, for obvious historical reasons. I guess whoever evaluated her determined that she wasn't going to act out violently and they couldn't hold her involuntarily.

The penalty for a false DMCA takedown is technically perjury, but the burden of proof is so high that nobody has actually been prosecuted for that. Basically, the DMCA recipient needs to prove that the issuer acted in bad faith when they filed a DMCA takedown, in other words that the issuer knew that the thing they were taking down wasn't a violation of copyright. This case might actually have the evidence of bad faith DMCA filing, since there is evidence that Alex Mauer acted deliberately to DMCA streamer channels in an effort to make them criticize Imagos, which can be argued is in bad faith.
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Thanks for the explanation!
 
J

jholmes

Member
Abilidebob said:
The update to the Kotaku article is just sad.
Click to expand...

Kinda makes pointing out "Mauer has also attracted a great deal of harassment" in the original version seem a bit ridiculous given the context.

Sometimes people talk about game journalism like it should be subject to softer, more lax standards than other journalism, and I hope those people are paying attention to this situation. Anyone in the industry has a responsibility to put in the work and actually get the story right.
 
SerTapTap

SerTapTap

Member
Professor Lexicovermis said:
Just read the timeline. Sir TapTap, thank you for such a detailed, lucid account of this situation. Wow. I had no idea how far this rabbit hole went.
Click to expand...

Glad to inform, though I certainly can't say I enjoyed writing the article. Over 2 hours of my time on a sunday and I felt like I was going to vomit even just halfway through. The text messages entered to court yesterday brought that feeling right back.

It's absurd how big it all is and I've been personally involved since the June events started. Couldn't really ignore if I wanted to (I would like to) considering she's directly harassed me repeatedly and, thanks to Youtube's counter notification process (and more generally, the DMCA itself), she quite probably has my physical address.

At least I got a shoutout in Ars...never thought that'd happen due to an article on what is basically a criminal matter.

jholmes said:
Kinda makes pointing out "Mauer has also attracted a great deal of harassment" in the original version seem a bit ridiculous given the context.

Sometimes people talk about game journalism like it should be subject to softer, more lax standards than other journalism, and I hope those people are paying attention to this situation. Anyone in the industry has a responsibility to put in the work and actually get the story right.
Click to expand...

When it's just about games, sure. When it's just about legal stuff between companies...that's iffier. This case is...criminal stuff is going on here. They can't half-ass this stuff. It's hard to write about, but if you're going to do it you've go to do it right.

Kin5290 said:
No, really that kind of evaluation is to determine whether somebody poses an actual threat to them self or others, which may render them eligible for involuntary commitment. The US has extremely high standards for involuntary commitment to mental institutions, for obvious historical reasons. I guess whoever evaluated her determined that she wasn't going to act out violently and they couldn't hold her involuntarily.

The penalty for a false DMCA takedown is technically perjury, but the burden of proof is so high that nobody has actually been prosecuted for that. Basically, the DMCA recipient needs to prove that the issuer acted in bad faith when they filed a DMCA takedown, in other words that the issuer knew that the thing they were taking down wasn't a violation of copyright. This case might actually have the evidence of bad faith DMCA filing, since there is evidence that Alex Mauer acted deliberately to DMCA streamer channels in an effort to make them criticize Imagos, which can be argued is in bad faith.
Click to expand...

Personally I think she's just an awful person due to the extreme clarity and consistency of her actions combined with the length of the case--6 months is a very, very long time to be incapacitated. Don't really care either way though, she needs to be stopped and whether she's treated or in prison as long as she stops harming others I'm fine with it.

I would think/hope proving bad faith should be easy in this case, but who even presses charges in a DMCA case? Her texts from February plus her assorted statements about deliberately taking down channels should be enough, but what's it take to even get the criminal case started?

TBH the way the DMCAs were used seems like criminal harassment regardless of DMCA perjury anyway; someone brought up the term Tortious Interference which is...basically exactly what she's saying she's trying to do in th texts in february (and she more recently said she was trying to tie up Don's lawyer so he runs out of money).

hesido said:
If she's wrong in this, I'm guessing she may be sued back for monetary damages. She's dug herself a hole. She won't be receiving more contracts anyway after this.
Click to expand...

She doesn't seem to have much money anyway, what happens in a case like that anyway?

Kin5290 said:
By the way, I saw your video on Mauer reapplying all the DMCAs from earlier this month. Major props to you for actually explicitly making clear that this fiasco is not a transgender thing, it is a "this person is a real asshole" thing. Also props for condemning any kind bigotry or transphobia.

I feel like a lot of the major voices covering this topic are not making clear that this whole case has nothing to do with Mauer being a trans woman and everything to do with YouTube enabling one asshole's vendetta against an innocent party, which further punishes other innocents. There's a lot of toxic bullshit building up around the fact of the former unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it sucks that You Know Who got involved again and I'm extra mad at certain outlets for making them look right in a way. The transgender thing is totally irrelevant to the case in any legal manner and the only people who benefit from it are transphobes and Alex Mauer who wants to feel like a victim--I hate both of those so I refused to include it in the timeline.

I haven't had too many comments of that nature on my videos though, and none on the article. I did have to ban two or three people on Youtube, which is more than I've had to ban RE: transphobia in...ever, but most people are keeping it civil. Or at least hating her for the right reasons.
 
P

Professor Lexicovermis

Member
Sir TapTap said:
Glad to inform, though I certainly can't say I enjoyed writing the article. Over 2 hours of my time on a sunday and I felt like I was going to vomit even just halfway through. The text messages entered to court yesterday brought that feeling right back.

It's absurd how big it all is and I've been personally involved since the June events started. Couldn't really ignore if I wanted to (I would like to) considering she's directly harassed me repeatedly and, thanks to Youtube's counter notification process (and more generally, the DMCA itself), she quite probably has my physical address.

At least I got a shoutout in Ars...never thought that'd happen due to an article on what is basically a criminal matter.
Click to expand...

I can't imagine the stress that this situation has put on you. I greatly appreciate your reporting on this, even though it sickens you. I sincerely hope that things calm down for you and everyone else Mauer has affected. As for her, I hope she gets some comeuppance in the end.
 
W

Weltall Zero

Member
Thanks for putting all the information together, SirTapTap, so that hopefully we don't get more screw ups like Destructoid's.

Regarding the latter, I found particularly amazing that they actually were told by Imagos' lawyer about her death threads, but simply chose not to mention them in the article and told him as much:
https://twitter.com/leonardjfrench/status/886560578453598208
This goes far beyond incompetence and straight into deliberate falsehood and manipulation.
 
L

lifeexpectancy

Member
Sir TapTap said:
It showcases a couple things: The horribly slow pace of civil law, the even worse general circumstances around the DMCA (one of very, very few "guilty until proven innocent" aspects of common US law), and the divide in how we treat "digital" and "physical" matters.

Make no mistake, if Alex did even one tenth of the crap she's done online in a physical space instead, she'd be arrested for criminal harassment. Which should still be done--if anything she's caused even more harm online than she could practically cause in a physical space. But it's still considered "less real" in both social and legal spaces.

The worst thing is if criminal charges are never pressed, she can just go through game by game, harassing them one by one as restraining orders only cover one company/game at a time. After RCRU she could go after Potatoman Seeks The Troof, then Penny Arcade Game 3 Rainslick precipice of extremely long name, then countless others she's worked on.

She's learned how abuse the DMCA to maximal effect and, as she's not a large company and is willing to/has already destroyed her reputation, the traditional consequences of DMCA abuse are of no concern to her. She has no money to pay damages and no remaining career to protect.
Click to expand...

Well if it ever goes to actual court, seems like the side opposing Mauer would simply need to pull out your timeline and say "the ______ rests". Jesus what a nutjob.
 
A

Akronis

Member
Youtube has to be one of the most uncaring and incompetent companies when dealing with this shit.

Can't wait for another company to eat their lunch, but that's pretty wishful thinking :/
 
G

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew said:
Eh, let's look at where the case goes without jumping to conclusions. Did the developers have the right to her music? If so, she's insane indeed. If they didn't then she is perfectly okay to pursue DMCA takedowns.

Devs should just take out her music in return. Patch it out.

That or devs should just show the damn receipt for the rights to her songs so this can be settled once and for all.
Click to expand...

I think it's already been established that she wrote the music as a subcontractor for them. Unless otherwise stated, I don't see how her argument makes sense. That would mean she honestly thought she was being paid to create music in exchange for nothing, since the payers have no access.

Was she under any assumption that the people paying her were a charity or recreational club, or anything other than a commercial enterprise?

It's not like this is about sampling her work, even. It's just using the work as is

Like, I could understand a creator getting upset over a company botching their melody by adding unnecessary bars and disrupting the harmony, while simultaneously denying the creator use or access to their original material, and crediting the creator for the botched version against the creator's wishes, but that isn't what's happening here.
 
P

patchday

Member
Sir TapTap said:
It gets worse. Admitted to court today (and added to my timeline) is...is...hell, just read it yourself. Text message conversation of her admitting to a coworker that her whole intent was to bankrupt Don Thacker with legal fees and try to turn his lawyer against him. That was from February. She's been doing this for 6 months with clear intent of malice. It's sickening.

It's also why I've been so mad at bad/softball reporting on this and why I published the timeline. Her factual actions are so maddening the story entirely speaks for itself.
Click to expand...

man that's so evil...
 
A

alfredofroylan

Member
Bumping this thread, it seems that mauer issued a DMCA against James Rolfe and Giant Bomb among others.
DGUn9bkV0AAM-32.jpg

https://twitter.com/alexmauermusic/status/893164055946567680
 
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