Game Music Composer Goes On DMCA Blitz Against Innocent YouTubers Over Contract Dispute With Game Publisher
from the hostage-negotiations dept
Stories about both the abuse of the DMCA process and the peril YouTubers regularly find themselves subject to by way of intellectual property laws are both legion, but to see the truely egregious nature of the abuse of this sort of thing, it takes a story about them intersecting. We appear to have such a story on our hands in the form of a music composer hired to work on a video game that then began sending DMCA notices to YouTubers over a contractual dispute with the game publisher. This story weaves a strange path, so let's dig in.
Alex Mauer is a digital composer. She was hired to do contract work by Imagos Softworks, the developers of Starr Mazer: DSP. That game had been available for early access on Steam, but is still down at the time of this writing. The reason for that is that Mauer sent Steam a DMCA notice for the game, claiming that it used her music without proper payment. Mauer and Imagos are in the middle of a fairly heated contract dispute, one which Imagos has been taking public with explanations of what happened and why the claim is not true.
Here's what happened between Alex and Imagos Softworks. https://t.co/eMHHAeDGT8 pic.twitter.com/selXX6jP3v
— Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) June 24, 2017
When you have dug into enough of these sorts of things, you begin to have a good sense for what's going on based on everyone's responses. Imagos' response is solely from its perspective, so it is not to be taken as the final word on the matter, but claims this detailed tend to be more common from those on the right side of things. Despite having been paid roughly $35,000 for her work on the game as a contract for hire, Mauer is currently claiming that Imagos owes her another $10,000. Even if that were true, the rights for the music in the contract were transferred to Imagos, making the DMCA claim against the game inappropriate. Through it all, Imagos claims to have attempted to resolve this with Mauer on several occasions only to be refused, while also going so far as to strip her music from the game and replacing it with temporary placeholder music.
But Mauer is apparently still unsatisfied. As I mentioned above, you can often get a sense of which side of an issue is on the firmest ground by how they behave. Well, Mauer's behavior in the past week has amounted to levying DMCA claims against every YouTuber showing off Starr Mazer: DSP footage that included her music. Even with the obvious Fair Use defense these YouTubers would have, that isn't even the most infuriating aspect of the tactic. No, that title belongs to Mauer suggesting to the YouTubers that she was launching the DMCA claims to raise awareness of the contract dispute and would rescind them if the YouTubers would give some hell to Imagos instead.
According to Ms. Mauer, Imagos Softworks owes her US$ 10,000 “for unpaid music work” (on Starr Mazer: DSP) and she is trying to use the DMCA strikes as a way to generate awareness about her situation. Sadly, this isn’t the intended purpose of the copyright strikes system, and innocent content creators are being punished when their only involvement in the matter has been that they published videos covering the independent roguelike shooter.
Well-known YouTuber SidAlpha even reached out to Mauer on behalf of his smaller peers to try to figure out what the hell was going on and received the following reply.
The fact that TemmieNeko is directing her complaints to me instead of the developer is a problem. This seems to be the general response of those who were hit with DMCA strikes. I did suggest to some who complained to me that I would reverse their DMCA strikes if they were willing to redirect their complaints to the developer/complaints about the developer. No one was willing to do so, and I no longer want to offer anyone the possibility of having their DMCA strikes reversed. Thank you.
It's worth repeating that none of this serves the purpose of the DMCA. In fact, there is a ton of potential harm to the YouTubers in question, who, in receiving these abusive DMCA notices, are at risk of having their channels pulled by YouTube. They can file a counter-claim, and should be successful with them, but there is still a risk. There is also risk for Mauer herself, as the DMCA process does have a perjury provision for fraudulent claims.
SidAlpha also explained that once the affected YouTubers process a successful counterclaim, they would be able to file a civic lawsuit against Mauer. This is because filing a fraudulent DMCA claim is considered perjury and she would be tried in the state the Youtubers live in. In addition, because the videos are transformative, they are protected by the Fair Use Doctrine which renders the DMCA strike spurious. Also, she doesn’t own the music in the first place because it was made as part of a for-hire contract with Imagos. Imagos owns all content related to Starr Mazer and Starr Mazer: DSP.
Mauer has since gone on to send out DMCA notices for a couple other games in which her music is featured, including one put out by Adult Swim. As part of this, Mauer has gone so far as to send a DMCA notice to Turner Broadcasting. Meanwhile, she put the music she created for Imagos under her contract on her own website, selling it as part of an album for $1,000.
This is as clear an abuse of the DMCA process as I've seen to date and there is no excuse for imperiling innocent YouTubers over a contract dispute with a game publisher. If ever there were a case begging for punishment over abuse of the DMCA system, this is certainly it.
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Filed Under: alex mauer, censorship, copyright, disputes, dmca, music
Companies: imagos softworks, youtube
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Isn't that commercial infringement, as she no longer owns it?
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Of course it exists, but a contract to assign the copyright to the company isn't valid without consideration, i.e. the agreed payment.
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Even if they refused to pay a single penny, Alex still wouldn't own the copyrights, she would need to go to court and prove the breach of contract and have the rights assigned back to Alex by the courts.
Also to note even if the work for hire was for another project, Imigos still own the copyright for said music, so at best she will have a claim of breach of contract, just because it may have been used in a different project doesn't mean she own's the copyright for it outside of the first mentioned project.
What Alex is doing is pure and simple abuse of the DMCA, I've heard Lenord French has taken up this case for Imigos and is asking if others want to use him to file cases against Alex, one youtuber/Twitcher has already proved that they have lost thousands due to the false claims thus can file for these and hopefully they win and this will bring light to the way the DMCA process is broken.
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Right; the distinction is a tricky one but it's important. Work-for-hire means she's not assigning the copyright to the client, it means that the client is legally the creator of the work. In which case she can't assign the copyright because she never owned it in the first place.
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Re: Re: Taking Imagos' word...
a) the music was composed as a work for hire.
b) They paid her $24,000 and she claims she is owed another $10k.
If they had failed to pay her anything, she might have an argument that the contract was void and therefore she retained the copyright. But as the saying goes: "we already know what you are madam. What we are doing now is negotiating a price." The argument is about how much she was to be paid, so the issue in the contract is with the terms of payment, not with the transfer of copyright. Or I suppose she could pull out a completely different contract that shows a licensing deal rather than a work for hire deal, but that strains credulity at this point. /IANAL
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Alex is currently having a psychotic break and has sent death threats to at least one youtuber (sidalpha himself if i remember correctly.)so my belief that she is in the right is spurrious to say the least.
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Great article as usual, Mr Geigner. I just wonder why don't have your own site.
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Re: Great article as usual, Mr Geigner. I just wonder why don't have your own site.
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Re: Re: Great article as usual, Mr Geigner. I just wonder why don't have your own site.
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Re: Re: Re: Great article as usual, Mr Geigner. I just wonder why don't have your own site.
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Re: Great article as usual, Mr Geigner. I just wonder why don't have your own site.
Was that the you know what you meant?
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Re: Great article as usual, Mr Geigner. I just wonder why don't have your own site.
While I'll happily and likely incorrectly take your complimentary words at face value, it's worth noting a couple of things.
1. Comments do not equal traffic and never have. In fact, the inverse can sometimes be true.
2. Even if I ever did "strike out on my own" as you put it, Techdirt is my first non-fiction writing home, the first place I became part of an internet community, and by far the biggest influence on my philosophy on matters of digital economics and intellectual property. Even if I ever wrote elsewhere, I would continue to write here as long as Mike and the Techdirt team would have me.
3. Your kind words aside, I am most certainly not driving the site in any way. Hell, I'm not even the most talented writer named "Tim" at this site, as that distinction belongs to Tim Cushing, who is a brilliant word-smith and one of the funniest writers I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Beyond that, Mike drives this site still, with the community of commenters coming in as a close second, as far as I'm concerned.
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Re: Great article as usual, Mr Geigner. I just wonder why don't have your own site.
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Re: Great article as usual, Mr Geigner. I just wonder why don't have your own site. - FLAGGED!
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Re: Re: Great article as usual, Mr Geigner. I just wonder why don't have your own site. - FLAGGED!
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If someone asked me to remove a video, thats fine. But after they filed a DMCA claim with youtube and then asked me to help her with the game developer? I DON'T THINK SO. I would tell her to kiss my ass and whine to someone else.
"Dear Miss Mauer, since you filed a DMCA claim against my account, you can go f*** yourself. Perhaps you should have exercised some common sense and contacted me first before you filed your DMCA claim. So, take your request and stick it where the sun don't shine."
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Disagree
Uh, she actually wrote that music. I don't see how this beats the routine takedowns of large copyright organizations for music they don't even own, partly from its actual owners.
Instead of punishing one lunatic for perjury, I'd rather see the chairmen of the systematic abusers of the DMCA system serve jail time.
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Who created the artistic work is not the end of the story of who owns the Copyright. This appears to be a classic "work for hire" scenario, which is actually written into Copyright law. The Copyright belongs to the entity that hired her to create it. She doesn't own any part of it.
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Re: Disagree
Maybe, but those systematic abusers have millions of dollars and will spend it driving their legal opponents into bankruptcy.
Though Alex may not be the worst offender on the planet, she is still very much doing something illegal. Suing her would both punish an actual wrongdoer, and set a legal precedent for the larger wrongdoers.
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But, Mauer is still completely in the wrong here even if she has done the work to create the art in question to begin with. If what's stated above is true, she no longer owns the rights to the music. So, legally, she's in no different position than I would be if I tried issuing a takedown on the music of Coldplay.
Even without this legal aspect, she's totally in the wrong morally. She's attacking people who have done no wrong, complied with all copyright rules and knowingly is doing so in order to extort a 3rd party.
She might no be a corporate middleman, but she's just as bad as those guys. Worse, even, since she knows firsthand what it's like for an independent creator to make a living.
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If she signed a work-for-hire agreement, then she never owned the rights in the first place.
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Worse, even, since she knows firsthand what it's like for an independent creator to make a living.
Well, she did...
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I could understand a DMCA for the game itself if it still used the disputed music. But dinging innocent YouTubers unless they “pay up” in the form of attacking the game devs? Not even the mob goes after third parties like that.
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Don't forget the YouTube strike system.
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Re: Don't forget the YouTube strike system.
An updated SidAlpha video does show that she has hit at least one person five times! See the attached link for a list.
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Re: Re: Don't forget the YouTube strike system.
Your link got lost, I think this is the one you wanted to link: https://youtu.be/5eTLpjRE8QY?t=85
As of that video, she'd taken down 42 videos, and attempted to take down a further 30. In a later video from the same person, she'd also DMCA'd Twitch streamers.
The later video also mentions that some Youtubers are seeing strikes counterclaimed without their taking any actions. So it may be that Imagos and/or Google is working to resolve this situation.
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Re: Re: Re: Don't forget the YouTube strike system.
So it may be that Imagos and/or Google is working to resolve this situation.
Which would be good on their part, and absolutely hilarious on her's, as it would mean her actions are blowing up in her face even more. Rather than threaten people to get them to put pressure on the company, said company comes out looking even better while her reputation is utterly destroyed.
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Mauer's Last Symphony
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Re: Mauer's Last Symphony
Yeah, you would have to try incredibly hard to come up with a quicker and more sure way to utterly destroy your career than what she did. No-one who does even the slightest bit of research is going to hire her from this point on, and she's got no-one to blame but herself.
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She Made These DMCA Claims Herself?
Maybe she doesn't like asking for paid help from someone else.
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Leonard French's legal analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuSZ6wZAaHQ
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Escalation
Um, should we talk about the blackmail now?
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Perjury AND Extortion
AND
"...would reverse their DMCA strikes if they were willing to redirect their complaints..."
Alex Mauer is imminently more sue-able than the major players in the copyright industry. There are multiple ways in which a good attorney can demonstrate that Alex Mauer holds zero valid copyright interests in her compositions, and thus, that all of her DMCA takedowns constitute injurious perjury against her various YT victims. Further, there is the attempted extortion of the YTers - blackmail is a separate crime.
With any luck, a group of affected YTers, perhaps in concert with Imagos, will destroy Alex Mauer in court and set a solid precedent that can leveraged more widely to penalize team-copyright-industry. OR, less satisfying, but also fun, the YTers could offer to let her off their hook, if she retracts all of her takedown requests, apologizes publicly, and pays the group "roughly $35,000." Additional humor might flow from Imagos obtaining an injunction that prevents Mauer ever posting anything she composed for them.
Finally, regardless the eventual outcome, let's all celebrate the passing of Alex Mauer's career as a composer-for-hire.
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I honestly hopes she loses every penny she earned from this music, and more besides. She knows she's attacking innocent people and risking their livelihoods, so she deserves punishment for those actions.
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I wonder if she realizes
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Pass the Popcorn
A lot has happened since this was written, including Alex Mauer getting a psych evaluation, targeting other games she worked on, being served by Leonard French, and saying she will represent herself in court.
…
Anyone want any popcorn?
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Re: Pass the Popcorn
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She have done more than just DMCA abuse
This user is absolutely a criminal. I mean, with the crimes in 2016, why did imagos softworks and other people would hire this person? If Nintendo found this out when he tries to fill out a job application, would Nintendo immediately reject this person as a worker of Nintendo?
His full name is Alex Thomas Mauer, said in the legal document. Email: Alexmauermusic@gmail.com, as found on kiwifarms. This user doesn't deserve having those information private anymore. SOPA was the tip of the iceberg on how destructive copyright is in general (so fuck off, MPAA, RIAA and other big corporations). Its now to the point where it is used for non-copyright-related subjects as to serve inconveniences or excuses to all users of protected works. An example of that was when a user posted a picture of Alex mauer on youtube that got nuked, assuming to keep his identity hidden rather than using copyright as if he is making money off of it. It went from a simple "no unauthorized copies" to "do not even mention a company name, a person's name, etc, also no criticisms".
The ONLY GOOD thing about this is that we learned that at least we know how abusive copyright really is. Useful in case MPAA tries to create another SOPA clone under a different name in the future.
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Re: She have done more than just DMCA abuse
Fixed LOLCOW wiki link: https://web.archive.org/web/20190413015030/https://lolcow.wiki/wiki/Alex_Mauer
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You are right, there have been so many disputes related to contracts or copyright infringement recently. In particular, this is due to the growing popularity of bloggers and YouTube channels, which often fall into such situations. Although I am sure that this dispute is quite unfounded and stupid, very often you need a good consultant. For example a firm https://www.tonypletchermediationservices.com/ has repeatedly saved my company from similar contract disputes
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