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Starr Mazer mixes point-and-click adventure with… shoot ‘em ups.
Hey all - remember this Kickstarter? It’s currently embroiled in a bit of an internal conflict that may affect the game’s promotion and release.
The short of it is that the game’s initial composer Alex Mauer left the development team due to not being paid (allegedly) and is now enforcing copyright claims against Starr Mazer content on YouTube.
Here’s a long version of this conflict explained by TotalBiscuit:
I’m only posting this because it has encouraged the development team’s lawyer to respond: https://leonardjfrench.com/alex-mauer-dmca-abuse/
Truly distressing. I was looking forward to this title due to its mash up of SHMUP and point-and-click adventure games. Strange bedfellows.
Pull the matter in court if they have documents and stuff to prove against her
This could delay release but still
Man this sucks. Game looked really interesting. Hope it still comes out.
It couldn’t happen to nicer guys. Don & co are crazy passionate about the project, and unfortunately Alex Mauer is experiencing some kind of mental breakdown and taking it out on them. We were happy to contribute to their gofundme and are really looking forward to seeing the situation resolved. Don is one of the most passionate and just amazing human beings I’ve ever met, and he and everyone else just wants Starr Mazer to happen. Fingers crossed for them.
I backed this and was wondering what heppened to them, seemed to be progressing very well. Too bad, hope they work things out.
Honestly guys, this looks terrible. Whoever idea it was to mix space shooter with ag is not exacly genius. Quite right that they decide to abandon the project.
Things are getting crazier
“Alex Mauer has begun threatening the developers of River City Ransom and also representatives of Valve . In those threats she is apparently holding YouTube Content Creators hostage in an attempt to apply pressure to force their capitulation by virtue of a 2nd wave of DMCA strikes”
Well that escalated quickly
Youtube policy is really bad, a person that is suffering mental problems is attacking everybody apparently without legal support and youtube allows it and takes down everything?
Also she was diving death threats and property damage, was commited in a mental institution and was released a day later to resume the process?
Hope this all works out for the best
I’m not sure what her mental issues have to do with anything. Perhaps contract law is different in other parts of the world. But in the US, if you contract with me to produce X, and I agree to produce it for $0000.00, the contract will be fulfilled with I deliver to you the material I agreed to produce. And you deliver to me the compensation agreed to by you. If either part of the contract is not fulfilled, then the contract no longer exists.
In this case, if Ms Mauer has indeed not been paid for her work product then she still owns it.
I agree that it’s a shame this wasn’t resolved in a legal forum.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
I’m not sure what her mental issues have to do with anything. Perhaps contract law is different in other parts of the world. But in the US, if you contract with me to produce X, and I agree to produce it for $0000.00, the contract will be fulfilled with I deliver to you the material I agreed to produce. And you deliver to me the compensation agreed to by you. If either part of the contract is not fulfilled, then the contract no longer exists.
In this case, if Ms Mauer has indeed not been paid for her work product then she still owns it.
I agree that it’s a shame this wasn’t resolved in a legal forum.
That’s true but that dispute was the beginning and rightfully they managed to keep it under wraps. The problem is that it went beyond that with false copyright claims and other stuff.
Jim Sterling this week highlights the problems that the youtube policy has in regards with this situation
If either part of the contract is not fulfilled, then the contract no longer exists.
In this case, if Ms Mauer has indeed not been paid for her work product then she still owns it.
It depends on the details though. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, if Ms Mauer signed a contract to effectively give others the copyright of her work it belongs to them unless there was a disclaimer included in the event of her not being paid which I very much doubt there was.
The matter of not being paid is a different legal issue.
None of us know the intricacies but it shouldn’t be that easy to have stuff removed from You Tube on say-so without proof but I guess You Tube need confirmation that they are not ‘illegally’ hosting copyrighted material until otherwise proved not.
The saddest thing about this is that a game (not my scene at all BTW & is it even an AG?) that has raised enough funds to go ahead & be made is being hurt - has the lady truly not been paid in which case just PAY HER! and/or is she lamenting on giving away her work & trying to claim back the copyright she gave away even though she’s most definitely been credited? The composer is definitely mad about something which has led to her being unhinged to the extreme which I understand she’s receiving help for. 
It may apply to YouTube and its policies regarding copyrighted material, but the copyright is actually the least important part of the dispute. I’m going to assume that the game publisher had in the contract that the copyright for the music would become its property once the basic contract was fulfilled.
And while I have no right to “assume” anything, I’m guessing that there were various clauses in Ms Mauer’s contract that stipulated performance levels for both parties. E.g. she gets paid $500 up front to get her started; $500 when she delivers the first draft of the score, and $500 when delivers the final score. Any modifications made to the score after it was accepted would be done at a pre-agreed rate. (Numbers are totally hypothetical.) That’s the way I would do it anyway. And I have doe it that way, although in very different business.
The kicker is that in order to copyright anything you have to own the rights to the material being copyrighted…be it music, a manuscript, etc.
So if Ms Mauer delivered the score, and wasn’t compensated according to the terms of her contract, then the publisher had no right to claim copyright ownership, because, by violating the terms of the contract they didn’t actually own the music they were attempting to copyright. I know that’s convoluted.
None of us has seen the actual contract between the parties, so there is no way for us to know what part, if any was violated by whom.
But I think chrissie’s comment PAY HER, or words to that affect are most cogent. If the problem is truly that she has not been compensated according to the terms of the contract, then JUST DO IT!
That doesn’t say that some lawyer won’t suggest a lawsuit that involves emotional distress and/or mental anguish. And that, itself, may pose financial difficulties.
As a side note, it astounds me that things such a an insurance policy wasn’t taken out to insure publishers against these unforeseen problems. Whether or not their projects succeeded, I’m fairly certain that, in the Kickstarter world, the Daves, Rons Tims and Janes had insurance plans in place. If they didn’t they were just lucky.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
Apparently she was paid around $36,500 for her work on music for Starr Mazer.
http://heavy.com/games/2017/06/alex-mauer-starr-mazer-dsp-star-youtube-dmca/
In an earlier statement by Thacker, he explained that Mauer was brought in to be the music director for point and click adventure game Starr Mazer, Starr Mazer: DSP, and other projects via a for-hire contract. This means that while Mauer composed the music, the music would be the property of Imagos.
However, her progress on the music was halted by medical issues and she left the team in the middle of last year. Imagos paid for the work that they received from her as well as paid “in good faith for work that was not received.”
Mauer then made claims to outstanding pay, the “amount of which has fluctuated,” according to Imagos. Mauer’s claim has changed over time, from “not being paid for time worked to not being paid for the right project to the supposition that there was a plot to defraud her from the very beginning of the project to a handful of other versions of this narrative,” Imagos said.
Imagos tried to make a deal with Mauer, offering shared universal rights to the game’s soundtrack as well as an equity share of the game’s revenue. They say that an agreement was proposed, agreed to, but then dissolved by Alex.
Imagos paid around $36,500 to Mauer for her work.
It’s not over either. The information at the above link has not been updated, but after being temporarily committed after making death threats, she was released and apparently she’s threatening a second round of takedowns, this time targetting uploads of the game River City Ransom.
and starting around 2:35 into
She even threatened Steam, but unlike YouTube, Steam actually checked her information and threatened to ban her when they found out she didn’t actually own the copyright.
She even threatened Steam, but unlike YouTube, Steam actually checked her information and threatened to ban her when they found out she didn’t actually own the copyright.
She is making too many strong enemies to loose legal battle
I mean no just tackling one but more
Never ever make a group with people for KS who cannot trusted for pre and post release
A shame about the mess. While I didn’t back this one myself, it did look somewhat interesting.
It always amazes me how feeble the Youtube DMCA system actually is. By making it the way it is, Youtube probably made big companies happy, but it’s surprising they failed so utterly to address the obvious abuse the system is vulnerable to.
Anyone here would be able to start tagging random videos and claim rights to them and that isn’t a way a system like this should work.
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