Valve Bullying Cybercafes Over Licensing?

The Importance of writes "Yesterday, as mentioned on Slashdot, Valve announced arrests relating to the theft of Half-Life 2 code. Gabe Newell, Valve's CEO, was quoted as saying, 'Everyone here at Valve is once again reminded of how much we owe to the gaming community.' Demonstrating its appreciation of the gaming community, Valve also threatened to sue a cybercafe offering Counter-Strike without the correct licensing. This may sound fair enough, but while companies like Microsoft allow cybercafes the right to offer games as long as they buy each copy of the games they use, Valve has what are generally considered the worst cybercafe licensing terms there are. Moreover, instead of merely sending a cease and desist letter ('knock it off or we will sue'), Valve sent a ' pay us big bucks for a license or we'll sue letter'. In other words, unless the cybercafe prepays for a one-year license starting at the time the letter was received, they will be sued."

Comments

Bullying? I Think Not.

[illuminata]

This guy is running a business for Christ's sake. He should have known the score beforehand. The fact that this person is ignoring the legal side of things while running a business is stupid no matter how you look at it.

Frankly, I don't feel sympathetic for this person at all. They're running a cybercafe; getting the licensing issues out of the way should be top priority for them before they allow the game to be played. That "poor, pitiful me" shit doesn't fly here. If they didn't know the ins and outs of their business before they got in it, they shouldn't be in it now.

Valve did no wrong here. Hopefully something good will come out of this; Valve will show this person that they should stick to being an employee.

Re:Bullying? I Think Not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Furthermore they seem to be cornering him in this fantastically worded acusation:

As you know, the retail versions of Valve products are not intended for, nor are they licensed for, commercial exploitation (such as use in a cyber café/LAN center). Unauthorized duplication and use of computer software products constitutes copyright infringement.

If he says that he legitimately bougth separate copies, they can counter that he knew that this was insufficient as they lead off with "As you know...". An a priori acusation, if you will, that carries insinuations both ways. Much like the statement: "Have you stopped beating your wife?" Insinuates you have been beating your wife whether you have or not.

If he did not buy the copyies they not only nail him with "commericial exploytation" but with copyright infrigement as well. This is important since the commercial exploytation has less legal ground to stand on.

Las Vegas used to have Super Bowl parties where you paid admission for food&drink to watch the game. Since the NFL saw it as selling tickets to watch the game, they threatened legal action if a licensing agreement wasn't worked out and if they continued. But the NFL didn't threaten to sue unless they bought a agreement. Vegas had two non-lawsuit choices: stop or pay.

In conclusion, if the cafe owner wasn't acting in bad faith (copyright infrigement) and simply wasn't aware of the restrictions (EULA's have yet to be desively tested in court(IIRC)), it will be hard to successfully sue if he shows that he has stopped using their software.

Re:Bullying? I Think Not.

[illuminata]

I don't think that this was necessarily a nice move in business, but it is business; you can't always be nice. This guy might not've known about how to license, but he really should've. If this was, say, a one-time fee-based lan party that some college kids threw and they get this letter, I'd be pissed off with Valve too. In that case being unknowledgeable about licensing schemes could very well be a legitimate excuse. However, we're talking about a place that is out to sustain profit and operates regularly. A place that should have known better.

I think that the bigger question, the one that Valve is probably asking, is: How could they not know?

If this person truly didn't know, they should've went to Valve first and try to work something out regardless of what stated in the letter. If Valve acted like a jerk in response then you could let it go to court and hope for leniency there. But this should be a very important lesson to them; know what you're doing first.

I'm guessing that Valve doesn't see this guy as some schmuck. His site design might make you think so but check out the pictures as well. He seems to have a good handle on that end. When it comes to something like a gaming center, it's not unreasonable at all to expect that they have their licensing issues settled before allowing the game to be played. If they knew enough to get a T1 line (as stated on their site), set up a lan, and run a for-profit business, making sure that you can do so legally isn't too much of an expectation. Valve probably felt that this was a glaring enough issue that a reasonable business would know to have it settled beforehand either by their own good sense or by a lawyer's. And, therefore, not taking care of the issue could only be in bad faith (yes, I read the AC's response to your post).

If this person was truly stupid enough to not find out that he needed a special license beforehand, than anybody remotely close to him, anybody who has an ounce of compassion for him, should force him to close up immediately. I just don't buy that he's that stupid when he's in the business already.