This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Once again reminding people that you can sue anyone for anything. Doesn't mean it'll go anywhere
Huh? The game studios pay the licenses, the artists etc. Why on earth would you then hold the store accountable? This is double dipping. That's like charging a CD store for selling your CDs.
This shit is why the music industry is despised.
Rothschild loses their lawsuit against Valve and instantly Valve gets more troll lawsuits against them. What are the odds.
The price might not be worth it, but would be really funny if Valve just delisted the claimed games in the UK and notified the publishers that they need to remove the claimed music or resolve the licensing issue if they want their game back up. Instead of one tidy lawsuit, suddenly these guys are being contacted by the angry lawyers of hundreds of orgs they have existing contracts with.
Sounds like they want to get paid twice.
What's the VPN uptake in the UK these days, considering the state of government restrictions and surveillance lately? If Valve just said fuck it and pulled out of the market, would they even take a financial hit? Or would most of that revenue magically shift to other countries/currencies?
My hate of the copyright-ownership side of Hollywood / Nashville / Atlanta, etc. has been burning white hot since the days that the RIAA was suing people using P2P networks. But, I had to admit that at least they could probably make a valid claim for copyright infringement. But this?!
It's interesting how it's the "Performing Right Society" (which I've never heard of). The "performing" part of that suggests that maybe they have an issue with people sharing clips containing music, or live streaming games where they share music. But, again, why Valve? Sure, people can share clips with friends. And, occasionally you see developers streaming their games. But, nobody is really "performing" live streams on Steam. I suspect they just think Valve is rich and so they can strong-arm them and Valve will settle to make them go away. I hope they bit off more than they can chew. Valve is indeed rich, and they have a tendency to be stubborn. I think they might well fight, and fight hard.
I wish a possible outcome was that the PRS ceased to exist. But, I suspect they're like a flea or something, and even if you knock them off from this attempt to suck someone's blood, you can't kill them, and they'll just find another victim.
Are they going to sue to operating system owners next? What about the web browser that offers the steam installer download?
why stop there! lets go after keyboard manufacturers for allowing people to type words.
Or the dastardly USB Implementers Forum, who not only creates devices that allows those keyboards to function but a storage protocol commonly used by pirates!
This kind of lawsuit only makes things worse for musicians who are already struggling with making money performing and recording. This will be challenged, beaten and leave a bad image for artists as not everyone is going to draw logical conclusions from it.
It’s not about artists anyway despite their claim, it’s about labels. The artists doing well are doing their own thing recording, touring, selling merchandise and making sure their followers are getting value for money. The traditional labels are losing control the same way the magazines did.
That's like suing Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, etc for an artist in their library not licensing a sample correctly
That’s like suing Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, etc for an artist in their library not licensing a sample correctly
No actually, it's like suing Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, etc for an artist in their library licensing a sample correctly.
Not that they like money from Steam despite the games having a licence for the music. If I read the article right.
This is the type of thing that pushes developers towards AI music generators and similar tools.
Being a piece of shit human being should be enough disbar lawyers.
what's sad is that I don't think as many musicians even benefit as much from this as well ... just the companies ...
These idiotic lawsuits. First of all, this isn't even Valves responsibility. Second, Steam/Valve are small frys compared to Amazon/Apple/Google/Microsoft. In gaming they may be smaller than Sony and Nintendo and those two have full on closed software platforms. Steam is one software store among many on Windows, Linux, and MacOS. All these groups want to enshittify PC gaming. They want to enshittify personal computing in general. Turn pre-iPhone smartphone operating systems into iOS
everybody attacking Valve, maybe my tin foil hat is too cozy but it;s a concerted effort by the psychopathic elite to ruin our lives. may their glans be afflicted by a million paper cuts and a salty storm
there's legitimate complaints against valve, but I don't think this is one of them.
I feel like they should get a committee of people together who understand how technology works before they start making laws about it
But that would make sense and be an effective way of making laws and governing and more importantly would stop those who haven't meaningfully added to society from being able to easily profit from it in a way that others can't.
how do you make sure this committee isn't corrupted as fuck by loyalist cock money
I mean we could go the catholic church method of multiple layers of verification, strict requirements for entry, and all encompassing moral framework. It isn't guaranteed to be perfect, but it might just be good enough
all they do is demonstrate why no game should use licensed music ever. cant stream of make videos of those games either without having to worry about this shit.
Meanwhile, big AI vacuums up the entirety of music produced by everyone from piracy sites for profit and noone bats an eye
There have been so many lawsuits against Valve recently from so many different angles. I'm not usually one for conspiracy but I wouldn't be shocked if this is a coordinated campaign to unseat Valve from their monopoly on the PC gaming market so that other games industry corporations can move in. They've been trying and failing to break into this market for years because Valve has built so much consumer loyalty.
If it isn't publicly traded, they can't take over it, enshitify it, and squeeze it until it's useless. So of course they hate it.
Isn't this kind of like suing blockbuster over music in the films they rent? Seems a bit daft, but there must be a reason they think it might succeed.
It seems similar to the idea that you could sue Google for copyright infringement because it serves a website that infringes copyright. Like… valve just serves the content and facilitates sale, right? The act of infringement wasn’t committed by them, it was committed by the game developers. Am I mistaken?
From what I understand, the music was used under licence by the game developers. The plaintiffs want Steam to also pay them for a licence to offer the game, which is already legally using the music, on their store, which is absurd.
Interesting, but I can see how this might play into their favor too. If the developers license to the music doesn’t cover resale/relicense, and maybe they’re arguing that the music (by extension of the game) was licensed to Valve in a manner that isn’t covered by the original license? Effectively meaning, valve can’t profit off the music by any means; developers had a non-extendable license to it, allowing only for distribution to consumers who don’t resell?
But you still wouldn’t sue Valve over that, would you? You’d sue the developers for damages due to breach of contract?
If the games are using the music in violation of copyright and valve acquired it and is selling it, the distribution rights part of copyright law allows the copyright owner to sue anyone in the supply chain. If the music was originally licensed properly, then PRS is just looking for a settlement.
Once you purchase a legally distributed work, you are protected by the first sale doctrine, which allows you to do pretty much whatever you want with your single copy.
But with Steam you haven't purchased a copy. First sale doctrine isn't likely to apply. You've purchased a license for access.
That’s the relationship between consumer and Valve though. I’m thinking what’s more relevant is whether or not the relationship between the game developer and Valve is in breach of contract between PRS and the game developer.
Any idea if Valve technically only has access licenses as well? Or did they buy a copy to license out themselves?
I think the issue here is that the game developers may not have any contract with PRS. Historically they wouldn't have had to - they'd license the music from the big music labels, stamp their game onto a CD and sell a product. Now they're not just selling a product - they're licensing access to a "performance" of it. Valve is the playing an active part in this by "performing" the works on demand. It seems stupid to me, but that's the world of content licensing.
I think ever since Valve fought through their first lawsuit with Sierra and lucked out with them finding evidence showing destruction of evidence, they probably developed zero appetite to fold for frivolous lawsuits lol.
Shouldn't they be suing the game publishers not the reseller?
So EA and Microsoft according to their docket?
No because they have a license to use the music already. They are seeking the equivalent of performance rights from Steam. They are extortionists.
Yes we’ve had first rights payments, but what about seconds rights payments??
I feel like by this logic Amazon and Walmart would also need to obtain lisences to sell video games that have music in them...
That or I'm too tired and bread dead to understand the stupid shit I just read.
"The litigation will progress until Valve obeys" sounds an awful lot like extortion.
They are clearly trying to double/triple dip on shit that already been paid for and licensed.
Whats next?
Make us individual game owners pay license every time we download and install the game?
PRS claims "many game titles which incorporate PRS members' musical works are made available on Steam," including "high profile series" such as Forza Horizon, FIFA/EA FC, and GTA.
Insanity. It's like suing a grocery shop for selling the xyz branded milk for using their copyrighted font.
What the hell is with the Flurry of legal attacks against Valve now?
