Who owns the legal rights to Workshop submissions?

«Gғм» Kid Of The Century Dec 2, 2015 @ 6:17am

It's a pretty specific question you should ask in a forum of contributors rather than here. Facepunch.com is a good place to start.

I believe you give Valve the distribution rights for a part of the profit from the sale of your mod, but again, that's just a conjecture on my part.

#1

Black Blade Dec 2, 2015 @ 6:37am

Originally posted by «Gғм» Kid Of The Century:
It's a pretty specific question you should ask in a forum of contributors rather than here. Facepunch.com is a good place to start.

I believe you give Valve the distribution rights for a part of the profit from the sale of your mod, but again, that's just a conjecture on my part.

Why facepunch?

#2

cinedine Dec 2, 2015 @ 6:58am

Originally posted by Steam Subscriber Agreement:
6. USER GENERATED CONTENT

A. General Provisions

"User Generated Content" means any content you make available to other users through your use of multi-user features of Steam, or to Valve or its affiliates through your use of the Content and Services or otherwise.

You grant Valve and its affiliates the worldwide, non-exclusive, right to use, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, transmit, transcode, translate, broadcast, and otherwise communicate, and publicly display and publicly perform, your User Generated Content, and derivative works of your User Generated Content, in connection with the operation and promotion of the Steam site. This license is granted to Valve for the entire duration of the intellectual property rights and may be terminated if Valve is in breach of the license and has not cured such breach within fourteen (14) days from receiving notice from you sent to the attention of the Valve Legal Department at the applicable Valve address noted on this Privacy Policy page. The termination of said license does not affect the rights of any sub-licensees pursuant to any sub-license granted by Valve prior to termination of the license. Valve is the sole owner of the derivative works created by Valve from your Content, and is therefore entitled to grant licenses on these derivative works. If you use Valve cloud storage, you grant us a license to store your information as part of that service. We may place limits on the amount of storage you may use.

If you provide Valve with any feedback or suggestions about Steam, the Content and Services, or any Valve products or services, Valve is free to use the feedback or suggestions however it chooses, without any obligation to account to you.

B. Content Uploaded to the Steam Workshop

Some games or applications available on Steam ("Workshop-Enabled Apps") allow you to create User Generated Content based on or using the Workshop-Enabled App, and to submit that User Generated Content (a “Workshop Contribution”) to one or more Steam Workshop web pages. Workshop Contributions can be viewed by the Steam community, and for some categories of Workshop Contributions users may be able to interact with, download or purchase the Workshop Contribution. In some cases, Workshop Contributions may be considered for incorporation by Valve or a third-party developer into a game or into a Subscription Marketplace.

You understand and agree that Valve is not obligated to use, distribute, or continue to distribute copies of any Workshop Contribution and reserves the right, but not the obligation, to restrict or remove Workshop Contributions for any reason.

Specific Workshop-Enabled Apps or Workshop web pages may contain special terms (“App-Specific Terms”) that supplement or change the terms set out in this Section. In particular, where Workshop Contributions are distributed for a fee, App-Specific Terms will address how revenue may be shared. Unless otherwise specified in App-Specific Terms (if any), the following general rules apply to Workshop Contributions.

- Workshop Contributions are Subscriptions, and therefore you agree that any Subscriber receiving distribution of your Workshop Contribution will have the same rights to use your Workshop Contribution (and will be subject to the same restrictions) as are set out in this Agreement for any other Subscriptions.
- Notwithstanding the license described in Section 6.A., Valve will only have the right to modify or create derivative works from your Workshop Contribution in the following cases: (a) Valve may make modifications necessary to make your Contribution compatible with Steam and the Workshop functionality or user interface, and (b) Valve or the applicable developer may make modifications to Workshop Contributions that are accepted for in-Application distribution as it deems necessary or desirable to enhance gameplay.
- You may, in your sole discretion, choose to remove a Workshop Contribution from the applicable Workshop pages. If you do so, Valve will no longer have the right to use, distribute, transmit, communicate, publicly display or publicly perform the Workshop Contribution, except that (a) Valve may continue to exercise these rights for any Workshop Contribution that is accepted for distribution in-game or distributed in a manner that allows it to be used in-game, and (b) your removal will not affect the rights of any Subscriber who has already obtained access to a copy of the Workshop Contribution.

Except where otherwise provided in App-Specific Terms, you agree that Valve’s consideration of your Workshop Contribution is your full compensation, and you are not entitled to any other rights or compensation in connection with the rights granted to Valve and to other Subscribers.

You still own the intellectual rights and the copyright, but Valve can use it however they want (in standard legal restrictions) and create work of their own based on it. If they do so, you have no rights to this derived work.
You could make an original CS:GO skin and use this same design to make a skin for Killzone 2 for example. However you have no interested in any profits the companies make from including this skin into their games to be purchased by microtransactions.

Last edited by cinedine; Dec 2, 2015 @ 7:08am

#3

ultraBlue @LAN Dec 2, 2015 @ 7:04am

I've read that...So what do you gather from that statement in regards to my question?

#4

cinedine Dec 2, 2015 @ 7:09am

Originally posted by subset:
I've read that...So what do you gather from that statement in regards to my question?

I edited the above post.

#5

ultraBlue @LAN Dec 2, 2015 @ 7:11am

In regards to my question, I do not see anything mentioned. It essentially states that whoever submits content to the Workshop agrees that Valve can do whatever they want with it. Furthermore, if Valve decides they want to use it and make changes to it, Valve owns those derivatives. But that does not imply that Valve holds 100% of the legal rights to the submitted content prior to making any creative changes. It seems as if the Workshop Agreement is essentially allowing the content creator to license the use of the design to Valve. If this is the case, which I don't know, then it would appear that the original creator still maintains the legal rights to it.

#6

ultraBlue @LAN Dec 2, 2015 @ 7:16am

I just saw your edit. It appears that we are on the same page with regards to the implications. The reason I ask is I am trying to license the use of specific CS:GO skins for commercial use. However, when I reach out to specific content creators, they believe that Valve owns the rights to the designs that were accepted. But that should not be the case based on what we just said. Sure, Valve owns the skin if they made changes to the Workshop item so that it could be applied to the game environment. However, the design itself, independent of all game factors etc..., should be the sole property of the creator.

#7

cinedine Dec 2, 2015 @ 7:33am

You own every right to the originally uploaded content and no right to the derivates.

You can use you work outside of the game in whatever way you like. Even grant additional licenses for reprduction to other companies. But for the skin in the game, Valve is considered the creator and sole right owner.
Means more than one game even by different companies can have skins based on your work. But you cannot extort money out of Valve for using said work. You still get a cut from them of operation passes and that operation's keys, but you cannot make a legal claim for it nor any other shares of profit Valve gets from your work. Like e.g. a cut fom community market transactions or license rights for a theoretical movie featuring your skin.

Edit in regards to your second post:
Right. You can get a license for it from the creator in addition to the one tey granted Valve.

Last edited by cinedine; Dec 2, 2015 @ 7:35am

#8

ultraBlue @LAN Dec 2, 2015 @ 8:01am

Ok, that is exactly what I wanted to know. And legally speaking, that is what the "fine print" in the legal doc that you attached states, right? I am no expert by any means on legal wording, but we both gathered the same conclusion after reading it.

#9

Start_Running Dec 2, 2015 @ 8:04am

Originally posted by subset:
So say I submit a CS:GO skin to the Steam Workshop, do I still retain 100% of the legal rights to the skin/design?

If you actually registered the design and such as a copyright or trademark well yes. But by putting it up on the workshop you give up the righst to royalties based on the use of it.

Now say it is accepted by CS:GO and will appear in the next operation/case, who then has the legal rights to the skin? Is it Valve or the author/designer?

See above. You don't get a thing. But where the skin is purchased from the valve store, like every other in game valve store you do get a small cut of the sale.

Case in point a lot of TF2 and DOta2 items and such are fan made.

#10

cinedine Dec 2, 2015 @ 8:15am

Originally posted by subset:
Ok, that is exactly what I wanted to know. And legally speaking, that is what the "fine print" in the legal doc that you attached states, right? I am no expert by any means on legal wording, but we both gathered the same conclusion after reading it.

Right. Keep in mind that I'm just a layman and not a certified lawyer though. ;)
It comes down to how much your usage is associated with CS:GO and thus can be claimed to be based on the actual skin rather then the original design.

#11

ultraBlue @LAN Dec 2, 2015 @ 8:41am

Start Running - When you submit content to the Workshop without copyrighting it or trademarking it beforehand, you give up the rights to Valve? Or do you give it up in general to any interested party viewing it on the Workshop?

cinedine - That is a very good point. I'm sure a big company like Valve could make a case out of anything slightly resembling "their" skin. The key would be to find the difference between the design and the skin, and focus on the former.

#12

Start_Running Dec 2, 2015 @ 9:00am

Originally posted by subset:
Start Running - When you submit content to the Workshop without copyrighting it or trademarking it beforehand, you give up the rights to Valve? Or do you give it up in general to any interested party viewing it on the Workshop?

Both. Copyright is a rather a mine field.

#13

cinedine Dec 2, 2015 @ 9:35am

Originally posted by Start_Running:
Originally posted by subset:
Start Running - When you submit content to the Workshop without copyrighting it or trademarking it beforehand, you give up the rights to Valve? Or do you give it up in general to any interested party viewing it on the Workshop?

Both. Copyright is a rather a mine field.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. You don't give up any rights while uploading to the workshop. In fact with publishing an item there, you even establish your copyright. You grant Valve a license for the things mentioned in the SSA.
Copyright is acquired upon creation of work and if a new work can be traced back to be derived of your original you can sue for infringements - some countries (incl. US) do need a registering before legal action, though.
Trademarking has absolutely nothing to do with the topic on hand.

Edit:
May want to read up before making such claims:
copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html

Last edited by cinedine; Dec 2, 2015 @ 9:37am

#14

Start_Running Dec 2, 2015 @ 9:44am

Originally posted by cinedine:
Originally posted by Start_Running:

Both. Copyright is a rather a mine field.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. You don't give up any rights while uploading to the workshop. In fact with publishing an item there, you even establish your copyright. You grant Valve a license for the things mentioned in the SSA.

Copyright is acquired upon creation of work and if a new work can be traced back to be derived of your original you can sue for infringements - some countries (incl. US) do need a registering before legal action, though.

Actually one must have proof of existence of the work. It's why poorman's copyright exists the way it does.

DIstinct difference there. you can publish here but if someone else can prove you ripped of their work they can get your upload taken down.

#15

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