Guide writer uses DMCA to take down early-access Steam game | Hacker News Reader

Guide writer uses DMCA to take down early-access Steam game

store.steampowered.com

21 pointscheschire13 comments

On the bright side, the extortionist made the mistake of not sticking to YouTube. This is now a real DMCA request, and there are consequences for false DMCA requests (it amounts to perjury, a prison sentence in some jurisdictions). Although not specifically called out in the law, given that Steam is a storefront, it also follows that the victim could seek damages (on top of legal costs).

> consequences for false DMCA requests (it amounts to perjury, a prison sentence in some jurisdictions)

> it also follows that the victim could seek damages

In practice, no-one has ever been prosecuted for filing a fraudulent DMCA request, and civil suits against offenders, while not unheard of, are quite rare.

Sorry it seems that link doesn't work directly.

Hopefully a mod can help update to this functional link: https://steamcommunity.com/games/784150/announcements/detail...

Additional information about this story... Youtube video makers are also being threatened with takedown notices for videos that cover the game mode.

There's a pretty decent 20 minute video overview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HstyGiJB-Yw

Ok but why not mention the name of the game?

The link or the title might not have it, but that it doesn’t show up in your corrective comment either is… strange.

The interesting part of the story for me wasn't the game itself. It's that early access games are at least in some part intended to guide development based on player requests. That a player is using their contribution to turn around and take the game down points to a fundamental flaw in the early access model that has found great success on Steam.

Perhaps you're reading too much into it being a game set in the soviet republic? The game is called "Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic"

The game is also made by a small Croatian company it seems. Is that interesting too? Or that the player is themselves a lawyer?

Perhaps you’re reading too much into my annoyance over the title of the game (or the dev or anything) not being present prior to clicking through.

That summary would have made the url corrective comment much more interesting.

Also, there's a prior related thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34858285

I am trying to wrap my head around this and dont really understand.

Lets assume the devs copied the guide verbatim (even though they didnt appear to copy it at all)... how can a Steam guide author possibly hold any kind of copyright claim. Its at best an unlicensed public post, but I assume the Steam/publisher TOS will gobble up ownership rights anyway.

IANAL, but as far as I know, in the US, you are automatically granted copyright protection on any original creative work. Copyright is different than Licenses although licenses can be used to confer copyrights.

This is the case in all states that are parties to the Berne Convention or the TRIPS Agreement, which covers all but half a dozen countries in the world.

Related thread from earlier this week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34880663

Unless its covered by some draconian TOS, right?

I expect to have 0 ownership over anything I create in, say, Halo Forge. Microsoft owns my soul within the platform.

I figured Steam would be similar. Probably Discord too? If its not, I think Valve needs to make some changes to specifically avoid incidents like this.

If someone makes a copyright claim Steam may be obligated to remove it until the developer makes a counter claim.

It doesn't matter what the TOS says. For example, if I post the Lord of the Rings novels on the Steam forum even if the steam forum TOS says Valve owns the post, they don't really own the post because I never had the legal ownship of Lord of the Rings and could never legally agree to that on behalf of the Tolkien estate.

So basically no TOS is going to resolve the factual question of who owns copyright in a post to the steam forum since the poster may not have had the legal authority to agree to the TOS.

Also Valve only has a business interest in the rights to display the posts to the steam forum, they have no business interest in owning the posts, so it would be unreasonable and greedy for them to go further than a license to display the posts. I have not read the TOS but I wouldn't be surprised if Valve's TOS terms were reasonable since they have a good reputation with the gaming community.

Apparently this guide for cosmonaut mode was added as a mode called realism mode.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=19957...

He's also sending takedowns to YouTubers that reviewed the update.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HstyGiJB-Yw

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