Valve vs. Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court

Drakon · Sep 20, 2004, 03:13 PM

Last week, news of Valve finally shipping the Half-Life 2 release candidate to publisher Vivendi Universal Games (VUG) grabbed headlines. However, behind the scenes, the two companies have been involved in a much less upbeat kind of transaction--an ongoing legal battle that has garnered little attention from gamers.

On August 14, 2002, Valve served its then-publisher Sierra On-Line (now Sierra Entertainment, a Vivendi Universal Games brand) with a lawsuit in US District Court, Western Division, Seattle alleging copyright infringement--the result of Sierra placing Valve games in Internet cafes in the US and abroad. "Sierra has in the past and continues to reproduce, use, distribute, and/or license one or more of the Valve Games with regard to 'cyber cafes,'" the complaint read. "Sierra's activities are outside the scope of Sierra's limited license...and therefore constitute copyright infringement in violation of the Copyright Act of 1976."

Read More: Gamespot

Shinjikun · Sep 20, 2004, 04:38 PM

All I know is those bastards (VUG) better not hold off HL2 for too long.

HunterZ · Sep 20, 2004, 07:45 PM

I wouldn't worry - no matter how much they may be pissed off at each other, VU and Valve both stand to make a ton of money from Half-Life 2. The worst that VU might do is hold off for a month or two for a Christmas shopping season launch.

digitalwanderer · Sep 20, 2004, 07:47 PM

http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=26175

http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?comments=33658

http://3dgpu.com/archives/2004/09/20...-impacts-h-l2/

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewto...=373029#373029

http://www.elitebastards.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6913

This is me story for the day, I think it's going to be developing.

PoopyTheJ · Sep 20, 2004, 10:26 PM

Just another reason to delay it...

Sep 20, 2004, 03:13 PM	#1
Drakon DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Floatin'... Posts: 4,957 Rep Power: 0	Valve vs. Vivendi Universal dogfight heats up in US District Court Last week, news of Valve finally shipping the Half-Life 2 release candidate to publisher Vivendi Universal Games (VUG) grabbed headlines. However, behind the scenes, the two companies have been involved in a much less upbeat kind of transaction--an ongoing legal battle that has garnered little attention from gamers. On August 14, 2002, Valve served its then-publisher Sierra On-Line (now Sierra Entertainment, a Vivendi Universal Games brand) with a lawsuit in US District Court, Western Division, Seattle alleging copyright infringement--the result of Sierra placing Valve games in Internet cafes in the US and abroad. "Sierra has in the past and continues to reproduce, use, distribute, and/or license one or more of the Valve Games with regard to 'cyber cafes,'" the complaint read. "Sierra's activities are outside the scope of Sierra's limited license...and therefore constitute copyright infringement in violation of the Copyright Act of 1976." Read More: Gamespot

Sep 20, 2004, 04:38 PM	#2
Shinjikun 第3 子供 Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Nerv HQ Posts: 1,319 Rep Power: 0	All I know is those bastards (VUG) better not hold off HL2 for too long. __________________ Xfire: [Shinji1225 \ Status] A7N8X-E Deluxe Athlon XP 2500+ (@ 2.2 GHz 11x200 MHz FSB) Corsair TwinX XMS 1GB PC3200 Dual Channel (2-2-3-5) [color=red]ATi [/color][color=white]Radeon 9500 Pro (@ 330\310) \ [/color][color=white]Omega Catalyst Drivers v2.5.90[/color] [color=white]Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU[/color]

Sep 20, 2004, 07:47 PM	#4
digitalwanderer Colour Commentator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Highland, IN USA Posts: 5,619 Rep Power: 0	http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=26175 http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?comments=33658 http://3dgpu.com/archives/2004/09/20...-impacts-h-l2/ http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewto...=373029#373029 http://www.elitebastards.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6913 This is me story for the day, I think it's going to be developing. __________________ WTF is up with the sigs?

Sep 20, 2004, 10:26 PM	#5
PoopyTheJ DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Ohio Posts: 1,588 Rep Power: 66	Just another reason to delay it... __________________ [COLOR=Blue]“Alright boys, let’s start her up and see why she doesn’t work.” - John Fritz "I aim to misbehave" Malcolm Reynolds ATI Catalyst Beta Tester[/COLOR]

Sep 20, 2004, 07:45 PM	#3
HunterZ DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: May 2003 Location: Seattle, USA Posts: 257 Rep Power: 0	I wouldn't worry - no matter how much they may be pissed off at each other, VU and Valve both stand to make a ton of money from Half-Life 2. The worst that VU might do is hold off for a month or two for a Christmas shopping season launch. __________________ Athlon XP 3200+, Gigabyte GA7N-400Pro2 Rev 2.0 (nVidia nForce2 chipset), 1 GB DDR400 (CAS 2.0, dual-channel), ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB AGP 8x, WinXP Pro SP2, DX9.0c., Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speakers