The Facts
I received the DCMA request after its removal from Steam with no warning/contact from either Valve/Steam or any developer associated with Call of Duty nor anyone from Activision.
I never was provided specific examples of assets, or screenshots of what offended them - nor given the chance to rectify or remove any offensive content prior to having our game removed from sale.
We assumed which pieces of content based on what they self-labeled of their own as well as community-provided assets.
(Comparison 1 - Auto Shotgun)
http://i.imgur.com/8Qx1NI2.png
(Comparison 2 - Auto Rifle)
http://i.imgur.com/IjS7dfO.png
http://i.imgur.com/ZQeBNGs.png
We immediately offered to remove ANY offensive content (as it wasn't specified) and this was not accepted.
The Events
I was informed by Steam that accordingly to their policy, Activision has 10 business days (until July 7th, 2016 - basically a month due to the Holiday) to act or do anything.
If Steam doesn't receive a copy of a legal complaint within 10 business days, then our game will be re-instated.
What this means is that Activision has maliciously and erroneously used a DMCA request to aggressively attack a small, independent development team during the BIGGEST Sale Event of the entire year, the Steam Summer Sale.
Our Comments
The sight is the only similarity we can see. Even if it was a 1:1, that's not enough for a design infraction, even by legal standards and by a significant amount.
http://i.imgur.com/ZQeBNGs.png
And the sight is just a futuristic M1 Garand, so either way both are homaging a real world property, the only thing that could actually hold up and is the only one without a dog in this fight.
Regardless, an invalid and malicious act from Activision on wrong or non-existant evidence. They are are multi-billion dollar company coming over what is currently a 50 cent game, without contacting us or requesting anything of us NOR providing any specific assets or images of the offensive content to begin with
That being said, if our community finds our weapons or content offensive we are of course always listening and will integrate feedback/suggestions based on such. If you want weapons changed, we are a developer that reads what you write. We've demonstrated this for many years now across a variety of products:
ORION
https://youtu.be/BbL9MioMpF8
ORION: Prelude
https://youtu.be/ShQ3GBFI4KQ
The Non-Specific DMCA:
DMCA Takedown Notice on your item
Valve received a DMCA copyright take down notice about your game, Orion, on Steam at http://store.steampowered.com/app/407840/.
*REDACTED*, on behalf of Activision, alleges that the game Orion uses weapon art content from Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The weapon art in question includes the M8A7 rifle, the Haymaker rifle, and the Bal-27 rifle. Use of this weapon art content without permission infringes Activision’s copyright in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. https://www.activision.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-black-ops-3,https://www.activision.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-advanced-warfare. As a result, we have removed your posting from Steam. Valve follows the procedure set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA is a United States copyright law that governs online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. When we receive a DMCA notice, Valve must take down allegedly infringing copyright materials; otherwise Valve could be subject to a claim of copyright infringement.
In Short
Orion is a game all about homages. It's what it's always been, since it was announced as a retro homage to the classic 90's games with a modern take. It’s GI Joes action figures versus your Jurassic Park toys. It’s Halo meets Turok. It's what we all did as kids in our heads.
I just can’t believe of all things, it was over a generic sci-fi weapon. Regardless what it was over, the most important thing was that we were not warned, contacted by either party nor able to remedy it. We were given no specific information relating to assets, only left to guess or use fan-submitted content/links to decipher.
We offered immediately to remove any offensive content right off the bat, this was rejected.
We are happy to read any feedback about the game. Any ORION fan knows we do this regularly. We are always reading and listening and if fans find any of our content offensive we have and will always replace it.
A Warning
To any website reporting false claims with no verifiable proof or facts regarding myself or Trek - this is not acceptable and won't be tolerated. You can not flat out lie about people. That is slander and defamation. We've seen two reports pop up from over 5 years ago. tt wasn't true then, still isn't now. To anyone spreading claims without proof, we will be seeking resolution once we're done addressing what we're going to do with Activision. ( NATURAL SELECTION 2 ARMORY ) This related to a development-only, pre-alpha game build. We were flying to conferences like Gamescom (Germany) and Eurogamer (London) to show to publishers and press. At the time, like any developer, you use whatever content and assets you have access to in order to mock up the experience. We had a freelancer at the time, Daniel Doerksen who was simply a fan of Unknown Worlds/Natural Selection - never officially worked for them and simply made himself personal portfolio piece based on their art. At this time we needed a unit exactly the same (a dispenser that grants ammo) and used what he had legally available to do so. It was caught in a few frames in a trailer and people (somehow) assumed it was straight from the Natural Selection 2 game, a title that wasn't even released to the public at that time. The model was subbed out for the official release, as always intended. (PRIMAL CARNAGE ARTWORK) Another incident involved a freelancing concept artist. Back in the day we had an additional folder on our shared Dropbox called "Mood Art". This would contain anything that was either very "Orionish" or something I wanted to get added to the game and consisted of orion-related fan art, things we'd find online. Said artist utilized a piece of artwork from that folder and used it as a base layer, proportionally, to do a full new drawing on top of. When submitted to me, I didn't know this at the time. However Ashton, the former head of Primal contacted me right after we made the news post and we took it down immediately and apologized right then and I also personally apologized in person at a conference. They did not accept it. Fun fact, years later the two Dinosaur 3D Artists, Tim M and Eugen T, would join and create the Dinosaurs for both Prelude and most of Guardians of Orion - only for me to find out that they were having payment issues at Lukewarm for their completed content. (WE FIRED PEOPLE) This is the name of the game. We work remotely and independently, so sometimes talent doesn't work out. However it wasn't purely related to strangers and anyone that steals or tries to steal hardware, money or do other shady things doesn't have a place at Trek. More on that here: http://artistryingames.com/spiraling-control-incredible-journey-spiral-game-studios/
An Update
An additional update is available. For the record, I (-David) don't agree with this nor believe it's a good use of a small teams resources to immediately replace any asset.
I was just contacted by the artist responsible (he just woke up to all of this - Eastern part of the world) for the Automatic Shotgun (which is what appears most in fans-submitted comparisons) feels absolutely horrible and has contacted me to inform me that he would feel more comfortable in remaking said weapon regardless of what I do about Activision or how we proceed. So no matter what happens going forward, that weapon will be visually different.
He feels terrible that his piece of art resulted in these events that have affected so many things and he has started production on it this evening to remedy anything he can do directly.
- - - - -
In the end, what Activision is claiming isn't a valid or legal use of DMCA. If they were alleging that we had actually RIPPED the Black Ops 3 weapons FROM their game and used them exactly - their shipped meshes, their shipped textures - that is a DMCA case.
What they are alleging is that our very own, separately created content is "too visually" or "artistically similar". That is *NOT* what the DMCA covers. That is a form of copyright and IP infringement dispute. Their lawyers know this, but filed this anyways.
We will be seeking resolution for all damages wrongly inflicted by us FROM Activision via this malicious and overly aggressive tactic.
Our desire to remove said content is purely for our own benefit. We are a small indie team, any minute the game is not for sale during the biggest event is a stake to the heart. Us willing to remove any offensive content and to get it back for sale is to protect our selves, our company and our IP.