Alex Mauer has sent a DMCA notice to Valve to have River City: Ransom: Underground removed from Steam. Mauer had provided music for Conatus Creative’s game, but as part of the personal breakdown parade that Mauer has been going on, DMCAs have been sent out to have the game barred from being sold on Steam.
Siliconera picked up the news from a post on the Steam forums by lead programmer Andrew Russell, who explained that the team is working with Valve to get the game restored, stating…
“We are aware that RCRU is down on Steam. We have contacted Valve’s copyright department, and will let you know when access is restored.”
Russell previously had to explain that it wasn’t Conatus doing when a bunch of River City Ransom: Underground videos were pulled off YouTube due to DMCA claims. This was actually Alex Mauer’s doing.
YouTuber SidAlpha has been chronicling these events and Mauer’s breakdown, which originally involved the other Kickstarted title, Starr Mazer: DSP.
As SidAlpha points out, Alex Mauer has been issued a restraining order from Imagos Softworks, preventing Mauer from issuing anymore DMCA or copyright strikes against any Starr Mazer: DSP content, including the game itself. This comes after repeated abuse of copyright strikes and after Mauer sent death threats to various individuals. While that’s good news for Starr Mazer, it still leaves River City Ransom: Underground as fair game for Mauer’s antics.
A lot of gamers who simply wanted to buy and play these games have questioned what has been the cause of all of this? Some have stated that it was Mauer becoming too defensive over the contracted music works provided for various games. Other claimed that Mauer felt there wasn’t enough payment for the projects, even though the contracts did not include any clauses for royalties or residuals, based on what was shared by Conatus. Some have speculated that it could be the hormonal effects from the process of going through transgender treatment. Others pensively expressed that Mauer may have just had a mental breakdown and is suffering from mental illness.
An exact explanation has not been given for the extreme behavior exhibited by Mauer.
Regardless, a lot of gamers and YouTube channels are being affected by the DMCA takedowns, costing them money and resources, as well as forfeiting consumers the opportunity to buy games.
In the case of River City Ransom: Underground, the game was originally Kickstarted back in 2013 and only recently released on PC in February of 2017. And while they note on the Steam forums that you can still purchase the game from GOG.com and the Humble Store, the keys will not activate on Steam. You can, however, use this alternate Steam store page to purchase River City: Ransom, which was bookmarked by savvy Steam users before the store page was officially removed by Valve.
(Thanks for the news tip Ruliweb)
[Correction: The article originally stated the comments were from Andrew Merritt but they actually came from Andrew Russell]
