By on 13 Aug, 2012 at 11:45 AM
259 Views | 9 Comments

Valve Issues First Ban On A Player-Created Dota 2 Item

Valve Issues First Ban On A Player-Created Dota 2 Item

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Valve has issued a warning to users attempting to create items through Steam Workshop, about “respecting intellectual property” after it was discovered that a player-created Dota 2 weapon was a direct copy from the MMO Aion.

Granted Aion is a game nobody should play for how badly it portrays female characters, but that’s a discussion for another day.

The “Timebreaker” mace for Faceless Void (pictured above) was made available after strong community ratings, with a total of 25,000 purchases thereafter.

However it was removed the game entirely once Valve discovered that the weapon was breaking IP laws. Players who bought the mace were given a replacement weapon, while the weapon’s creator has been — get this — banned and barred from receiving any money made from the sale of the item.

Serious Valve is serious.

What are your thoughts on such things? I’ve always found IP laws to be sucky at best. I can make an item that looks for all intents and purposes like a lightsaber and get away with it if I call it something else and add in minor differences, but dare I call it a lightsaber…

So much for my hopes of a Batman cape for Invoker.

Source: SteamCommunity
Via: VG247

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Name: Caveshen "CaViE" Rajman
Location: Durban
Position: Editor, Columns & Podcasts

Caveshen has published 1345 posts. Read all of Caveshen's posts.
  • PsiCoRe

     Ok. So players are paying $1 – $7 for a model or a skin? More if you want a set? This is the whole “paying for bullets” model imo. And it got 25000 buyers? That is just sad and makes me want nothing to do with the Dota 2 community. But that said, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with copying others’ work if it’s not-for-profit community generated content. In this case the “designer” made $25 000 or more copying someone else’s work which I don’t agree with.

    • http://twitter.com/Weeman360 Weeman360

      How is this paying for bullets? The stuff you buy have no effect on the game. It just makes you look different. You pay to look different, cooler. You pay to get more out of the game in terms of fun, humour and originality. Some of the custom announcers are really funny to listen to and can bring out a lighter side in you when your being owned.
      My guess is you haven’t even given the dota 2 community a chance so you’re just making assumptions based on what some biast friend told you  

    • PsiCoRe

      Did not even know the game had become free to play. Slipped under my radar. Or that the items were purely cosmetic. That changes things. If I were to play Dota 2 I would definitely support this by buying at least a few items on the list. I’ve actually thought for some time that this type of community based modding system is a great idea, glad to see it being implemented nicely. I wonder how the pricing is set? As for the game itself I am a fan of arena battle games. I’m guessing you assumed that I was not. ;-) I tried playing the latest Dota AI map recently but I suck so badly. Must be the years that I haven’t played and the drastic changes to items and heroes since.

    • http://www.facebook.com/kyle.schultz.89 Kyle Schultz

      Did you not read the article at all? 

      The designer got NOTHING from the sale of the item as addressed by ”
      while the weapon’s creator has been — get this — banned and barred from receiving any money made from the sale of the item. ”

      And there is plenty wrong with copying other’s work when it falls under another company’s IP. That’s called plaguerism, my child, and is frowned upon

      Furthermore, its not “paying for bullets” when the items bought are purely cosmetic.

    • http://egamer.co.za/author/cavie Caveshen “CaViE” Rajman

      Curiously, do you think it would have been okay if it was a free item?

      Then again I’m sure many item crafters would happily just put items out for free if they were allowed — or are they, and I’ve just missed these items?

    • PsiCoRe

      The idea of banning community made content for copyright infringement is a great concern. This could have implications on other fan made mods if left unchecked. It screams SOPA. While making a profit from it is unacceptable, banning it completely does stifle creative freedom. An idea I did have is to make agreements with license holders to allow users to copy IP in exchange for free advertising space. That of course only applies to games that contain advertising. Also maybe tone down the copyright infringement to only exclude direct competition (Such as LOL and HON)

    • http://egamer.co.za Dean Oberholzer

      Lol. You’re kidding right?

      Infringing upon someone elses copyright/intellectual property isn’t only frowned upon, it’s actually illegal. In some places you go to jail for this sort of thing. Or you can get sued, badly.

      Banning a community person for copyright infringement isn’t a concern, it’s what is expected. Valve would want their IP protected and respected by other parties, therefore they will return the favour when someone elses property appears on in their game.

      Naturally they are sending out a message that people should not infringe others’ rights. If they do, punishment. It’s good.

      Banning it doesn’t stifle creative freedom, it actually creates creative freedom, because now people won’t be able to make small fortunes from merely copying others’ work, instead they will have to think up and create their own.

      Exchanging for advertising space isn’t viable at all either. And it’s not the point of the project.

      The point is to let people make and create items and build up the game. Use their *own* ideas and thoughts etc. If it was meant to just have items from anywhere, well, that’s simple: just create a list, vote, let Valve do the work and make all the money. This is meant to be a community thing where their inspiration gets added and they get paid.. Seems simple to me?

    • http://www.facebook.com/kyle.schultz.89 Kyle Schultz

      ITT: Psicore displays his blatant ignorance of how IP works

  • PsiCoRe

    No, I understand it maybe a bit too well. I’m not arguing what is legal or not but whether it’s right and in desperate need of change. Patent,copyright and IP laws are being used to destroy lives. Just take a look at the lawsuits against many smalI offenders are being sued and imprisoned for ludicrous amounts of money that implies that the infringement is valued at millions of dollars. Just to send a message to other offenders. Can you honestly justify such behavior? Not only that but many patents and copyrights are ridiculous. Areas where it restricts creativity is that sometimes a design that simply resembles copyright or patented material can be viewed as infringement and patent trolls are continuously becoming more empowered to stomp down on potential creativity. It also seems you don’t seem to have a clue about the history of modding or the point I’m trying to make and despite suggesting possible solutions that benefit both parties you’ve decided to use your arrogance to attack me with your narrow minded and one sided views. I don’t know, maybe because you’re just a sad, hateful person who wishes the same on all those around you. If this is considered a copyright infringement then what is Aliens TC, Call of Duty Galactic warfare or quake 3 bid for power (I could go on forever)? I never said I had anything against Valve removing the copyright infringement as it is hosted on their server and they could be held liable if the copyright holder decides to take legal action. Let’s not even mention the complications that arise when copyright material changes hands and nobody can make heads or tails of who owns which part of the license (Fallout series comes to mind). I also applaud them for the manner in which they removed the offending content. I’m sure EA’s inevitable content creation system will not be so lenient. Steamworks is the future of DLC and community modding, we, as gamers, should be concerned at how the development of such content delivery plays out as it could end up severely restricting the type of content developers can deliver.