this was posted on the Stardock discord (quotations mark the announcment):
"We have received news today @everyone that Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford, contractors on the classic DOS game, Star Control 2 for Accolade and have issued a DMCA take down notice to Valve to take down Star Control: Origins.

DMCA sent to GOG: https://www.screencast.com/t/mODt766t162

As some of you may know, there is a legal dispute between Stardock and Reiche and Ford regarding the trademarks and copyrights pertaining to Star Control.

You can read the history here: https://www.stardock.com/games/starcontrol/article/487690/qa-regarding-star-control-and-paul-and-fred

Stardock, for the record, owns the trademark to Star Control: Origins and Star Control 3 and Star Control: Origins has nothing to do with Reche and Ford. There is no copyrightable material belonging to Reiche or Ford in Star Control: Origins. The original work of Star Control: Origins was made by a team of talented artists, writers, musicians and designers over 5 years.

We will do our very best to continue to support those who have already bought Star Control: Origins and hope to have the game return as soon as possible. If you have questions please direct them to one of our community managers. Media enquiries can contact press@stardock.com"

(this section is taken from the steam forums)
To the knowledge of Stardock's head honcho, this is the FIRST TIME a DCMA has been used in the history of the industry to take down a game being actively sold so there's precidents to be set here.
PubG sued fortnite for copyright infringment but wasn't taken down as an example.

I can't say i'm interested in Origins or Stardocks shitty games in general for that matter but Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford are beginning to be annoying creatures.

I have to say, despite being extremely skeptical initially, I was pleasantly surprised by this game. I'd certainly say it's worth it for people who want to have a Star Control like experience again.

As long as it eventually ends in Star Control + Star Control II being available here again, I don't really mind.

sad to say, I do NOT think that's gonna happen-sales I do not believe would be high enough to warrant it. They do have a remake (I believe) in the free UQM sourceport. How long THAt stays up is another question with Origins DCMA'd.
UPDATE: the STEAM page link redirects to the Steam home page. GOG still has it for sale-so if you want it, GOG is the last place to get it, legally.

Looks to me like they're REALLY REALLY hoping that Stardock gives them a nice chunk of change to go away...

This probably won't last for long as Stardock will counterclaim. Stardock attempted to get a preliminary injunction to prevent P&F from using DMCA from taking down their game. It was a long shot. The judge ruled against Stardock essentially saying that the court isn't involved in the DMCA process until it is filed (because the DMCA isn't a court order preventing sales - you can just file a counterclaim to put the game back on sale). P&F fanboys are taking this as an vindication that Stardock will go out of business and will pay billions to P&F. It was just a question of process and nothing else - and I agree with the judge it's not the courts place to interfere. It does not deal with any questions about the validity of either party's claims against one another. Nope, see Alex Mauer and Starr Mazer/River City Ransom Underground. A preliminary injunction did succeed in a court order telling her not to file any further DMCAs. It didnt stop her of course because court orders dont matter much to someone who is batshit bugfuckingnuts insane. Maybe if Stardock knew about this case they could have had precedent. Probably not since Alex Mauer was acting in a completely irrational manner and was clearly batshit bugfuckingnuts insane - even her own lawyer could no longer represent her. It probably helped in Alex Mauer's case that she was heavily abusing the DMCA process by the time it went to court.

If Fred and Paul win, those games will never come back. They have stated on the record that they don't think they should be sold at all.

Interesting case in general, I'm happy to wait on the sidelines and see how all this plays out.

What would be particularly ironic would be a decision that Fred and Paul own Star Control 1 & 2, but have to give up their rights to pay for the damages caused lost sales by a false DMCA claim. Even when PUBG sued Fortnite, they weren't stupid enough to get the game pulled from sale.

They got it pulled from sale because they were not getting paid for the sales. All the proceeds were going to Stardock.

Why should proceeds for Star Control Origins go to Fred and Paul?
They had nothing to do with it whatsoever...
And if a court agrees, they can be responsible for damages due to the takedown.

They had a separate agreement with GOG from 2011 to 2017 for the older games didn't they?

Wardell seems to think they've been paying royalties since Stardock has had the license as well, so if so, that should be an easy prove / disprove with a few financial documents either way.

Honestly though, this is all shit, the whole thing is pretty disgusting.

I was talking about SC1 and SC2. Sorry for the ambiguity.

This is madness. just utter revolting madness.