Last week, I wrote about a controversy surrounding a media composer named Alex Mauer and her former employer, Imagos Studios.
To recap, Alex Mauer is a digital composer who was hired by Imagos Softworks to contribute to the soundtrack of the game, "Starr Mazer: DSP", which has currently been taken off of the Steam marketplace. Mauer had sent a DMCA notice to Steam, forcing the gaming platform to remove the game on three separate occasions.
Mauer has been embroiled in a contractual dispute with Imagos Softworks, in which she alleges that she had not been properly compensated for her work, and such, Mauer holds that the production company used her music unlawfully in the game.
Mauer went one step further and then started issuing DMCA notices to any and all content creators she could find that ever played/reviewed the game that included her music. Mauer further suggested that she would only release DMCA claims on affected creators if they went after Imagos on her behalf.
To say the Internet went insane at this would be a gross understatement of what actually happened. Mauer's actions were met with transphobic comments and threatening emails and messages on social media platforms, which only fueled the composer's persecution complex. Mauer responded in kind by publicly threatening to kill a prominent copyright lawyer and influential YouTube content creators in a series of now-deleted Tweets, all the while hurling vitriolic discourse at detractors.
Mauer apparently underwent involuntary psychiatric treatment as a result of her behavior, but now she is back and appears to have picked up where she left off.
These events coincide with legal filings submitted by Leonard J. French, copyright lawyer representing Imagos Softworks. Who knows what will happen next? All I know for sure is that this story is not yet over.
As a passive observer, I think Imagos has a very strong case, made stronger by Mauer's erratic behavior. YouTube has now gotten involved according to some sources. This will get worse before it gets better, but I think justice will be served in the end.