Activision Issues DMCA takedown against developers of Orion: Prelude Update: DMCA might be legit

[Energycore]

Today, Dinosaur-themed first-person shooter Orion: Prelude was taken down from the Steam Stores because of a DMCA request from Activision.

 

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So apparently Activision has removed ORION from Steam. This was done via a DMCA takedown request stating:

“on behalf of Activision, who alleges that the game Orion uses weapon art content from Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The weapon art in question includes the M8A7 rifle, the Haymaker rifle, and the Bal-27 rifle."

Apparently, the DMCA takedown was carried out without the developers being so much as notified, and because of lack of a contact between Activision and the dev, they had to take guesses as to which gun models Activision claims were taken from their games.

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(Comparison 1 - Auto Shotgun)
http://i.imgur.com/8Qx1NI2.png

(Comparison 2 - Auto Rifle)
http://i.imgur.com/IjS7dfO.png

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This is extremely serious that a DCMA request has removed our entire game from sale, during the biggest sale event of the year. Apparently no cross-checking was done by our Partner, who we've been with for over 5 years and I have seen better and would expect better from them. At minimum, to contact us regarding our assets/defense before taking any action.

Here's a gameplay video for reference.

 

 

While I don't find the gameplay enticing, this is yet another case of the copyright laws being misused and giving an unfair advantage to a large company, which was able to get a game immediately removed from its distribution platform with as little as an email, and without double checking by the distribution platform. And it's a new and exciting low for activision as a company.

 

Here's the developer's community post. http://steamcommunity.com/games/104900/announcements/detail/834671877728578774

 

Update1: Looks like I'm able to buy the game, so either it wasn't taken down, or it's already been reversed.

 

Update2: This post on /r/pcmasterrace provides evidence of legit copyright infringement, not in blatant model copying, but rather in parts of gun models being used.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/4q6xo5/activisions_dmca_claim_on_orion_is_legit_orions/

If this is the case then the developer decided to play victim, that said if Activision had released a public announcement about the takedown this thread wouldn't exist now would it.

https://i.sli.mg/xpIy1W.png (very high res)

 

Evidence of past asset stealing from the dev

 

 

[thekeemo]

That shotty does look similar..

[Energycore]

5 minutes ago, thekeemo said:

That shotty does look similar..

Yeah, it does. And perhaps the infringement is there, but the company said they didn't receive any notice about it; it's a case of a legal judgment being passed without evidence being presented.

[PlayStation 2]

Oh, you get the fuck out of here, Activision.

These don't even look remotely similar.

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Oh, you get the fuck out of here, Activision.

These don't even look remotely similar.

Keep in mind those are the dev's guesses. Activision didn't come out and say "it's this gun that looks like ours". They just asked steam for a takedown and got it.

[raphidy]

it's now 0.50$ and you can buy it...but it looks lame.

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, raphidy said:

it's now 0.50$ and you can buy it...but it looks lame.

What I don't get is whether Steam reversed the takedown between when the post happened (3h ago) and now, or if it never happened and something fishy's going on. I'd love to find out.

 

As for gameplay yeah I didn't think much of it

[gamerking]

22 minutes ago, raphidy said:

it's now 0.50$ and you can buy it...but it looks lame.

at one point it was free/they gave away 100K+ keys on pcgamer  yea its fun only if you have a bunch of friends that are piss broke and have it  or you a really really bored . i have a bunch of the keys i grab'd and never used since the game was lack luster

 

22 minutes ago, Energycore said:

What I don't get is whether Steam reversed the takedown between when the post happened (3h ago) and now, or if it never happened and something fishy's going on. I'd love to find out.

 

As for gameplay yeah I didn't think much of it

it was pulled for a very short time from what it looks like . steam looked into is my guess and said it was a dam troll DMCA from Activision

[Energycore]

3 minutes ago, gamerking said:

at one point it was free/they gave away 100K+ keys on pcgamer  yea its fun only if you have a bunch of friends that are piss broke and have it  or you a really really bored . i have a bunch of the keys i grab'd and never used since the game was lack luster

 

it was pulled for a very short time from what it looks like . steam looked into is my guess and said it was a dam troll DMCA from Activision

Copyright trolling, now brought to you by the biggest game companies in the world!

[ApolloFury]

The second link does look really similar.

[Atmos]

Literally entirely different designs.

If those are close enough that activision feels they were "stolen from them" then they need to fucking open their eyes.

 

I guess then every single AR clone out there needs to be dmca'd, and every single other car out there needs to be dmca's because they look vaugely similar to the shitty car models in activisions games as well.

[PlayStation 2]

1 hour ago, Energycore said:

Keep in mind those are the dev's guesses. Activision didn't come out and say "it's this gun that looks like ours". They just asked steam for a takedown and got it.

Still doesn't excuse Activision's bullshittery.

[byalexandr]

It's because they didn't make enough money on Infinite Warfare so they got all pouty.

[Marinatall_Ironside]

I have to call BS on this whole DMCA thing. Though I can't judge this both Black ops 3 and Orion, it's still BS on Activision's part because like what @Atmos said, almost every gun, every car out there, and every goddamned building looks vaguely similar to one-another and should be served with DMCA notices.

 

I also agree that this is copyright trolling; just like patent trolling, just with copyright in question.

[awesomeness10120]

Of course this would happen, it's Activision after all... 

[Delicieuxz]

I think neither of the examples look similar enough to warrant a DCMA approval.

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, valdyrgramr said:

This isn't the first time the dev has been threatened with a lawsuit.  Not even kidding here!   This one shady guy on steam was using Reddit to call the dev a liar, a thief, and then whined because the developer wouldn't develop 1 game the way the consumer wanted.  So, the consumer threatened a lawsuit and a bunch of other crap over that.  Then when the consumer got blocked from every Orion forum on steam!  They went to every other forum of the games that they, the consumer, played to call the dev an asshole from a third person point of view by trying, poorly to tell gamers and other developers of how the dev wouldn't let this special snowflake have the game the way they wanted  I think that consumer is now banned from Steam for harassing a dev+spamming.  I really feel bad for the Orion dev since he just dealt with that a few weeks ago, and now he has to deal with this.  D:

 

I'm pretty sure it's the same dev.  I was a bit drunk when it all happened, though.

Do you think there's a chance that someone like this sent an e-mail to Activision and was all like "look bro thems be copying your gun models"

 

That would be pretty funny, altough it still suck for the dev

 

Also why am I not drunk right now?

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, valdyrgramr said:

I have a feeling that it was probably the same salty consumer, if so.

#conspiracytheories #fuckactivision #anarchyandmemes

[NumLock21]

2 hours ago, Energycore said:

Yeah, it does. And perhaps the infringement is there, but the company said they didn't receive any notice about it; it's a case of a legal judgment being passed without evidence being presented.

 

2 hours ago, thekeemo said:

That shotty does look similar..

Are both of you brown nosing? Both don't even look similar.

[Energycore]

2 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

 

Are both of you brown nosing? Both don't even look similar.

They resemble each other more than the assaults do, that's for sure.

 

Whether or not that's similar enough to constitute infrigement, I'm not one to say.

[BuckGup]

Yeah the shotgun looks similar and the alterations look enough so they tried to cover it

[NumLock21]

1 minute ago, Energycore said:

They resemble each other more than the assaults do, that's for sure.

 

Whether or not that's similar enough to constitute infrigement, I'm not one to say.

All have a handle, trigger, and a barrel. All guns are like this, and they all have different designs.

[Nowak]

Shotgun looks almost exactly alike. However, here...

 

 

I fail to see the resemblance.

[Magikarpdrowned]

Just dropping this in here, not taking any sides.

[zacRupnow]

DMCA is actually legit, Orion Devs showed comparisons of other models to come off as victims.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/4q6xo5/activisions_dmca_claim_on_orion_is_legit_orions/