Shameless Robbery

[PanAzej]

Hi everyone.

I'm a mod creator for DST and I create my content for everyone to enjoy for FREE.

Do you know what I absolutely despise, though? Shameless stealing of someone else's content.

Look at these:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2369922505

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2383317235

 

These mods have been reuploaded without my consent.

Here are the originals:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2345989057

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=430830504

 

When I asked him to remove these, he deleted my comments. Twice.

I asked my friends to report these.

 

After 2 weeks, these mods are still up, so obviously the reports have been ignored.

Could I ask all of you to mass report these so that they get removed?

 

Not only this guy does not care what I have to say, he even remarks:

Quote

UPDATE 1:
Remove the monkey sketch because he is totally bugged (thanks to original modder to make bugged thing)

Isn't that just lovely?

 

Please report these shameless copies, maybe if enough people report them, that could do something.

Thanks.

[kittem]

reported 

 

[penguin0616]

@PanAzej Use Steam's DMCA form.

They're pretty good, removal usually within 3 days in my experience.

https://steamcommunity.com/dmca/create/

[MsSha]

Two of the worst kinds of people - thieves and liars. Whomever did this is the woooooorst!! I'm so sorry it's happened to your work (they're adorable btw!). Reported. 

[Notecja]

Do you now, in the report message is also a link to report copyright infringement and that one is the best to be filled by yourself? You did not mention you tried that one. Ofc I will report.

[Hornete]

Yeah use the DMCA, I was le to use that for a content stealer and their content was removed in under a few days.

[PanAzej]

11 minutes ago, Notecja said:

Do you now, in the report message is also a link to report copyright infringement and that one is the best to be filled by yourself? You did not mention you tried that one. Ofc I will report.

 

10 minutes ago, Hornete said:

Yeah use the DMCA, I was le to use that for a content stealer and their content was removed in under a few days.

In the DMCA file it says that my personal data I share may be shown to the person who I am reporting.

Why must I show my personal data to some random thief on the Internet?

He can copy my content anonymously, but when I want to take it down (while my content on my account has older upload date), I need to share my personal information?

That is dumb.

[Notecja]

5 minutes ago, PanAzej said:

In the DMCA file it says that my personal data I share may be shown to the person who I am reporting.

Why must I show my personal data to some random thief on the Internet?

He can copy my content anonymously, but when I want to take it down (while my content on my account has older upload date), I need to share my personal information?

That is dumb.

Looks to me, if this will go to court, then yeah, some data would be shared anyway.

[penguin0616]

8 minutes ago, PanAzej said:

He can copy my content anonymously, but when I want to take it down (while my content on my account has older upload date), I need to share my personal information?

@PanAzej Well, they need your personal information to make sure you're actually allowed/authorized for a DMCA, and because they legally need it.

8 minutes ago, PanAzej said:

That is dumb.

Would you prefer that anyone could falsely DMCA anything?

8 minutes ago, PanAzej said:

In the DMCA file it says that my personal data I share may be shown to the person who I am reporting.

 

Assuming you follow proper online security practices, I don't see the issue.

[Notecja]

4 minutes ago, penguin0616 said:

Assuming you follow proper online security practices, I don't see the issue.

Not sure what you mean under "proper online security practices" when there is says that the personal data like, name, address, country, city, or even postcode may be shared with robber. (or translation to different languages on Steam in unclear, but I checked and this is how it look like)

[penguin0616]

@Notecja That is a topic that is too large for the scope of this thread, but I am confident there are several additional online resources that you can find that will explain some practices in far better ways than I. I'm terrible at explaining.

I don't know how much of the information is shared with the thief, but the information is required because this is technically filing a legal document. If @PanAzejhas a concern about what information is shared, I'm sure they could contact Steam and find out. Of course, that will take longer.

I admit I was apprehensive about my first filling out of the form in the same way that OP is, but I decided that protecting my work was more important then the thought of a thief obtaining whatever personal information Steam provides.

Additionally, I'm pretty sure revealing personal information is against Steam's ToS and would be very disadvantageous for the thief.

[PanAzej]

32 minutes ago, penguin0616 said:

@Notecja That is a topic that is too large for the scope of this thread, but I am confident there are several additional online resources that you can find that will explain some practices in far better ways than I. I'm terrible at explaining.

I don't know how much of the information is shared with the thief, but the information is required because this is technically filing a legal document. If @PanAzejhas a concern about what information is shared, I'm sure they could contact Steam and find out. Of course, that will take longer.

I admit I was apprehensive about my first filling out of the form in the same way that OP is, but I decided that protecting my work was more important then the thought of a thief obtaining whatever personal information Steam provides.

Additionally, I'm pretty sure revealing personal information is against Steam's ToS and would be very disadvantageous for the thief.

Honestly, I'd rather quit modding altogether than risk potential harassment every time some random kid copies what I made.

Does the "Report" button actually not do anything?

[penguin0616]

5 minutes ago, PanAzej said:

Honestly, I'd rather quit modding altogether than risk potential harassment every time some random kid copies what I made.

 

@PanAzej I don't know what harassment you are risking, but if that is what you want, I hope you are content with it. You will continue to face this kind of problem if you continue to create things, not just on Steam. This is something all creators have to face eventually. How you deal with it just comes down to how much you enjoy what you do.

5 minutes ago, PanAzej said:

Does the "Report" button actually not do anything?

It does, but the purpose you used it for is not something that it is effective for.

[Wardin25]

so thats why I had two warolyne mods

(also, great mod, I love the character and hope the copy gets taken down)

[JoeW]

1 hour ago, PanAzej said:

 

In the DMCA file it says that my personal data I share may be shown to the person who I am reporting.

Why must I show my personal data to some random thief on the Internet?

He can copy my content anonymously, but when I want to take it down (while my content on my account has older upload date), I need to share my personal information?

That is dumb.

Because a DMCA is an actual legal process. You're requesting somebody else take down something on the assertion that it is in violation of your legal copyright. 

Think about if this were not true. Not everybody that wants to "take something down" is acting in good faith. Not everybody tells the truth when they want something to be done. Which is why it's taken out of our hands and something that Valve recommends. 

This is no different than say something like Youtube. They aren't just going to remove something because it's been reported, it needs to be proven and it needs to go through the process. 

And in terms of copyright, there are a lot of unknowns. Did you specifically state that your work was not allowed to be shared? Because that is relatively important. It's not the end of it, but if you did - it strengthens your argument that they shouldn't be using your work. 

My understanding is that we shouldn't be getting involved. I shut one of these down in the past and it created a lot of problems because it circumvented the DMCA process. 

For what it's worth, my understanding is that the first part of the DMCA process is entirely within steam, THEY look into it and ask for it to be taken down, if the other person refuses, they begin the legal arbitration to resolve the issue. But they do it this way because then there is a legal process for what is to follow. 

I'm sorry for your frustration. Good luck to you. 

[ADM]

I remind of him also re-uploading one of my mod for personal tweaks like he did right here, I just did not mind it but if he doesn't even respect your decisions over your own content than it's a very different story, reported.

[. . .]

is it really a problem, i mean the og mod will always be the better one with updates and stuff nobody is gonna care for some personal modification except the modifier tbh

but that just my opinion when someone reuploads a mod of mine i get flattered they would do such a thing that they like my mod so much (and its free advertising )! i guess everyone is different tho

the reuploader was pretty disrespectful tho to remove your comments thats not cool

[wigfrids hat]

1 hour ago, penguin0616 said:

@PanAzej Well, they need your personal information to make sure you're actually allowed/authorized for a DMCA, and because they legally need it.

Would you prefer that anyone could falsely DMCA anything?

Assuming you follow proper online security practices, I don't see the issue.

the op's information will be disclosed to the person who is stealing the content. there is no 'secure' anything about it. it is a vestigial left-over from dmca being a thing used between two people going directly to court in the same country and has not been updated for cross-continental issues, also plenty of thieves had submitted false information to make false dmca claims. it is a fairly common practice and a problem i've had to deal with too. it is also very illegal in a lot of places and is a way for companies to avoid taking responsibility for failures to moderate

[CarlZalph]

I had a similar situation and thankfully the other party decided to take actions to resolve it from being publicly available on the workshop.

8 hours ago, PanAzej said:

In the DMCA file it says that my personal data I share may be shown to the person who I am reporting.

Why must I show my personal data to some random thief on the Internet?

He can copy my content anonymously, but when I want to take it down (while my content on my account has older upload date), I need to share my personal information?

That is dumb.

I share your sentiment entirely with the DMCA telling the offending party your information to be a harsh overreach.

With today's technology at peoples' fingertips and how easy it is for someone to make a false accusation to ruin one's reputation and job standing, it's just bad form.

7 hours ago, JoeW said:

For what it's worth, my understanding is that the first part of the DMCA process is entirely within steam, THEY look into it and ask for it to be taken down, if the other person refuses, they begin the legal arbitration to resolve the issue. But they do it this way because then there is a legal process for what is to follow. 

I feel like Valve should force the other party to also provide the same details if they wish to fight the DMCA and ensure that both parties are who they say they are before arbitration occurs.  As it stands by the wording, it makes it out like you're going to offload your information to the other party upon sending the DMCA form.  I don't know if this is the case, I'm going purely off of the form Valve has.

Quote

The contents of your complaint, including your name and email address, may be provided to the person that posted the allegedly infringing content you are reporting.

Further, if the other party just lies about it and they're in another country entirely where these laws and such don't really exist, then it gives them more power to extract such information out of anyone they see fit.

 

Edit:

I have went by and notified a handful of affected users that their mod was reposted in their mod's comment sections.

If either of these parties take action, then it could be a domino effect to get the rest just wiped as repeated violations of DMCA can get your entire Steam account terminated.

 

Edit2:

So it begins.  https://archive.is/UWvip

[PanAzej]

10 hours ago, --- -.- said:

is it really a problem, i mean the og mod will always be the better one with updates and stuff nobody is gonna care for some personal modification except the modifier tbh

but that just my opinion when someone reuploads a mod of mine i get flattered they would do such a thing that they like my mod so much (and its free advertising )! i guess everyone is different tho

the reuploader was pretty disrespectful tho to remove your comments thats not cool

It is possible to make changes in a mod without reuploading every asset in it.

Also I wouldn't even be mad if it was a copy of a mod I made on a whim, in a couple of hours.

But these mods... I worked countless hours on them. I poured months of work into them, worked tirelessly until they were finished.

The "Danka" mod has been uploaded to the workshop in 2015, but I did a character refresh last year, where I have redrawn all art and re-coded and re-balanced the character.

I have worked on Don't Starve mods since forever. At this point my content is on par with Klei's. So this is not "advertising" for me in any way. Especially since in 90% of this person's reuploads there is no source listed.

When I wanted to do a remake of The Heavy mod, I went ahead and asked the original author. And he responded, and even provided me with some additional art! Well, what wouldn't you know, the content creators on Steam Workshop are actual people.

And if somebody is still active on Steam it doesn't take much effort to just drop a comment. You know what takes a little more effort though? Finding the mod ID, searching through your workshop folder and reuploading it as your own creation.

11 hours ago, JoeW said:

Because a DMCA is an actual legal process. You're requesting somebody else take down something on the assertion that it is in violation of your legal copyright. 

Think about if this were not true. Not everybody that wants to "take something down" is acting in good faith. Not everybody tells the truth when they want something to be done. Which is why it's taken out of our hands and something that Valve recommends. 

This is no different than say something like Youtube. They aren't just going to remove something because it's been reported, it needs to be proven and it needs to go through the process. 

And in terms of copyright, there are a lot of unknowns. Did you specifically state that your work was not allowed to be shared? Because that is relatively important. It's not the end of it, but if you did - it strengthens your argument that they shouldn't be using your work. 

My understanding is that we shouldn't be getting involved. I shut one of these down in the past and it created a lot of problems because it circumvented the DMCA process. 

For what it's worth, my understanding is that the first part of the DMCA process is entirely within steam, THEY look into it and ask for it to be taken down, if the other person refuses, they begin the legal arbitration to resolve the issue. But they do it this way because then there is a legal process for what is to follow. 

I'm sorry for your frustration. Good luck to you. 

Thanks for letting me know that you can't do much here. I was thinking you have more freedom when moderating your own game's workshop.

So it's all on Steam's side. And of course they won't do anything unless their legal team is involved, because regular reports are probably just handled with an automated script (knowing how Valve still acts as a small indie studio and doesn't want to hire new people).

I have all the assets in higher resolution and *.PSD files (project files), and my upload date and workshop IDs are older than the copies. I am willing to share all the assets, but not my personal data.

I have nothing to gain, but a lot to lose here. He stole my work, and now he's going to steal my personal information? Haha, no way.

If it's this easy to steal content on Steam, maybe I should just stop making new content.

10 hours ago, CarlZalph said:

I had a similar situation and thankfully the other party decided to take actions to resolve it from being publicly available on the workshop.

I share your sentiment entirely with the DMCA telling the offending party your information to be a harsh overreach.

With today's technology at peoples' fingertips and how easy it is for someone to make a false accusation to ruin one's reputation and job standing, it's just bad form.

I feel like Valve should force the other party to also provide the same details if they wish to fight the DMCA and ensure that both parties are who they say they are before arbitration occurs.  As it stands by the wording, it makes it out like you're going to offload your information to the other party upon sending the DMCA form.  I don't know if this is the case, I'm going purely off of the form Valve has.

Further, if the other party just lies about it and they're in another country entirely where these laws and such don't really exist, then it gives them more power to extract such information out of anyone they see fit.

 

Edit:

I have went by and notified a handful of affected users that their mod was reposted in their mod's comment sections.

If either of these parties take action, then it could be a domino effect to get the rest just wiped as repeated violations of DMCA can get your entire Steam account terminated.

 

Edit2:

So it begins.  https://archive.is/UWvip

Thanks. Yeah, this person just endlessly reuploads other people's hard work. It is shameful and something should be done about it.

But the current DMCA claim system is the absolute worst way to go about it.

[.]

That sucks.

This guy doing this to all of the mods lol, it's not a personal thing.

[. . .]

13 hours ago, PanAzej said:

It is possible to make changes in a mod without reuploading every asset in it.

Ya, tho for noobs who resort to reuploading mods I don't think they really know how to mod other than deleting and changing number values lol

13 hours ago, PanAzej said:

Also I wouldn't even be mad if it was a copy of a mod I made on a whim, in a couple of hours.

But these mods... I worked countless hours on them. I poured months of work into them, worked tirelessly until they were finished.

The "Danka" mod has been uploaded to the workshop in 2015, but I did a character refresh last year, where I have redrawn all art and re-coded and re-balanced the character.

ya, something you work hard on probably hurts a lot more I can understand. If it happened to me I probably would be saddened too kinda and feel a little unhappy too especially if they remove my comments or block me

13 hours ago, PanAzej said:

When I wanted to do a remake of The Heavy mod, I went ahead and asked the original author. And he responded, and even provided me with some additional art! Well, what wouldn't you know, the content creators on Steam Workshop are actual people.

ya, though you have to also know their mindset. these people who reupload mods they just wanna have fun playing the game and they find a mod and they are just like "oh this is a cool mod i like it but some part of it i wanna change" then they change it and reupload it as public cause they are lazy and just play with it. they don't want to go through the hassle of asking the mod's author and then being told "no" so they skip that part entirely. they just wanna play the game and have fun (not saying i agree with this btw just saying the mindset)

13 hours ago, PanAzej said:

And if somebody is still active on Steam it doesn't take much effort to just drop a comment. You know what takes a little more effort though? Finding the mod ID, searching through your workshop folder and reuploading it as your own creation.

well the reason they don't comment is cause they know the mod author has a high chance to refuse them to reupload work they worked hard on (not saying that it's a bad thing to do), so it's much less hassle and effort for them to just reupload it with their tweaked stats and stuff and just play the game instead of going through a whole process of asking for permission then awaiting a response which usually won't be in their favor.

 

What I would (IMO) is just let it go. I made mods which I spent 2-3 years of work on and someone reupload some part of my mod cause they didn't like all the other things in my mod I worked very very hard on and only liked one specific part. All I did was commented saying I'm glad he liked my mod with a smiley face lol.

It's not like the reuploaded mods which barely gain any traction will ever surpass the original mod. the original will always be the best and what people go for and it's not like they steal our ideas from our heads and then the reupload will become better than the original which's biggest reason why I'm so laid-back with this stuff.

That's all just my opinion though cause I'm very laid-back when it comes to this kinda stuff even when it happens to me though I know some people they get really angry or sad, good luck to whatever you choose man.