Depuis plus de deux ans, un procès oppose VALVe à Vivendi Universal Games sur des motifs divers : les cybercafés, le contrat liant les deux sociétés et la propriété de la licence Half-Life, notamment. VALVe annonce aujourd’hui avoir remporté une première manche : un juge de Seattle a déclaré que VALVe était seul habilité à proposer ses jeux aux cybercafés (ce qu’il fait via Steam)
Le jugement dans son intégralité peut se trouver par ici. Le procès qui oppose les deux entreprises est toutefois bien loin d’être terminé. Dallas, la suite, c’est pour dans quelques mois.[–SUITE–]Le communiqué de presse de VALVe :
Valve Wins Summary Judgment Motions in Copyright Infringement Case
Valve today announced the U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle, WA granted its motion for summary judgment on the matters of Cyber Café Rights and Contractual Limitation of Liability in its copyright infringement suit with Sierra/Vivendi Universal Games.
Judge Thomas S. Zilly ruled that Sierra/Vivendi Universal Games, and its affiliates, are not authorized to distribute (directly or indirectly) Valve games through cyber cafés to end users for pay-to-play activities pursuant to the parties’ current publishing agreement. Valve games such as Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and the recently released Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source are all popular in cyber cafés.
In addition, Judge Zilly ruled in favor of the Valve motion regarding the contractual limitation of liability, allowing Valve to recover copyright damages for any infringement as allowed by law without regard to the publishing agreement’s limitation of liability clause.
« We’re happy the court has affirmed the meaning of our publishing contract. This is good news for Valve and its cyber café partners around the world, » said Gabe Newell, founder and CEO of Valve. « We continue to add value to our program and we look forward to working with cafés to get them signed up and offering Valve’s latest games to their customers. »
The Valve Cyber Café Program is the only legal way to use Valve games in your cyber café or gaming center. There are currently thousands of cyber cafés participating in the program throughout the world. More information regarding the Valve Cyber Café Program can be found here: http://steampowered.com/index.php?area=cybercafes
