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Prosper The Alex Mauer Saga - Chiptune Tranny Meltdown

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I'm sure Polygon will run a piece extolling the virtues of criminally misunderstood Alex Mauer and the vitriolic campaign of hate spread against her by malicious YouTube creators.

Featuring special guest Anita Sarkeesian, of course.
Son, you better buy a lottery ticket!

Here we have an article from destructoid doing just that: http://archive.is/4thRG#selection-649.52-649.383

With gems like this:

"Since word got out that Ms. Mauer had issued the DMCA orders against the two games, a sadistic feeding frenzy has formed in certain pockets of the internet, leading to Ms. Mauer receiving multiple online death threats, and ambulance chasing, opportunistic video game pundits demonizing her in long winded, fruitless Youtube rants."
It has nothing to do with luck, if you're even mildly observant these pathetic SJW hacks behave in the most predictable way possible - virtue signalling while groveling for approval from their tranny overlords. It's pathetic.
 

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

Filthy Kalinite
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https://steamcommunity.com/app/422810/discussions/0/2217311444344457035/
Why will we replace the music in River City Ransom: Underground?
Because we can’t spend another minute thinking about the false DMCA complaints filed against us and our YouTube and Twitch community.

Making River City Ransom: Underground required a tremendous amount of effort, of financial resources - from both the Kickstarter community and Conatus - and a leap of faith by the RCR licensor, Million Co. Ltd. and its successor, Arc System Works, Ltd. The game took nearly four years to make, four years that its many contributors dedicated themselves to its completion, gave up time with friends and family and made many other sacrifices, less quantifiable but equally important, to bring the game to life.

Like many Kickstarter projects, we started with optimism. We quickly learned that meeting the technical challenges of making a smooth, responsive, online, multiplayer fighting game with dynamic shadows, proper sorting and a mass of content (full campaign story, 500+ unique fighting moves, 120+ levels, 44 playable combatants, etc.) was a daunting task. One year into development we had to rewrite our game engine from scratch. It was never smooth sailing, though creative efforts rarely are.

I am incredibly proud that we finished the game, despite the challenges and setbacks. Because we had overrun our schedule and the initial crowdfunding budget by a large margin, the game has flaws. Whether they are bugs or balancing issues, nobody is more acutely aware of those flaws than we are, and we have read every bug report we've ever received. We always expected that we would continue to release frequent updates, to work toward a definitive version of the game. This was a labor of love.

Before Alex Mauer began her campaign, we were actively seeking outside funding to bring the game to the next level of polish and to publish it on major console platforms. We believe strongly that we are not far from reaching the game’s full potential.

I only bring these details to light to illustrate that when a game developer makes a game, there are going to be criticisms, from mild to harsh. That’s how developers and players engage each other. Whatever the result, it’s the creative process that’s important – to anyone who is brave enough to create something from nothing, and to anyone who is generous enough to purchase and play those creations. Which is why I am so alarmed that the contributions of so many people over many years (not just Conatus' efforts but the efforts of the creators of the entire Kunio-kun franchise, to which we are humbled to be associated) could be thrown into disarray so easily and so unjustly.

It is out of respect for those many creators that I have chosen to commission a new soundtrack to replace the music from RCR:U. I believe it’s the best chance that RCR:U has of achieving a "clean break" from any negative associations with Alex Mauer’s wrongful claim. My hope is that when the creators and I think about this game or the years of our lives that have gone into creating it, we see the game for what it is, a beautiful, if imperfect, realization of the vision and work of many, rather than the controversy that came after.

Let me make it absolutely clear – Alex Mauer’s claim that the game violates her copyright is false. She is a co-creator of the music, with Dino Lionetti and Rich Vreeland. Our written license agreement is with Rich, who subcontracted Alex and Dino. When Rich offered to pay Alex an equal share of the music fee for her contribution to the game soundtrack, she emailed back: “oh that's awesome man i'm all for it thanks!” Rich has shown us the documentation that Alex was paid in full.

Our lawyers advise us that there is no legal basis for Alex’s DMCA take-down claims. That’s undeniable by anyone except Alex. But being legally right is only half the story – as a practical matter, the costs of legal action would put console development plans on hold, perhaps indefinitely. We don’t have any interest in spending our time and our energy dealing with this matter further.

So, we’re swapping out the soundtrack. When it’s completed, we hope that it will delight you, and we hope that you keep taking a chance on independent games, on Kickstarter projects, and on all labors of love. They’re worth it.

Daniel

https://techraptor.net/content/alex-mauer-dmca-death-threats-legal
To say that the world surrounding YouTube and indie gaming is a murky swamp may be the understatement of the year right now. YouTubers have had to deal with the #adpocolypse and the fallout from the over-reaching regulations that YouTube has deemed necessary to become advertiser friendly, and with the number of games exponentially increasing on Steam and services like itch.io, indie developers are finding it even more difficult to stand out. What really doesn’t help either situation, however, is when a copyright system that seems to be dragging behind the times ends up being used as a weapon against content creators and developers. In the battle of content online, the DMCA has become an effective weapon.

To say that the story surrounding everything with Alex Mauer, Starr Mazer: DSP, River City Ransom: Underground, and various YouTubers is complicated … well that may be an even bigger understatement than my opening paragraph. Yet, here we are, in a mess of accusations, death threats, and now legal battles involving lawsuits and restraining orders. This is a story that’s difficult to handle, as the general public needs to know what is going on; however, more coverage to the issue may just end up enhancing it, as the behavior of the one at the center of the controversy has not only been erratic but has escalated as time has gone on. There are perceived issues surrounding mental health with those involved and given the erratic behavior of one of the players involved, trying to minimize harm of the publication of this article is incredibly difficult. How can you predict the unpredictable? Nevertheless, our commitment is to the truth of the matter, and that’s what the aim of this article is.

A key figure throughout this article is Alex Mauer, a sound/music creator who has been involved in a lot of projects within the gaming industry, including larger games like Need for Speed: Underground and a host of indie titles such as Potatoman Seeks the Troof. She’s a veteran of the industry and seemingly had a lot of respect and accolades coming into the year 2016.

My attempts to get Mauer’s side of the story regarding the issues discussed in this article didn’t go well. In our back and forth, it was indicated that I didn’t care about the “real” story at the core of the issues here. Despite my desire to get questions answered and to assure her that, yes, I cared about the real story, I was given the cold shoulder as I did not ask the right questions that Alex wanted me to ask. For example, I asked Alex whether she was the source of the DMCA claim made on River City Ransom: Underground (discussed later) and if she had documentation/information to show that the rights were on her side in terms of copyright. These simple questions to establish the base data of the story were not the right ones that Mauer wanted me to ask, and I stuck to my guns when she attempted to get me to change or reword the questions. Now, I will go on record saying that Mauer did contact me after Destructoid published their article, indicating that her unwillingness to talk to me had to do with “[creating] a competitive environment to see who wanted to do the story the most.” She said that phase was over, and that she’s available for comment and interview.

While I have sent additional information and questions for her to answer, I did not want to delay the story more. So keep this in mind going forward, as almost 90% of the information in this article is from the other side of the conflict and doesn’t include Mauer’s direct comment. I will still be trying to talk with Mauer to get her side and if something comes of it, a new article or interview will accompany this one.

...
 

Azalin

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The only good thing that will come out of the whole Alex Mauer fiasco is that he destroyed his chances of ever finding a job,nobody will be stupid enough to hire the crazy tranny now and Mauer will probably end in a dark alley sucking dicks for a couple of bucks.Oh and indie companiew will be more careful with the contracts they give to independent contractors and make sure they are just work-for-hire to avoid crap like this
 

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

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http://pennrecord.com/stories/511143985-bensalem-woman-sued-in-video-game-copyright-dispute
Bensalem woman sued in video game copyright dispute
PHILADELPHIA — A Washington company is suing a Bensalem woman over alleged copyright infringement related to the development of a video game.

Imagos Films LLC, which does business as Imagos Softworks, and Don Thacker filed a complaint on June 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Alexander Thomas Mauer, alleging that the Pennsylvania resident falsely claims ownership rights to the plaintiff's video game..




According to the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that Imagos Films and Thacker sustained financial damages from being threatened by the defendant. The plaintiffs hold Thomas Mauer responsible because the defendant allegedly asserted claims on the plaintiff's works.

The plaintiffs seek to order the defendant to cease all threats and intimidation efforts and to enjoin the defendant. They are asking for actual damages, special and/ or extra damages, court costs and any further relief the court grants. They are represented by Leonard J. French of Leonard J. French Esq. in Allentown.

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Case number 2:17-cv-02964-BMS
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The only good thing that will come out of the whole Alex Mauer fiasco is that he destroyed his chances of ever finding a job,nobody will be stupid enough to hire the crazy tranny now and Mauer will probably end in a dark alley sucking dicks for a couple of bucks.Oh and indie companiew will be more careful with the contracts they give to independent contractors and make sure they are just work-for-hire to avoid crap like this

Until xir is hired by a feminist outlet for being brave.
 

Dexter

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Mar 31, 2011
Messages
15,655
:philosoraptor:

http://www.gameobjective.com/2017/07/20/alex-mauer-interview/
The Alex Mauer Interview

July 20, 2017 Brad Glasgow

alexmauer_cover.png

GoFundMe to help pay for Imagos’ legal expenses, which quickly raised $10,000 and is currently at $17,490 of its $25,000 goal.

As things escalated, Alex Mauer sent death threats to both Leonard French and SidAlpha, one of the YouTubers affected by the DMCA strikes, and allegedly at least two others. This resulted in Alex Mauer’s family involuntarily committing her for psychiatric evaluation. Once released from the institution, Mauer continued sending out DMCA strikes.


One of the threats sent by Alex Mauer. (click to enlarge)

French successfully filed for a temporary restraining order against Mauer which prohibits her from filing any further takedown notices related to Starr Mazer, as well as prohibiting her from sending any more death threats.

Alex Mauer has also posted to Twitter numerous alleged threats and harassment sent to her as a result of this dispute.

The media stayed mostly quiet on the issue, until Mauer successfully DMCA’d another game she worked on, River City Ransom Underground, which was removed from Steam while the copyright strike was under investigation. (The restraining order only prohibits actions related to Starr Mazer and does not cover other properties.) According to the interview below, this strike against RCRU will be removed shortly and is unrelated to the Imagos contract dispute.

Once RCRU was removed from Steam, media publications began picking up the story, with cursory articles with little detail or sometimes a disastrously misinformed and misleading article like this Destructoid piece by Jonathan Holmes.

I decided to step in and interview Alex Mauer, in order to discover her reasoning for her highly controversial actions. I sent a freelance “pitch” – a short summary of a prospective article – to a dozen different publications to see if they were interested in running the interview, but I did not hear back from any of them (except one who said I should contact someone else within the company who I had already tried to contact).

I also contacted SidAlpha and asked him to read the interview and offered him a chance to respond. You can read his statement at the end of the interview. I attempted multiple times to contact Leonard French but my messages went unanswered.

The interview was conducted via text messages, which is highly unusual, but it was Mauer’s preferred form of communication.

Brad: First question is how are you doing? This has obviously been a difficult situation. How are you handling things?

Alex: I’m not doing too well. Next question.

OK, let’s start with Imagos. In a March 12 kickstarter update, Don Thacker said Imagos fulfilled their agreement and paid for the work received. Is that not the case?

It’s not true.

What part? Did they not pay for all the work?

Correct. They owe $5,500 for the Starr Mazer contract, and $4,500 for unpaid work on DSP. DSP doesn’t have a contract.

They said they paid you around $36,500. Do you agree with that?

Yeah I believe that is the exact number. I have spreadsheets I created which are based on bank statements. I just don’t have it in front of me.

So your claim is they owe an additional $10 grand. Was your contract for both Starr Mazer and DSP?

I already answered this question and if you’ve seen the contract the answer is clear. The contract was for Starr Mazer only. DSP did not even exist in concept at the time when I signed the contract.

Let’s move on to the DMCA strikes against YouTubers. Why did you choose to go that route?

I started by having a music agent approach Imagos to create a license agreement for DSP, which included the condition of resolving the unpaid balance. Imagos declined it. Then I made my DMCA claims on Steam, and DSP was taken down. Imagos refused to pay the balance. They decided to pay someone else for a new soundtrack instead of pay me the balance.

Their game was DMCA’d on Steam again for sound effects. I asked them to remove their videos and sound clips from all of their online accounts. They refused. I DMCA’d those first.

I then stumbled onto the other videos by YouTubers, and started DMCAing those as well because they are in violation of my copyright. The whole thing happened from February 2017 to June 2017 before I ever got complaints from YouTubers.

Long answer but that’s how it happened.

Some of the YouTubers are claiming that you told them you’d remove the strike if they complained to Imagos. Is that accurate?

I never heard of a strike before Steam and other websites don’t have a strike system. The first time I heard of it, I suggested to the people asking for DMCA retraction that they could speak out about the situation and I would be willing to retract. I quickly realized that’s not a good condition to decide whether or not to retract a DMCA. No one ever actually wanted to try that offer anyway.

So Imagos lawyered up with Leonard French and everything seemed to blow up. He and others such as SidAlpha posted what appear to be threats you made Could you talk about what happened there?

Yes. When Sid and Leonard made their videos, I started receiving death threats and harassment from a LOT of people. I reported this to the police, and they said it was “freedom of speech”. I then decided to redirect the threats back at Sid and Leonard myself, since I was just informed by police that it was legal.

Looking back at it now, do you regret sending those messages?

I regret sending the messages only because I was subsequently involuntarily hospitalized.

As you said, you’ve received numerous threats yourself, many of which you posted on Twitter. Can you estimate how many you’ve received? Are they still coming?

It’s so many that I can’t count.

Do you now have a lawyer? I know you said [Monday night] that you weren’t getting return calls.

I don’t actually know. I hired a lawyer last minute as an emergency defamation and copyright guy. The situation was calling for a “fixer” type role. He was really weird, and we lost the first hearing so badly that it seemed he did it on purpose. I fired him immediately after, and very publicly. I expected the law firm to swap in someone better, and nothing happened. I called them at least 100 times over the weekend, with only a couple of emails in return.

You’ve recently filed a DMCA against River City Ransom Underground (RCRU). Why? Is this related to the Imagos case?

The developers of RCRU were using music I’ve written, without written permission. It is not directly related to the Imagos situation.

Are Starr Mazer and RCRU the only two games or are there others doing the same?

There are a number of Adult Swim commercials I worked on with Imagos with the same problem. You may have heard about the Turner cease and desist letter I sent.

If Steam lets RCRU back, will you file another DMCA?

Conatus [the developer of RCRU] made a counter-claim, and RCRU is scheduled to go back on Steam soon. I cannot make another DMCA takedown of the game after that.

So where do you go from here?

I can’t answer that.

Are you still making music?

I can’t make music anymore.

Is there anything I missed that I should have asked?

I don’t know. I’m exhausted. I’ve been working on this legal stuff for half a year now. I just fired my 4th lawyer.

Have you considered settling and cutting your losses?

That’s not an option. This is my life’s work. My entire career. I’ve been building it since 1996, and first got traction making soundtracks in 2007. No compromises.

For those that wish to show you support, what is the best way for them to do so?

A: I don’t want any support. The people I am currently talking to are by direct contact and most of it is just girl-talk to get away from the insanity. Too many people who “want to help” are actually harassing me.

Well I very much appreciate you doing this interview. Is there anything you’d like to add?

That’s enough. Just get the thing written or whatever ASAP. This is the first interview I’ve done since the Jonathan Holmes shit happened.



As I mentioned, I gave SidAlpha a chance to read the interview before posting it to the public, and his response is as follows.

It seems that Mauer is just as bitter and spiteful even when dealing with someone conducting an objective interview. It’s really disappointing, but not surprising in the least.

For more details on the story you can read this timeline created by SirTapTap, a YouTuber who was also adversely affected by the copyright strikes. It is not the most objective of accounts, but it does a fair job at presenting the details of this complex story.
 
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ColCol

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Jul 12, 2012
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Dam, getting paid around 36,500 dollars, what a nice career to fuck up. If the interview is real it does demonstrate a very mentally unstable person.
 
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Aug 10, 2012
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Unstable tranny is a walking, breathing pit of contradictions, news at 11.

I guess Feminist Frequency will have a new contributor soon. :incloosive:
 

Vorark

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Have you considered settling and cutting your losses?

That’s not an option. This is my life’s work. My entire career. I’ve been building it since 1996, and first got traction making soundtracks in 2007. No compromises.

Throwing 20 years down the lane like this... you'd think one would take a bit more care. S/he seems to be talented too, what a shame.

The whole story is fascinating, in a tragedy way.
 

Ranselknulf

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What a horrible business decision. Alex made a little over 36 grand and had a questionable claim to another 10K.

Even if Alex Mauer was right. Who is going to hire them now.

Sometimes being "right" is more expensive than just cutting your losses. RCRU made the right call to disengage from this entire fiasco and let Alex Mauer continue their implosion without RCRU's involvement.
 

Unkillable Cat

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SidAlpha purchased a domain so that people will have an easier time to register complaints against Mauer to the FBI.

The domain? suckmydmca.com

:D

EDIT: Added info for the terminally stupid.
 
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Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Bubbles In Memoria
https://leonardjfrench.com/2017/09/26/imagos-don-thacker-request-default-alex-mauer/

Imagos and Don Thacker request Default against Alex Mauer
By ljfrenchSeptember 26, 2017Imagos Softworks v. Alex Mauer
It being September 26th, 2017, and Judge Schiller having given Defendant a truly generous amount of time to respond, I have requested the Clerk of Court enter a Default against Alex Mauer, foreclosing her rights to respond in the case.

A Default Judgment is a two-step process. This is the first step. We are now preparing to ask the Court to make a finding that we own the copyrights at issue as well as a finding of the monetary damage done.

I will update again here shortly as things proceed.

THANK YOU for all of your support, love, kindness, and understanding in what is obviously not a typical copyright case.

Yours,
Leonard French
 

Cael

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Nov 1, 2017
Messages
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The question is: Did they take it to the cleaners for all the court and lawyer costs it caused them?

I hope they do and it is later found diving into dumpsters and living under a bridge like the good little troll it is.
 

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