Legal Disputes between Valve and Vivendi???

Old news and welcome to the forum, wait a couple of months before starting news threads, some people here are supernaturally fast with news :)
 
Aw, comon. Give him a break, and a warm welcome to the forums! :thumbs:
 
damn, thanks for the link. The gamespot article showed alot from vivendi's side, now we get to finally hear from valve.
 
that's on the front page :]
There is probably a thread on this on the most recent page of forum posts too.

just use search in future or take a quick glance down the list.
wilcomen
 
Just when you thought the game is around the corner...

From now on, we have to mentally prepare ourselves for March 2005 HL2 release.
 
hmm...well we haven't really heard Valve's side of things fully yet despite that short interview Gamespy had with Doug Lombardi.
like i have said previous.. regardless of what happens and who is at fault, i hope Valve retains the rights to the HL series IP.. as they know best what to give the fans in terms of games
 
I'm glad gamespy did this interview. Its a relief to know that valve is the owner of the Half-Life IP and that they funded themselves completely. I thought maybe VU gave them a little money and so they felt like they should own a percentage of the Half-Life IP.

Even tho VU is slowly fading away and I feel bad for them, I dont want them in anyway to ruin the end result of all that work valve put into hl2. Valve deserves to get back everything they put into the game and more.
 
this bothers me


The Article said:
Valve has confirmed that those plans have not changed, no matter what the outcome of the next scheduled hearing may be.

Between now and the official trail date, March 21, 2005



so here i think its saying that "the plans" will be in effect after "the outcome" of the trial. the plans in question are valves plans of selling hl2 through steam. and "the outcome" of the trial will be AFTER march 21, 2005.

so this suggests to me that half life 2 wont come out until after march 21, 2005. i really hope i am wrong. jesus christ i hope im dead wrong.
 
The next hearing is far before March 2005. The article states there's a whole load of hearings between now and then.
 
Pi Mu Rho said:
The next hearing is far before March 2005. The article states there's a whole load of hearings between now and then.

oh thank you for destroying my logic, i was really hoping someone would do it. can we find out when the next hearing is? are there public records we can access? freedom of information act type stuff? anything? GOD I WANT THIS DAMNED GAME ARGHHHHHH
 
just for FYI, when shacknews emailed gabe, if it's really true that the rc has been sent to vivendi, he replied "yes, we're close"

then, keep in mind the review, no preview, which is coming soon. all the things happened lately, indicate that it's close.. damn close. :)
 
Now it's on the news page. Think before you start saying it's old news.
 
We can hold on to hope because this stuff has been going on in the background for sometime now. If it hasn't delayed the release date yet, why now? I just hope that the fans don't get screwed again.
 
Oh, yea, it's really new. Like 2002 new.

Quick, everyone - did you hear? We're going to invade Iraq!


...
 
my bad thinking this was old news. I didn't really gain any new info from it :/ so i inferred wrong
 
From Gamasutra:
Consumer news site GameSpot has uncovered details of a previously unreported legal action between Half-Life 2 developer Valve and publisher Vivendi Universal Games. The dispute has been ongoing for two years now, and centers around a lawsuit which Valve originally served against Sierra On-Line, a brand subsequently bought out by Vivendi. The complaint was that Sierra was placing copies of Valve games in Internet cafes across the globe – a practice that Valve claim was not covered by the publisher’s license.

Over two hundred documents and exhibits later, and Vivendi has inherited the lawsuit, which remains unresolved. On top of the original complaint, Valve has also claimed that Vivendi has refused to pay the developer royalties owed and unreasonably delayed Counter-Strike: Condition Zero so that it missed the Christmas 2003 retail period.

Around six months ago, Vivendi lawyers made a counter-claim that they hoped would invalidate their publishing agreement with Valve and grant them ownership of the Half-Life intellectual property. Both sides have now submitted motions for summary judgment on minor details, with a final court date not scheduled until March 2005 – which is expected to be long after Half-Life 2’s release date. Indeed, the delivery of source code to Vivendi, which was widely reported last week, may in fact have been timed to comply with a legal demand from the publisher.

With Vivendi also attempting to prevent Valve from distributing Half-Life 2 via its online delivery system Steam, it is a supreme irony they are also trying to force the developer into working with them on future projects. Whoever wins the varied legal battles, and the overall war, it is likely to have profound implications on future developer/publisher relations throughout the industry.
 
hi_ted said:
From Gamasutra:
Consumer news site GameSpot has uncovered details of a previously unreported legal action between Half-Life 2 developer Valve and publisher Vivendi Universal Games. The dispute has been ongoing for two years now, and centers around a lawsuit which Valve originally served against Sierra On-Line, a brand subsequently bought out by Vivendi. The complaint was that Sierra was placing copies of Valve games in Internet cafes across the globe – a practice that Valve claim was not covered by the publisher’s license.

Over two hundred documents and exhibits later, and Vivendi has inherited the lawsuit, which remains unresolved. On top of the original complaint, Valve has also claimed that Vivendi has refused to pay the developer royalties owed and unreasonably delayed Counter-Strike: Condition Zero so that it missed the Christmas 2003 retail period.

Around six months ago, Vivendi lawyers made a counter-claim that they hoped would invalidate their publishing agreement with Valve and grant them ownership of the Half-Life intellectual property. Both sides have now submitted motions for summary judgment on minor details, with a final court date not scheduled until March 2005 – which is expected to be long after Half-Life 2’s release date. Indeed, the delivery of source code to Vivendi, which was widely reported last week, may in fact have been timed to comply with a legal demand from the publisher.

With Vivendi also attempting to prevent Valve from distributing Half-Life 2 via its online delivery system Steam, it is a supreme irony they are also trying to force the developer into working with them on future projects. Whoever wins the varied legal battles, and the overall war, it is likely to have profound implications on future developer/publisher relations throughout the industry.

And you're trying to sayyy?
 
Back
Top