Star Control – MMO Fallout

Star Control Origins has returned to digital store shelves following its removal from Steam and Good Old Games just a few days ago. Star Control: Origins was removed from Steam and Good Old Games following a DMCA takedown request by Fred Ford and Paul Reiche, two individuals with whom developer Stardock is currently fighting in court over disputes regarding the Star Control franchise.

In the course of their lawsuit, Stardock requested that the court grant an injunction preventing Ford and Reiche from interfering with the release of Origins. The judge denied the request, stating that Stardock developed Origins with the full knowledge that a serious copyright dispute was likely to arise, and that any harm is of its own making.

“Plaintiff was aware of Defendants’ copyright claim to Star Control 1 and 2 since the development of Origins commenced, however, and was aware of the contours of the present copyright dispute since at least December 2017,” Armstrong writes. “Thus, whatever monies Plaintiff invested in Origins was done with the knowledge that serious copyright disputes were likely to arise or had arisen.”

Origins is currently 50% off on Stardock’s store.

Source: Stardock

While the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has been used more times than we can count to pull videos and music off of the internet, it’s very rare that the process is used to take down an entire video game. That said, Paul Reiche III and Robert Frederick Ford have decided to end the year with a copyright strike, and Star Control: Origins is the victim.

As noted by developer Stardock, as of this publishing Star Control: Origins is unavailable for purchase on Steam and Good Old Games. The takedown came from the above mentioned Reiche and Ford, over claims that Star Control: Origins violates their copyright ownership over Star Control and Star Control II. Stardock purchased assets related to Star Control from Atari in 2013 after the publisher filed for bankruptcy, including trademark and publishing rights for the trilogy. Creators Ford and Reiche have disputed Stardock’s ownership, which has lead to an ongoing lawsuit between the three parties.

In their announcement on Star Control’s Steam page, Stardock detailed the facts behind the takedown:

“Unfortunately, rather than relying on the legal system to resolve this, they have chosen to bypass it by issuing vague DMCA take-down notices to Steam and GOG (who, btw, Reiche and Ford are suing using GoFundMe money). Steam and GOG both have a policy of taking down content that receive DMCA notices regardless of the merits of the claims. To my knowledge, never in the history of our industry has anyone attempted to use the DMCA system to take down a shipping game before. For example, when PubG sued Fortnite for copyright infringement, they didn’t try to take Fortnite down with a DMCA notice.”

Star Control: Origins released on PC just three months ago in September. This is not the first time Stardock has received a DMCA takedown from Reiche and Ford, as the pair had filed a copyright notice to cease distribution of the original Star Control trilogy, a strike that was later reversed. Ownership of the Star Control trademark is viewable here.

Star Control: Origins is still available on Good Old Games as of this article being published. This is likely to change.

Source: Steam