Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
Indie game developer Ammobox Studios has sent Steam a DMCA takedown notice for its own game. The company says that it was forced to take such a drastic measure after the publisher stopped making payments. While it's an unusual step to take, the takedown notice achieved the desired result.
[...] "Long story short, we had to file a DMCA against our very own game on Steam to wrest it off the Publisher. The DMCA has just kicked in resulting in the game being taken off the Steam Store Page," Ammobox explained.
Both companies had a publishing agreement, but this was breached according to Ammobox, which notes that no payments were made for the sales of their game on Steam. Without a publishing agreement, the publisher would indeed violate the DMCA, transforming the previously legal copy on Steam into a pirate version. While this isn't a typical takedown notice, it certainly had the desired effect.
The game was removed from the store for over a week. While it was no longer for sale, people who previously bought it could still pay it. Then, after nearly two weeks, the developers regained control of their own game, with help from Steam.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday February 05 2019, @08:11PM
Expensive digital retailers who provide no support at all also suck.
Game developers are mostly pretty cool people. Mostly.
(Score: 5, Informative) by arslan on Tuesday February 05 2019, @09:23PM (1 child)
Would have been nice to put that in the TFS. The said publisher have also been blacklisted in Steam.
(Score: 1) by tedd on Wednesday February 06 2019, @04:26AM
Thank you. Before going to TFA, I thought Ammobox was in dispute with Steam (or Valve).
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday February 05 2019, @10:20PM (3 children)
Some joker claims some of my "content" is his own.
It would mostly be cool for someone to totally jack most of my content provided they left my name on it, with a link to that content's original location. But in this case? No long, neither my name, and he claims _he_ created it!
That Just Pissed Me Off But Good.
Where it stands now is that Google wants evidence that I not he am the rightful owner. That's understandable, given that he claims credit. I figure the wayback machine will set google up right but just haven't dealt with it.
The paper document with the real original is in storage in Brunswick Maine; I expect to fetch all that stuff this summer.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 06 2019, @12:09AM (1 child)
If you're crazy, are you sure you're really you?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday February 06 2019, @12:53AM
LOL: Solipsism [warplife.com].
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Pino P on Wednesday February 06 2019, @06:40AM
Next time, if you really want to prove authorship, register your works at the US Copyright Office [copyright.gov].
(Score: 3, Informative) by BenJeremy on Friday February 08 2019, @01:21PM
The summary is terrible, as it implies AmmoBox was taking action against Steam.
A better summary would say:
Publisher AmmoBox Studios used a DMCA notice to take back control of their game's Steam store page (Eximius: Seize the Frontline), from their publisher, TheGameWallStudios, who had stopped paying the developer. Steam assisted the developer in regaining financial control over their game and has blacklisted the publisher.