River City Ransom Underground Taken Down From Steam After DMCA Claim

Developer and Publisher Conatus Creative ‘s game River City Ransom Underground has been removed from Steam due to DMCA filed against them by an individual named Alex Mauer who has composed the music for the game.

This event comes after numerous complaints on YouTube and Steam forums against the copyright strikes on various YouTubers who have created videos on the game. trying to control the situation one of the lead devs of Conatus Creative Andrew Russell explained on steam forums the situation and confirmed that all of the DMCA has been filed by Mauer only.

“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.”

“Alex Mauer produced, in collaboration with others, works for RCRU as a sub-contractor, and Conatus believes that it possesses the legal right to use those collaborative works in the game.

Previously Mauer has filed a similar case against another game called Starr Mazer DSP developed by Imagos Softworks it was also removed from steam after the complaint. so to fight this the studio filed a restraining order against her which prevented Mauer from filing any more DMCA complaints against the game and later the game was restored on Steam.

View Of The Situation From Both The Side

In a recent community blog from Destructoid, it was reported that according to Mauer the music in the game is used without her permission and conatus has only received the signature from Disasterpeace who is one of the composers of the music which does not give them the full right to the music.

But on the other side Conatus claims that they have Mauer produced the music in collaboration with other composers and it is not her individual music and so they have the legal rights to use a collaborative work in their game and her DMCA are false.

The case would most probably be dragged to court and Conatus may go the Star Mazer route by filing a restraining order against her. only time can tell what will be the fate of River City Ransom Underground.

But in meanwhile all the gamers who wanted the game can longer get it. the loss will probably come to those consumers who purchased the keys of the game from Humble Bundle and GOG as they won’t be able to redeem them on Steam at least for now.