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Many of you may have heard of the ongoing DMCA debacle concerning Alex Mauer, the original composer for Starr Mazer and Starr Mazer DSP, as well as several other games Mauer was a contributing composer & arranger on. One of those games, River City Ransom: Underground [2], as also been hit with DMCA strikes which resulted in it’s being pulled from steam for the better part of the last week. Although developer Conatus Creative have assured the public that everything is legit on their end with regards to contracts and compensation and that the DMCA strike in false, they have decided to cut their losses and replace the soundtrack [3] for River City Ransom: Underground to avoid ongoing issues.
It is out of respect for those many creators (of the entire Kunio-kun franchise) that I have chosen to commission a new soundtrack to replace the music from RCR:U. I believe it’s the best chance that RCR:U has of achieving a “clean break” from any negative associations with Alex Mauer’s wrongful claim. – Daniel Crenna, Producer
River City Ransom: Underground‘s soundtrack was originally contracted with composer Rich “Distasterpeace [4]” Vreeland (Fez, Hyper Light Drifter), who subcontracted Dino Lionetti (Cheap Dinosaurs [5], Autoscroll) and Alex Mauer to assist with the game’s music under the alias “Lexi & The Cheap Disaster”. Vreeland has documentation, confirmed by Conatus, that Mauer was paid in-full for contributions made to the game’s soundtrack though Mauer contests this and has used the accusation as a right to DMCA the game on Steam and any video media using tracks Mauer contributed on. By law, Valve was required to take the game off Steam as a result in order to maintain their “safe harbor” status until the strike is proven false, much like what happened with Starr Mazer DSP earlier this year.
In the post on the game’s Steam forums [3], Crenna does not go into detail as to whether Vreeland and Lionetti will be involved in any replacement music for the new RCR:U soundtrack. I have reached out to Conatus to confirm any additional details regarding the replacement soundtrack and will update this article with any response.