from black mesa What was recently released Portal: Revolution, Valve is known for being pretty aggressive in letting modders run wild with new creations based on popular games. However, a recent series of legal threats and takedowns against Valve-related fan projects has led some people to half life Manufacturers, like Nintendo, seek to strictly enforce intellectual property rights against projects and mods they deem infringing.
While there are differences in the circumstances that led to the removal of the three recent fan projects, there are also some similarities that point to the specific types of fan projects that have recently attracted Valve’s legal attention.
What happened so far?
Valve’s latest efforts began last week when the company filed a DMCA takedown request. amper softwarea team of volunteers trying to reimagine aging team fortress 2 Powered by Valve’s more modern Source 2 engine. As a DMCA notice, Posted on Amper’s GitHubfocuses on the use of ‘ by teams.TF2 assets [that] “Ported to Source 2 without permission” and “Unauthorized porting and redistribution of Valve assets without a license; [which] Violating Valve’s intellectual property. ”
In a subsequent social media post, the Amper team said: We have verified that the DMCA request is genuine and Said It was a “nail in the coffin” for a project that was already in trouble.The remake problem has begun. back in septemberwhen Facepunch’s S&box (Sandbox) Platform (What Amper used to build it TF2 Source 2 port) has been announced Future “large-scale reorganization” Describe the characteristics of client/server architectures and entity-based coding environments.
At that time, the Amper team reacted to those changes They say they are “putting our efforts on hold until the future of s&box is clearer and more stable…It may be time for Amper Software to explore new ideas.” This situation did not change until last week when Amper. Confirmed It had already “transitioned in its entirety” from the project before the DMCA request.
“We can’t get it back. And we’ve brought it to Valve’s attention. They definitely don’t want us to use their IP (this completely fair and legal for them),” Amper said.
portal 64
Days after TF2 Source 2’s removal, another high-profile Valve fan project was quickly canceled.As I mentioned last week, the “demake” project Portal The project for the Nintendo 64 was removed following “contact from Valve” citing concerns that “the project relied on Nintendo’s proprietary libraries.”
Nintendo’s use of the libultra development library meant that “this project was probably doomed from the start.” portal 64 Creator James Lambert said in a YouTube video Posted over the weekend. “I can’t say I didn’t expect this at some point,” he continued. “I’m not blaming you. [Valve] Not at all, and I don’t think I should either. Please don’t get mad at Valve here. ”
Lambert says portal 64 He added that while it may one day be ported to an open source N64 environment like libdragon, he (and Valve) probably won’t want to risk even that without Nintendo’s explicit approval. “Valve is trying to get into the legal realm of what happens when one big company backs a project that’s a game that’s not licensed for another big company’s console, even if it’s a 30-year-old game.” I don’t think I’m going to consider it…”
“It’s no surprise that Valve has to tell me to cancel the project,” he added. “I may not be a big enough target for Nintendo to pursue, but Valve…”