In late October, Strategy First and BillionTech released You Are Empty: Absolute Edition on PC via Steam. This is a remaster of the 2006 shooter that received various improvements.
Recently, Denis Volchenko, who introduced himself as a co-creator of the original You Are Empty and the copyright holder of all visual assets and game art, reached out to the remaster's creators. He opposed the sale of the remaster and asserts that the publishers had no right to release it as a commercial product:
I see that Strategy First and BillionTech recently released You Are Empty: Absolute Edition on Steam as a paid commercial product priced at $7.99. I want the community to know the truth. This commercial release came out without any authorization. The original publishing agreement expired back in October 2016, exactly 10 years after the game's release. The current publishers have no valid legal rights to monetize my visual assets or distribute this project for profit. My categorical demand to the publishers was to distribute this project exclusively for free—as a non-commercial fan modification for the community. They completely ignored my demands and decided to profit off my work without my consent.
Denis stated that he filed a DMCA complaint (for “copyright infringement”) with Valve and allegedly submitted the original publisher agreements to the company. He emphasizes that his goal is not to have the game blocked:
I want it to be free for everyone, because the current version is merely a third-party fan modification. Please do not support these publishers.
A representative of the developers of You Are Empty: Absolute Edition accused Denis of lying:
[…] his claims regarding the intellectual property rights to You Are Empty are completely groundless and fraudulent. This is not even a dispute with room for legal ambiguity. It is complete and absolute fiction. Denis has never held any legal rights to the intellectual property of You Are Empty.
According to this individual, Denis did not even file a DMCA notice with Valve—he failed to provide lawyers with the requested documents concerning the aforementioned “complaint”:
If Denis truly believed he held legal rights, a standard and immediate step on his part would have been to file a formal DMCA complaint with Valve. Denis has never done that. Furthermore, when our lawyers formally requested that Denis provide any documentation supporting his claims, he flatly refused. His childish and immature actions clearly demonstrate that these claims are entirely baseless. What started as a groundless dispute has now escalated into public lies deliberately aimed at undermining the reputation of our company, our team, and our project.