The Performing Right Society (PRS) has “commenced legal proceedings” against Steam owner Valve over the use of its members’ works on Steam “without permission.”
The organization claims that while games right across the spectrum use music to “transform play into emotional, immersive experiences,” Valve has “never obtained a licence for its use of the rights managed by PRS on behalf of its members, comprising songwriters, composers, and music publishers.”
PRS claims “many game titles which incorporate PRS members’ musical works are made available on Steam,” including “high profile series” such as Forza Horizon, FIFA/EA FC, and GTA.
PRS said that as it had sought to work with Valve about the licensing issues “for many years without appropriate engagement from Valve,” it has now issued legal proceedings under the UK’s s20 Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988 and requires any game that uses PRS’ works to obtain a licence.
“The litigation will progress unless Valve Corporation engages positively with discussions and takes the necessary license to cover the use of PRS repertoire, both retrospectively and moving forwards,” the organization said in a press statement.
Dan Gopal, chief commercial officer, PRS for Music said: "Our members create music that enhances experiences and PRS exists to protect the value of their work with integrity, transparency, and fairness. Legal proceedings are not a step we take lightly, but when a business’s actions undermine those principles, we have a duty to act.
“Great video games rely on great soundtracks, and the songwriters and creators behind them deserve to have their contribution recognised and fairly valued.”
Sounds a lot like a license troll. Probably the specific court and potential violation of a law were picked with care. Perhaps they looked through valve’s terms in advance to find a loophole, design their own terms to exploit that etc.
I don’t think it’s a troll. I think it’s specifically game publishers trying to carve out a niche and get more power to make more money, both from valve, and on their own digital distribution platforms by saying
“valve needs to pay us to sell our games because we are the license holders. And since we are the license holders, we can pay ourselves from sales on our own platforms”
So I think it’s dumb on the surface, but ultra shitty underneath.
Like if they win, that’s a bad precedent.
If they lose, that’s still precedent.
And in the process, there’s a SHIT TON of discovery, of a company that doesn’t give out much information that competitors would love to get their hands on. Because if you know how a competitor operates, you can undermine them. Knowledge is power. It’s super pathetic, but also scary, like a demon trying to figure out your style so they can steal your friends. Hopefully, we can rely on " just don’t be shitty" to hold up.
All of these lawsuits popping up are like a distributed attack on Valve.
Honestly, if this case doesn’t get thrown out before discovery, I’ll be shocked. Stores don’t licence music, the game devs do. If a game dev infringed, there is already a takedown process available to remove the content from Steam.
The dev studio company… or their publisher.
But yeah, insane lawsuit. It’s funny knowing that in that article they say that Valve is ignoring them, and has been ignoring them.
Edit: which raises the question: who the fuck published this article? Who is giving this stuff publicity? Dark money? Or is it just because it’s ridiculous, to begin with?
Except it’s not game publishers who are suing. It is an organization representing musicians, some of whom have made music which is included in games which can be purchased through Steam.
[…]organisation representing
musiciansLarge Corporate Record Companies who bought the rights off someone[…]You know, if they didn’t have music… In games… That could be purchased through steam… Then this would make even less sense. Don’t you think?