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Ok, now that the page is back I can take my time to answer your questions and explain the current situation.

Gats, our former portrait artist, sent a DMCA on us at the end of September.
He apparently wasn't aware about some aspects of the game, like the (optional) sex scenes during fights, despite such content being in the game 5-6 months before he joined.

That's why he dropped out and, not satisfied, decided to (try to) take the ball and go home, like it's usual around these parts between professional artists.
This time though there's other people involved, that would very much like to see TKC go under, but that's a story for another day.


We answered his DMCA, thanks to the contract Gats and I signed back when he joined the team we had nothing to fear.

That's why around a week ago he decided to file a lawsuit against me and Patreon could do nothing but suspend the page until I removed the content cited in the lawsuit.

We're already dealing with it and v0.13 won't be slowed down but we won't be able to post links here until this is dealt with. Same thing goes for the main page and all there's around, that will go back to normal when the lawsuit is dealt with.

I'd also like ask, if possible, to keep everything regarding this boring stuff in this post.
Thank you!

UPDATE

Files

Comments

Anonymous

At least it's getting handled

Argenten

Wow, this guy has a bad history it seems, ditching TiTS snd now doing this? Glad you are okay though.

Anonymous

Don't spread false information, Gats is not associated with Duke's team at all and that game has been in production almost as long as this one. The style is similar it's not Gats.

RenOkimasu

Did he really ditch it? Fen never really hinted towards anything ill-will towards Gats and according to Gats all his sprites were just one big commission which even still I'm kinda eh on because...it's weird to do some characters and not really try to help with more.

RenOkimasu

As much as I like Gats(well his artstyle at least) this is really scummy, especially with how he just came out all vague on tumblr and twitter knowing ppl would side with him more(possibly, I read too much into stuff) I like the game too much and if he's tilted over a feature(s) that can technically be avoided then that's his problem, he shouldn't be trying to down a game where the 'ntr' isn't even as bad as the other two games he's well known for working on.

lightningshifter

So, would the content in question be all the artwork that Gats had contributed? I'm just a little curious about the content that its slated to be removed to appease the terms of the suit.

towerkc

He's actually going for all that's "Towergirls" (the names, the Princesses and the monsters in the charts). What isn't included in the charts is the Knight, the NPCS, the progenies and, of course, the game itself.

RottenMung

So.....when 0.13 releases, how different of a change will we see?

towerkc

This thing will surely be dealt with at least a week before release.

Anonymous

May Gats never get another contract for anything in his sad little life for such a kindergarden show...

towerkc

Just remember that there's nothing as a "bad PR". Let's transform all the pent up anxieties into excitement for the future! Hurray, positive emotions!

Jonas Wulff Christiansen

well i am glad to see that you are coming out on top of this debacle. strange behaviour sigh some people huh... well :D lets just hope and try for the best good luck :D

Blackwatch

At least it's an opportunity to get a possibly even better artist.

Kitsune

if you want more information about this current event please join discord

John Lacy

That really sucks for you guys, glad that it's getting handled quickly though, good on you for making clear contracts! Not enough do.

Anonymous

We still stand behind you. I’m glad you’re doing well.

dualblade16

So Gats tried to pull an S-purp. Well, screw Gats.

TheSevenSins

so does that mean we are back with a "gotta change all the art again" ?

towerkc

No, but we have to wait until the lawsuit is dealt with if we don't want Patreon to put us "under review" again.

Anonymous

This is why things have gone to such shit in this world with this kind of blatant copyright trolling as it is called. Copyright was intended to protect people from taking credit for their work, it wasn't intended to screw people over when they have a legitimate arrangement like you did.

TheSevenSins

last thing, I wish the discord had at least 1 public channel. Feedback trough messages like these can be easily missed :( . I like being able to discuss with the creators of my favourite hentai games :)

TsarBomba

i feel the same i was excited to see more of gats art and the game looks really fun then this happen its a shame but i guess it happens sometimes when egos get too high or expectations about how things will work are broken

TsarBomba

Glad too see you handling it so well just keep on trucking no point in letting it bog you down right? as shitty as it is like you said nothing can be done til the dust settles the more i see how you operate the more i like this team you guys will def be on top of my list to back when i have more budget

Anonymous

Such a shame, i like his artstyle but... well glad you can keep positive about it.

Anonymous

While I understand the reasoning behind it I'm still kind of bummed that you decided to go the legal route. Now a fairly significant sum of valuable patreon dollars will be going into lawyers' pockets rather than towards the development of the game itself. I don't expect that you'll disclose how much money is now going to be directed towards legal costs, but the one thing that just about everybody knows about lawyers is that they do not come cheap. Obviously I can't comment on what actually happened or speculate on alternative possible solutions, but I do worry that it will be more time-consuming and much less straight-forward than you anticipate. Only two weeks ago you seemed quite confident that no content would be removed, and that Patreon wouldn't remove anything, however the entire page was then taken down for around three days until you opted to remove content related to the lawsuit. Our collective hope is that this is temporary. I don't think that you were wrong to choose to do that rather than leave the page down until the lawsuit was sorted out, but it still leaves me feeling pretty worried nonetheless. I hope that you can sort things out with Gats quickly (and cheaply).

Anonymous

It's a damn shame, and a good reminder to project leads that get into this sort of thing to keep artists under contract with the contract specifying that all assets delivered to the project and paid for are the property of the project, not the artist. Too many good games getting sunk by an artist being either directly a part of the leadership and sinking the company *cough Breeding Season cough*, or being so ingrained to the project that they can set it back months if not years with refactoring.

towerkc

Your worries make sense and I want to answer them honestly. The point-to-point answer isn't meant to sound cold or rude, it's just to make sure I don't leave unanswered questions. -Obviously it wasn't I that decided to take the legal route, we recieved the lawsuit Gats adressed to me 3-4 days ago. We're only answering it right now. -The patreon bucks that aren't spent on the game's development, believe it or not, reach my wallet! I didn't cut any commission to the other team member's because I don't want to stop the development, so the legal expenses are taken directly from my cut. -Patreon didn't remove anything from these pages, I did it, since lawsuits are serious stuff. The "infringing" material has to be removed from the Patreon's main page to not risk it getting suspended again. -IF the lawsuit gets resolved in our favor, of course everything will go back to normal, and I strongly believe that's what is going to happen. -Luckily Patreon only charge you guys at the beginning of the month, you can watch the situation before deciding to renew your pledge or not, is your right to do so and I exhort (is that the right word?) you all to do as you feel!

Anonymous

your case looks a copy of "imagos softwork vs alex mauer" leonard french is the attorney on the case for imagos <a href="https://leonardjfrench.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://leonardjfrench.com/</a> alex mauer did dmca on gameplay videos because of "his" music, "he" had "issues" with the company but by his contract he didn't own the music, the company did.

Anonymous

Gats already said he doesn't own the assets, the problem is that Towerfag claimed the IP wasn't copyrighted, and that triggered the lawsuit. That case is nothing like this one, since Gats is not trying to take away anything except, maybe, the name.

Anonymous

Gats never said that the assets commissioned were his nor he intended to pull them off the game. Don't be fooled.

Anonymous

It's interesting that Gats would object to the non-consensual elements, given that he's provided art for Trials in Tainted Space, which thrives on such elements.

Anonymous

Okay, if one Googles to get the other side of this, there is talk of people creating forks of the game and Towerfag losing his shit and threatening DMCA for posting code screenshots and/or because of the modded version of the game / alternate version of the game. Even if 100% true, it seems the DMCA threat / letter to Patreon from Gats was way more effective, so what does it matter what posturing Towerfag engaged in? Also, the main objection, at least for non-Gats folks, seems to be "NTR," which isn't rape, but cuckoldry, which is why they kept calling Towerfag "Towercuck". In particular, [spoilers] they didn't like that Dusk Princess rapes the PC as part of the plot to get Dog Princess. But the objection didn't seem to be the rape, but the infidelity to Dog Princess. Frankly, my sympathy for this is low. I am okay with rape fantasies IN THE REALM OF FANTASY ONLY (Hell, I played a lot of TiTS, where every combat can end in conquest sex), but if you're going to object to something in a porn game, rape seems a lot more noble a thing to be upset about than forced infidelity to your waifu. Now, maybe what Gats is doing is at a right angle to / unrelated to that kerfuffle. I haven't tracked down any of his posts and I'm at work now so I can't be poking around NSFW websites. Any way you slice it, though, the best way to go is to just stop worrying about it and do what needs to be done to get the game done. I mean, even if Gats can claim copyright to the term "Kobold Princess," you change it to "Kobold Queen." I'm pretty sure Gats can't claim copyright to that; I could probably dig up an old D&amp;D module with a Kobold Queen in it, or a novel with a Dragon Princess in it, for that matter. If you have to change the name of the game to "Monstergirls in Towers" or whatever, no big deal.

Anonymous

I'm a bit....conflicted with this. Ultimately, the TKC team should be in the right if the contract waived moral rights, but if that's not the case, I'd rather go with the moral rights argument. DMCAs have a bad reputation, that much is true, but without knowing anything further I can't say that it was or was not justified. I don't personally have objections to certain "rape" fantasies, similar to my stance on BDSM, but I respect the decision of the artist to not want to associate their work with it if they so choose, it is their moral right as an artist. The questions come down to this: Were his moral rights waived in the contract he signed, and was the artist aware of this creative decision (non-consent fantasy content) at any time before he joined the team?

Anonymous

Those two sides of the argument are drastically different from one another, which makes this issue far more confusing than what it initially sounds like from the TKC post. Ultimately though, your post makes it sound like both sides concede to problems between TKC and the artist over artistic integrity. I don't know if any side is doing something out of spite or not, since I don't know what was in the contract and its terms and as such whether there is any merit behind the DMCA. However, for the current argument being made of Gats v. TKC in the dev post, it seems to be an issue of moral rights and contract. This has more to do with the intent of modification of the assets.

Anonymous

They say you don't know your doing good until a lawsuit comes. Just means ya got a great game. Good luck with the legal matters.

Anonymous

Thanks for the update, I haven't had any details about the other side's argument before this (I don't use tumblr). I'm not sure what the exact situation of the current copyright is, such as who owns it or what agreements were made between these parties, so I'm absolutely stumped as to how this will get sorted.