Steam Next Fest is being flooded with thousands of low-effort games, while developers are becoming reluctant to share their work for fear of seeing it quickly cloned.
I think you misread what I wrote. It’s already illegal to steal someone’s work. If you’re making a game and releases a demo and then someone copies it, that’s copyright infringement. It’s not a rule that Valve needs to add because it’s an implicit rule because it’s illegal.
Ah, so not the “first two” as in bullet points 1 and 2 in my list.
So, a few things here:
Some things are covered by trademark. This can vary by jurisdiction
Some things are covered by copyright. Also, this varies by jurisdiction
Properly going through all the paperwork first is the safest, requires time and money, only applies in relevant jurisdictions, and requires time and effort again to enforce for only what it covers.
Assuming the creator has the time and effort to go through 3 (if not, some stuff is arguably prior art but requires more time and money to prove), they have to be aware that anyone has created a clone of their work that would, at least in that jurisdiction, infringe.
After they have found it, they need to contact valve and whomever else.
If they’re not happy stopping there, then there’s the whole legal process (costing more time and money)
Edit: this is also not even the exhaustive version of the list.
Yes, that’s why my first comment talks about effort, compared to the amount of slop that can be made. You aren’t allowed to steal people’s work, and you’re also required to tag if your game uses gen-AI. It’s just prohibitive to keep up with all of it now.
The legal process though is a formal requirement to sue them. Valve doesn’t need to go through that. They could (and I think do) have a system for developers to claim that a game has stolen its work and request for it to be taken down. You don’t need to go to court for a private company to enforce that. It’s just that, again, it’s impossible to keep up with it now. It’s too easy to create a clone so, even if it’s taken down, another one can appear in its place trivially.
. They could (and I think do) have a system for developers to claim that a game has stolen its work and request for it to be taken down.
I agree with this. Something like community notes on other social media might help on identification and alerting other users, but making sure that’s not gamed by bots and the like is a separate issue.
I think you misread what I wrote. It’s already illegal to steal someone’s work. If you’re making a game and releases a demo and then someone copies it, that’s copyright infringement. It’s not a rule that Valve needs to add because it’s an implicit rule because it’s illegal.
Ah, so not the “first two” as in bullet points 1 and 2 in my list.
So, a few things here:
Edit: this is also not even the exhaustive version of the list.
Yes, that’s why my first comment talks about effort, compared to the amount of slop that can be made. You aren’t allowed to steal people’s work, and you’re also required to tag if your game uses gen-AI. It’s just prohibitive to keep up with all of it now.
The legal process though is a formal requirement to sue them. Valve doesn’t need to go through that. They could (and I think do) have a system for developers to claim that a game has stolen its work and request for it to be taken down. You don’t need to go to court for a private company to enforce that. It’s just that, again, it’s impossible to keep up with it now. It’s too easy to create a clone so, even if it’s taken down, another one can appear in its place trivially.
I agree with this. Something like community notes on other social media might help on identification and alerting other users, but making sure that’s not gamed by bots and the like is a separate issue.