Steam & DMCAs

QUICK FACT CHECK: THINGS YOU NEEDS TO KNOW OR UNDERSTAND
  • You are legally responsible for EVERYTHING you publish to the internet.
  • All digital hosts and service providers are legally obliged to react to DMCA/Takedown requests within a set period, they can't ignore them.
  • DMCA applies only to the US.  But there are equivalent Laws in the EU and the rest of the world under Copyright legislation but they don't have nice easy names. 
  • Only the owner of the infringed IP can make a claim.
  • Filing a bogus DMCA/Takedown claim is illegal and falls under perjury laws.
WHAT IS DMCA
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) came into US law in October 1998. It was a response to the rise of peer-to-peer file-sharing and other new digital technologies had facilitated widespread illegal access to copyrighted material. It came about largely by demand of the big media organisations like Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Film Studios for the creation of a formal process by which copyright holders could assert their rights over media posted to third-party websites and have copyrighted material removed promptly.

Please note I said US Law. While the DMCA is only an American thing, the EU also has an equivalent know as Article 14 of the Electronic Commerce Directive. Article 14 of the Electronic Commerce Directive does not make for an nice easy to say acronym. A14ECD sound more like a flu virus. So don't be surprised if everyone calls it DMCA no matter where you are.

But in the case of the Steam Workshop US Law does really does apply. You agreed to that by using the service and accepting the Steam Subscriber Agreement

REASONS WHY YOU MAY GET A DMCA
Simply put, you uploaded something that does not belong to you.  Not matter what hosting provider you use if the owner of the IP becomes aware of an illegal upload or content using their material they have the right to issue a Take down request.

Its then the responsibility of the hosting provider to:
  1. Notify you of a DMCA/Takedown claim, including all the details of the files and the claimant.
  2. Make a reasonable investigation to support the claim - most don't investigate.  They just remove the offending content. It is quicker and exposes them to less legal risk.
  3. If you do not act in response, either by removing the files yourself the host is obliged to remove the content from their servers.
You can make a counter-claim the host is still obliged to remove the content until ownership is established.

There is a great guide here to the general process of DMCA's and Takedown Requests.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET A DMCA TAKEDOWN REQUEST
Well, if you know you've stolen something or re-uploaded something you shouldn't have. Then sorry but you need to take it down.

If you didn't know the content was stolen or plagiarized, again I'm sorry but once you are aware that it is stolen you need to take it down.  Regardless of whether or not you knew it was stolen you are still liable as it is you that published it to the internet in this case.

STEAM WORKSHOP
The Steam workshop is a great resource but it comes with some legal strings attached to it.

You have to grant Valve (The owner of the Steam service) legal rights to anything you publish.  This is to close off some liability issues surrounding the publishing of any material onto the internet.  When you accept the Steam agreement you are in actual fact effectively signing a contract to not only abide my the Terms of Service (ToS) but making a statement that everything you publish you are legally the owner of or are empowered to assign legal rights to.

And as we all know - giving someone something you do not own is called theft. IP rights are a tradable thing and as such can be stolen.

Basic Facts you may not know.
  1. Bohemia Interactive are not responsible for the Steam Workshop. - In fact they can't even remove anything from the Workshop.  A select few of their staff may mark an item incompatible and mark it for review.  But they can't remove anything without Valve doing it for them.
  2. Valve is the only moderator - There is a rumour that the BI forum mods are responsible for removing content from the workshop.  This just isn't true. Valve is the only one with this power and you gave them that right over you by using the service and agreeing to the Steam Subscriber Agreement
  3. Valve is legally responsible for content on their servers - Any hosting provider is. its international law.  But Steam isn't just any old server host.  And the terms and conditions you agree to when using the service isn't quite the same as you agree to with other providers.  When you upload to the Steam workshop you give them rights to your content. By doing so you make a declaration that you are legally the owner or are authorised to grant rights to 3rd parties. Then they in "good faith" - because you told them that you are allowed to give out these rights use these files to promote their business (commercial use).  In law ignorance is not excuse. We've all heard that phrase, but this isn't ignorance, you've declared that you are legally the owner of the content, they published it in good faith so in the eyes of the law they aren't the ones with the liability.  They have the obligation to remove any content that it proven to be illegal but you have the liability for breaking the law.
  4. Valve is legally obliged to respond to every DMCA but the legislation gives them a degree of immunity by putting the legal emphasis onto you.  Interesting titbit: In some cases, the DMCA law allows hosts to pass on any legal costs incurred to the uploader. 😉
THE COMMON REASONS FILES GET DMCA'D OR REMOVED.
  1. The content is stolen.
  2. Reuploading someone else’s content violates the Steam License - Section 6D - By uploading someone else’s content you are giving away rights to content you do not own.
  3. Uploading an unsupported version causes the real Author loads of support problems. Especially when that version becomes obsolete.
There are alternatives to re-uploading on steam that aren’t illegal. Collections for a start. Non-steam repositories etc.

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