Valve Drops the Hammer On Infringing Dota 2 Mace

[WhiteTigerShiro]

I don't know how much money the guy made off the mace (and will thus lose) but the part that really stings is the ban from Steam, which means the loss of all the games in his library. I would never condone plagiarism, but that's an awfully harsh punishment and one that I don't think necessarily speaks well of Steam. Transgressions must be punished, but stripping someone of games he's rightfully paid for is a little too heavy-handed for my liking.

Wonderful, glad to know me not supporting steam anymore is valid. He does something as small as this and gets banned for it and loses access to all the games he paid for.

Considering that Valve (and/or the makers of Aion) could rightly sue him out of house and home... it sounds like he got off easy. Plagiarism in school might just get you a slap on the wrist, but plagiarism in the real world gets you in far far worse trouble.

On that note, how do we know that this is a Steam ban? All that the notice says is "the contributor has been banned". That could mean from Steam as a whole, or he could just mean banned from DOTA 2. It could also just mean that his account is banned from making anymore Workshop submissions. Unless someone has a source that specifies that his account was banned from Steam itself, we could very-well be making a mountain out of a molehill over all this. Geez, people see the B-word and start running around like chickens with their heads cut off over it.

(( And frankly, if he is only banned from a single game, then he got off WAY too easy. Guy should count himself lucky if that's the case. ))

Edit: And just to clarify, even if someone CAN cite a source that clarifies the situation to explain that he did in fact lose his entire account (and thus any games attached to it), it's still him getting off easy considering the trouble he COULD get into. I'm just saying that people are freaking out over an assumed specification of a vague quote.

 

[GasparNolasco]

Well, everybody loses... except Steam that kept the money from the 25000 mace sales AND for the infringing user's game library.
That wouldn't happen if he had the caution to verify if he really owned the products he paid for.

 

[ANeM]

Transgressions must be punished, but stripping someone of games he's rightfully paid for is a little too heavy-handed for my liking.

How is it heavy-handed? The guy broke the terms of service agreement, he broke the contribution agreement and chances are when Valve contacted him to put the item into the game he either flat out lied to them, or lied by omission.


He stole art assets from another company and submitted it to Valve as if it were his own work. He put Valve at risk of serious legal repercussions, screwed over thousands of Valve customers and completely undermined what Valve is trying to accomplish with the Workshop. He is lucky that Valve just closed his account instead of throwing a law suit at him. If he manages to get away without getting one from NCsoft either, he is having a pretty great day all things considered.

And just for reference, from section 4 of the Steam Subscriber Agreement:

Valve may terminate your Account or a particular Subscription for any conduct or activity that Valve believes is illegal, constitutes a Cheat, or which otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers.

What this user did was illegal. In using Steam he agreed to Valves terms that if he did something illegal over steam, such as Copyright Infringement (which is exactly what he did,) Valve could close his account. He did what he did and Valve responded EXACTLY how they told him they would. Furthermore, he did something which negatively affected thousands of Steam users, so that is a second charge against him, and technically he cheated the Workshop system. Three Strikes, he is out.

Well, everybody loses... except Steam that kept the money from the 25000 mace sales.

If you actually read Valves statement, you'd see that the "Sales" were for Keys used to open crates with randomized drops. 25,000 people who opened crates received the mace, by random chance. Those people were given a replacement mace. The Mace had not yet made it to the DOTA Store, and as such no one paid directly for the mace.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

An eye for an eye makes the world blind. You infringe on someone's intellectual property, your property gets stolen. Makes perfect sense. And that's what "banning" someone from a single player game does. Software is a product, not a service. EULAs are nothing but shiny baubles for overpaid lawyers to dangle in front of aging judges.

While that saying means well, it breaks down a little when you apply it to the real world. If we didn't punish criminals somehow, then what's to stop people from breaking the law? Heck, what's the point in even having laws?

Then again, I'm one of those "a punishment SHOULD seem a little over-the-top" types. In my opinion, if a punishment feels fair, then it isn't really a punishment. Heck, the whole point of a punishment is to act as a deterrent from committing the crime in the first place; not to be something that you barter about in your head and decide "Yeah, that's a fair price, I'm gonna go ahead and do it".

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Well, everybody loses... except Steam that kept the money from the 25000 mace sales AND for the infringing user's game library.
That wouldn't happen if he had the caution to verify if he really owned the products he paid for.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call "not looking at the big picture". Let's have a round of applause for his failure.

 

[bafrali]

Well, everybody loses... except Steam that kept the money from the 25000 mace sales AND for the infringing user's game library.
That wouldn't happen if he had the caution to verify if he really owned the products he paid for.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call "not looking at the big picture". Let's have a round of applause for his failure.

Seriously though. People are afraid of steam because they will get banned when they do nasty things? This is like a thief going "Hey guys, am I the only one who is disturbed that they can put you in jail if you steal shit? This is so unfair."

 

[Vigormortis]

Though, legitimate question, if he made the model from scratch could the item be fallen under homage or fair use or something? Probably not, but still, random thought.

Only if he gave credit where credit was due and "gave away" the end product. This is often the sort of thing you see modders do or artists doing parodies.

However, the "guilty party" in this not only copied the weapon in question, almost note for note, he sold it for monetary gain. That is the very epitome of plagiarism.

It still baffles me that people on this site are all-but fucking defending this guys actions and proclaiming that Valve's actions were "too harsh" or "unwarranted".

Christ people. HE BROKE THE LAW! He's lucky he didn't end up in court, paying tens of thousands of dollars in fines and court fees.

Seriously, the occasional lack of perspective around here is striking.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Well It was either this or they could have given him a lawsuit that would have costed much, much more. He probably got the best deal he could here

 

[Fathoms]

opinions, opinions everywhere.

i think he should be locked out from the workshop and unable to post anything there further, such as something like the VAC ban system but a "Workshop Ban." possibly having to pay a fine as well, but if he had hundreds or thousands invested in steam, it's a bit too harsh imho.

 

[grigjd3]

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Valve Drops the Hammer On Infringing Dota 2 Mace

I don't know how much money the guy made off the mace (and will thus lose) but the part that really stings is the ban from Steam, which means the loss of all the games in his library. I would never condone plagiarism, but that's an awfully harsh punishment and one that I don't think necessarily speaks well of Steam. Transgressions must be punished, but stripping someone of games he's rightfully paid for is a little too heavy-handed for my liking.

Permalink

This really isn't that harsh a punishment. If game publishers believe that Steam won't respect their IPs, they won't publish on Steam. Steam without publishers is worthless. It is in Valve's best interest to make absolutely sure that no modder makes money by selling something from another IP. Now, I am all for power being in the hands of people, rather than corporate overlords, but Steam is something that has been terribly good for gaming and it needs to be protected from people who would abuse it. There are terms of service agreements and Steam is absolutely in their rights (as well as their responsibilities) to fully expel someone who has gotten them into such a mess. This is not a case of DRM being an issue for legitimate, paying customers. It's a case of an obvious thief trying to make a profit on someone else's efforts. What Steam did was deserved and effective. Now I understand that a member of the internet press might not understand how serious stealing IP related assets can be, but this is far less than would be suffered if say, a member of the academic world was caught doing the same.

 

[Jumplion]

It still baffles me that people on this site are all-but fucking defending this guys actions and proclaiming that Valve's actions were "too harsh" or "unwarranted".

Christ people. HE BROKE THE LAW! He's lucky he didn't end up in court, paying tens of thousands of dollars in fines and court fees.

Seriously, the occasional lack of perspective around here is striking.

I think it's partially due to the fact that it might just look like "a mace" to some, and therefore not as big of a deal if he would have plagiarized an entire book and passed it off as his.

Also, after VALVe changed it's ToS policy, they essentially held everybody's game library hostage until they agreed, this might be seen as an even harsher reminder that digital services can just take away somebody's property, regardless of the actual context in this particular case. I will admit, it is a bit worrisome to see this kind of power in action. Even if VALVe bans your account when a hacker got it, they cannot unban the account. They might transfer your games to a new account, but all it takes is a misunderstanding and you're shit out of luck, your games are gone, screw off. (I may be wrong on the unbanning part, which I hope I am)

 

[Hagi]

Call me old-fashioned, but I equate this with, say, EA sending a guy over to your house to take away all the games you legally paid for because it caught you making copies of one you didn't. I don't think any of us would stand for that, so why is it okay for Valve to take away legitimately-purchased Steam titles for an unrelated matter?

I'd equate it with spending tens of thousands of dollars on an university education, plagiarising and being banned from graduating.

Which is standard procedure everywhere around the world.

Making copies of a game isn't plagiarism. You'd have to go a whole lot further than that.

 

[William Ossiss]

Spoiler

This user deserves everything he gets. It cost the company time and money, not to mention that if they hadn't caught it maybe a lawsuit.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Well, everybody loses... except Steam that kept the money from the 25000 mace sales AND for the infringing user's game library.
That wouldn't happen if he had the caution to verify if he really owned the products he paid for.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call "not looking at the big picture". Let's have a round of applause for his failure.

Seriously though. People are afraid of steam because they will get banned when they do nasty things? This is like a thief going "Hey guys, am I the only one who is disturbed that they can put you in jail if you steal shit? This is so unfair."

They can put you in WHERE? WHAT BULLSHIT IS THIS!

Oh wait. No one's surprised about that, and yet a lot of people here are genuinely annoyed with Valve.

 

[bafrali]

snip

Hmm. Nope i can't find the word "surprised" in one of my recent posts. Should i check the rest of them?

I meant that people are getting paranoid about Steam because of possibilities. It is like me shunning a guy because he has a knife in his kitchen that can kill me.

 

[mike1921]

Call me old-fashioned, but I equate this with, say, EA sending a guy over to your house to take away all the games you legally paid for because it caught you making copies of one you didn't. I don't think any of us would stand for that, so why is it okay for Valve to take away legitimately-purchased Steam titles for an unrelated matter?

Steam is a service, not a retail product. Man violated the service rules he accepted beforehand and is banned from the service accordingly, losing the related licences in the process. He knew the danger and suffered the consequences.

Wish i knew how to fit an "unforeseen consequences" joke there

It's a service in some bullshit legal sense. In the real world steam is a store, regardless of how behind on the times the legislation is. He bought the licences, a one time payment with no pre-determined time when they will become invalid, he should be entitled to them. It's sickening that people have taken to buying the "it's a service " line, it's a place you enter for free and buy things with one transaction with no pre-set date when it's not yours anymore, that's called a retail store not a service. Entering the store and making purchases is a service. The actual items you purchased are yours.

Doesn't mean I'm against him getting sued for this for a value worth more than his steam account is worth, that's irrelevant if you ask me.

 

[bafrali]

Call me old-fashioned, but I equate this with, say, EA sending a guy over to your house to take away all the games you legally paid for because it caught you making copies of one you didn't. I don't think any of us would stand for that, so why is it okay for Valve to take away legitimately-purchased Steam titles for an unrelated matter?

Steam is a service, not a retail product. Man violated the service rules he accepted beforehand and is banned from the service accordingly, losing the related licences in the process. He knew the danger and suffered the consequences.

Wish i knew how to fit an "unforeseen consequences" joke there

It's a service in some bullshit legal sense. In the real world steam is a store, regardless of how behind on the times the legislation is. He bought the licences, a one time payment with no pre-determined time when they will become invalid, he should be entitled to them. It's sickening that people have taken to buying the "it's a service " line, it's a place you enter for free and buy things with one transaction with no pre-set date when it's not yours anymore, that's called a retail store not a service. Entering the store and making purchases is a service. The actual items you purchased are yours.

Doesn't mean I'm against him getting sued for this for a value worth more than his steam account is worth, that's irrelevant if you ask me.

Let me repeat it again. He knew the danger of losing his account and consequantly the games with it. You may be annoyed with the system but man accepted the rules and outcomes that comes along with it if he fucks up. Then he messed up his part of the deal and got what was promised within the rules he accepted and ultimately defied.

I don't think it can get simpler han this before we use the abacus

 

[ResonanceSD]

snip

Hmm. Nope i can't find the word "surprised" in one of my recent posts. Should i check the rest of them?

I meant that people are getting paranoid about Steam because of possibilities. It is like me shunning a guy because he has a knife in his kitchen that can kill me.

Well if you go into the guy's kitchen, steal a bunch of shit and break some windows, right after signing a form which says, "I consent to be backstabbed if I go into your kitchen, steal your stuff and break windows" what do you expect will happen?