The DMCA is invalid; and the wrong way to go about this in the first place. An injunction would be needed.

If you want to read about the case, I suggest here.

Have you ever heard about family tradition ? ( first boy named after his father )

Is this related to R&F's complaining that you can create their ships with the SC:O ship designer? Although I generally favor them in this case (I would much rather have their Ur-Quan Masters follow-up than anything from Stardock), that's the the kind of "hand over your notebook, kid" dick move that companies like Disney and Marvel have used in the past.

The Arilou show up in the game. They aren't actually called that and resemble the grey alien trope more than the original. The zoq-fot-pik are mentioned by name. There is a music track called Chenjesu by a music artist who worked on SC2.

The grey alien trope has existed for far longer than SC so it probably won't hold up as being copyrightable. The music track is only shares it name in common with SC2 - and names aren't copyrightable by themselves, but they can be trademarked which gives the advantage to Stardock since they have been using it in active trade and P&F have not for many years. The Zoq-Fot-Pik claim may go against Stardock in this case in which case Stardock might have to remove all references to them from their game.

Okay, gotcha. Thanks!

I wouldn't expect any comment from GOG as they are being sued by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford too.

Who seems to have the upper hand in this dispute?
Trying to make a video game disappear from the market is always wrong, so I hope that Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford will lose badly (by the way I find it disgusting to use money broached to fans for their whims).

Star Control: Origins interests me, and on the one hand I'd rather buy it at a discount, on the other hand I don't want to risk it never being put back on sale again.

Really? Source please.

Do you even read the stories about this let alone the public court documents? Yes, Fred & Paul are also suing Steam/Valve and GoG for being accomplices in violating the copyright they claim to own. That by selling the product, they are liable. They are listed right in the court docs.

Notice how Fred & Paul want money from anyone they can squeeze it from for a game they were completely uninvolved with.

It's right there in the DMCA posted by the OP. Being sued means having legal proceedings initiated against you to get you to do something (or not do something) through a court order. In this case the DMCA stated P&F are seeking a restraining order against both Stardock and GoG. The court order in this case could force GoG to remove the game from accounts as the DMCA suggests.

[EDIT] I don't know if there are further legal proceedings initiated against GoG for P&F, like suing for monetary damages and such.

F&P will likely win. They own all of the important bits to Star Control: Characters, ships, art, lore, ect. The only thing that Stardock owns is the name "Star Control". Stardock could have create a game that was similar to the classic games, so long as they didn't copy the content of F&P's work.

However, Stardock added elements of Star Control into Origins such as the Arilou and Zot-Fot-Pik, all before the court proceedings could be resolved. The judge didn't look kindly upon this, who plainly stated that many of Stardock's issues were of their own making.

Presuming Fred's & Paul's claim is correct (I'm not saying it is...I don't know either way), then Steam and GOG would indeed be complicit, and also Fred & Paul would indeed be involved with the game since other companies would be/have been using & profiting from their IP without their permission (that's illegal).

You keep spouting your legal opinion. You don't know what you are talking about.
There are plenty of aspects to this case, starting from who owns what and all you seem to parrot are talking points straight from Fred and Paul.

As to who the judge dislikes and frowns upon, she gave a tongue-lashing to both parties starting with Fred and Paul for submitting additional addendums without asking for permission to submit addendums and exceeding 5 pages which is the legal requirement. Then both Stardock and Fred and Paul made numerous responses, again without permission and all exceeding 5 pages. She threw all of that out!!!!

Assuming that the court rules that the original games and assets belong to Fred & Paul and the Trademark and promotional materials to Stardock...which is not a certainty, but a middleground:

Fred and Paul probably lose and suffer damages for announcing their new game claiming its a true successor to "Star Control" and using the promotional materials for Star Control 2. They pretty clearly created confusion and devalued the Trademark.

As to Star Control: Origins, it's far more complicated. Names cannot be copyrighted as such and might be protected as part of the Trademark. The question is how they have been used. If they have been used in a way that greatly resembles the source material owned by Fred and Paul. That isn't a given. Look at Star Trek. Someone else owns the copyright to the design of the Enterprise. Yet, it is still being used yet in altered form without paying that copyright holder. The courts have determined that as long as the design is at least 25% different, it is not infringing. The same sort of standard will be applied here. it quite similar given that the name "Enterprise" is part of the Trademark, but the design is owned by someone else. Is the characterization and use of the various races (where used) different enough to not be infringing? That will be determined by the court.

Again, this is assuming that the rights are determined to be split. So don't presume to pretend you know how this will end. It's quite complicated and the case really hasn't even begun.

Don't read too much into the dismissed injunction either. Courts are very reluctant to issue them. The court essentially ruled that because the situation can be remedied with financial penalties to Fred and Paul for any resulting damages, no injunction is necessary. This is not a "win" for Fred and Paul. In fact, in some ways it could be construed as a warning to Fred and Paul that this DMCA claim might not be such a good idea because they would be liable for damages.

Really? Does that make Amazon responsible for a third-party selling counterfeit merchandise on their site? It's going to be a hard claim to make. And I don't recall any retailer being found liable for such in the past. Add to the fact that Fred and Paul had signed legal agreements regarding Star Control and Star Control 2 essentially acknowledging Atari's interests in the matter. I highly doubt it.

Does that make Steam responsible for every game that might contain infringing aspects or illegal asset flips? I doubt it.

The Stardock devs are making ridiculous claims on their Steam forum, such as saying that: And they also admit to censoring posts which rebut their nonsense and/or disagree with their opinions, i.e. source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/271260/discussions/1/1742229167221237036/?ctp=2

IMO those shady shenanigans on Stardock's part lend credence to the idea that Fred & Paul have a good point and Stardock isn't on the level.

Do you ever stop being a dick? No, I haven't read any stories about this recently as I was unaware there was any news. All the OP linked to was the DMCA and a Stardock forum post that's been around forever.