Steam Guide Plagiarism

[Malific]

So today I got some extra comments on my Defiance guide here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=136763970

Nothing out of the ordinary, just some one talking about some issues they encountered and saying thanks for the guide etc etc.

I started browsing other guides in Defiance out of curiosity because I hadn't looked at them in a while and saw this guide:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=175963470
posted by ✖KiTTy STranger✖ http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198081745087

Which turned out to be an exact copy/paste of the guide I had made.

Honestly is there any real reason to do this? I don't know of any sort of advantage you would get for having guides and I certainly don't see one in copy pasting some one else's.

So I went and looked up there profile and noticed they had 2 guides, the second one was for PayDay 2:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=175973408

And guess what.. it's a copy/paste of another guide, except some identifying info from the original author's was removed:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=169979790

Both copies were posted on the same day within an hour of each other, and no other guides have been posted since.

So.. why would some one do this? It's the first I've noticed of people copying guides, and I really don't see any sort of reason/advantage to it.

Is this something that should be reported? Does Steam even a policy about it?

I'm just finding the entire situation very... odd.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Notoriety. They may also be using it as a reference when looking for a job. There are many reasons someone would do it, though no reasons that they should.

Report it to support for now.

I will ask around and ask a few others.

[Malific]

From my end it's just a guide I made, as far as I'm concerned the more people that know the better.

Personally I don't really feel a need to report it unless it's some sort of violation. But by 'report it to support' I'm assuming you mean under the "user misconduct" section on their profile. Or do you mean actually file a ticket with Steam support?

[Spawn of Totoro]

Either one. Some of their policies are not up to date and/or known to us. Support would know though.

If you report it and it isn't a violation, then nothing will happen anyways. If it is, then they will most likely take it down.

I've asked a mod with more experience and he said he is also unsure. We thinks it may fall under then same rules as the Workshop, and the Workshop doesn't allow for this.

[Malific]

Okay, I guess I'll go do one via their User Profile, it will probably be the most expediant method to get it handled if it needs to be.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Malific:

Okay, I guess I'll go do one via their User Profile, it will probably be the most expediant method to get it handled if it needs to be.

You would also be helping out other who's guides he has used without permission too.

I'll post again when/if I have more information.

[アンジェル]

Thanks for notifying me, Malific.

[Silv3r9]

Well that was fast. I clicked out of curiosity & to compare but both guides from that user are gone now.

[Malific]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Ciara:

Thanks for notifying me, Malific.

No problem, I haven't reported yet but it looks like somone was already on top of it. Both copies have been pulled down for ToS violation.

Was trying to copy/paste the urls into the report when it happened.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Silv3r9:

Well that was fast. I clicked out of curiosity & to compare but both guides from that user are gone now. :m:

Yeah, but you can still see the opening lines on the links here and they are the same.

[Heffebaycay]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Malific:

From my end it's just a guide I made, as far as I'm concerned the more people that know the better.

Personally I don't really feel a need to report it unless it's some sort of violation. But by 'report it to support' I'm assuming you mean under the "user misconduct" section on their profile. Or do you mean actually file a ticket with Steam support?

I just took down both guides from this user. Thanks.

The right thing to do in that case is to use the report feature: there's a "Report" button on most Community content. You also could have used the copyright infringement (DMCA) form linked on the modal visible after clicking on the "Report" button. When things aren't obvious, the DMCA form is the way to go.

[Malific]

Thanks, I'd never even noticed the report button on content.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Since this had been taken care of, I'll go ahead a lock the thread.