Automobilista Subject to Copyright Claim

[Paul Jeffrey]

Reiza Studios' newest title Automobilista has been temporary removed from the Steam digital distribution platform due to a copyright infringement claim. The title was removed from the Steam storefront Tuesday night.

Reiza Studios made the following statement to their fans and customers today:

"The Steam store page for Automobilista has been taken down due to a copyright infringement claim which had been submitted to Valve.

As is known, Automobilista packages a variety of officially licensed cars & brands alongside fictionalized, originally created content. The claim in question does not make any specific reference to content present in Automobilista supposedly in infringement of the party´s copyright - until it does, our belief is that it has no merit.

We have already taken the appropriate measures to resolve the issue ASAP, but in accordance to Valve´s policy, the process may take a few days to be completed.

In the meantime time we will continue to progress with the development of Automobilista, and intend to release another Early Access update shortly. The game is available for purchase as part of our Membership packages from our forum store.

Please understand that until the matter is fully resolved, we may not be able to discuss it."​

If you previously purchased and installed Automobilista through Steam, you will still be able to play the current Early Access build 0.8.7r both off- and online.

Dont forget to check out the RaceDepartment Automobilista forum for discussion and news on the Reiza title. Why not have a go in one of our daily Club Races run across a number of tracks and cars with large grids and close racing.

Update April 5th: Renato Simioni made a statement that can be seen here

 

[James Cook]

Definite tip-off as far as I'm concerned. A very sad state of affairs.

 

[Rodent]

Hope it works out quickly and the game comes back on sale soon.

That said, and I realize it's a polarizing issue: More official content and less "fictional" would be my preferred route, even if things like this didn't happen. Much like graphics, sound etc that all drive up production costs but increase immersion I find that driving a non fictional car increases my enjoyment immensely. Then again I'm coiled like a viper waiting for Reiza 2017 pre-orders to begin no matter what so it's not like it's a deal breaker.

 

[Tume]

Just read through all the replies...and I couldn't help but notice that Austin

But let's not start another off-topic topic. On the other hand I really find it weird how they suddenly shot Reiza with a copyright claim...as such things weren't bothering with SCE, like Matt said.

 

[M D Gourley]

The real troublesome issue here is why we have been targetted to begin with - generally speaking, we are too small to get in the radar of any major company,

Only my personal opinion... Reiza is showing the way and possibly scaring the competition in Sim Racing with their variety in content and top quality sounds and physics and if / when they get the graphics as good as pCars / Forza I would have no doubt in my mind that Reiza will be 'King of the Hill', a real force in Sim Racing,....but hey...I could be wrong...lol

 

[Spinelli]

I just got some new PC parts and decided to wipe my hard drive and start from scratch. So this means I can't download AMS at all? No other versions, nothing?

 

[Morello]

I just got some new PC parts and decided to wipe my hard drive and start from scratch. So this means I can't download AMS at all? No other versions, nothing?

If you already had it in your Steam library you should be fine to install it.

 

[Gringo]

the anger here is indeed misplaced.

No, no its not. As this develops I believe will see that the claim is unfair and the motivation nefarious.

You have been punished. The game was removed without a chance to respond to the claim. You were given no specific reason. Its bullshit.

 

[David Dominguez]

The real troublesome issue here is why we have been targetted to begin with - generally speaking, we are too small to get in the radar of any major company, and despite some pseudo-legal argumentation going on in this thread, legally there is nothing fundamentally wrong or even different to what is done in other, substantially bigger games (not just in racing).

Well, if AMS was featured in some popular website or social network, there are big chances that you got in the radar. For instance, I was part of Virtua Simulazioni's team (AC modding group) and we had announced in our website the Ferrari F300 mod project for over one entire year, and never got anything, but then we released the Ferrari F1 Concept, that went a bit viral at some point (you know, popular sites like to share stuff about futuristic F1s etc) and after few months we got a real letter from Ferrari lawyers asking the team to remove the F1 Concept car and the Ferrari F300 from the website.

Personally I don't find anything wrong, perhaps some liveries of some Formula cars are a bit "too much similar" to the real ones, but at best that will just require you to make few changes here and there. Or like Stereo said, maybe someone got confused by some mods here using real liveries, idk.

 

[Spinelli]

If you already had it in your Steam library you should be fine to install it.

Thank you. I just saw that now. Thank goodness!

P.S. There should be a "Thank You" rating emoticon/smiley/icon/thingy on this site

 

[Renato Simioni]

No, no its not. As this develops I believe will see that the claim is unfair and the motivation nefarious.

You have been punished. The game was removed without a chance to respond to the claim. You were given no specific reason. Its bullshit.

Well it may be unfair and nefarious, but at least it´s their own interest. Somehow that is not what triggers an emotional response from me, it comes with the territory.

Well, if AMS was featured in some popular website or social network, there are big chances that you got in the radar. For instance, I was part of Virtua Simulazioni's team (AC modding group) and we had announced in our website the Ferrari F300 mod project for over one entire year, and never got anything, but then we released the Ferrari F1 Concept, that went a bit viral at some point (you know, popular sites like to share stuff about futuristic F1s etc) and after few months we got a real letter from Ferrari lawyers asking the team to remove the F1 Concept car and the Ferrari F300 from the website.

Personally I don't find anything wrong, perhaps some liveries of some Formula cars are a bit "too much similar" to the real ones, but at best that will just require you to make few changes here and there. Or like Stereo said, maybe someone got confused by some mods here using real liveries, idk.

I have good reasons to believe this wasn´t casual, and might not even be down to the usual suspects, but it does IMO at least indirectly relate to the environment where this kind of destructive attitude for the sake of attention, fun & giggles is celebrated, which is unfortunate.

Im not going to engage further in the game of innuendos though as I dont believe it does anyone any good. People will do what they do and we may need to take measures to adapt. C´e la vie.

Now back to work on the next build

 

[Spinelli]

Seriously, this is ridiculous. If you guys (Reiza) are making tens or hundreds of millions of dollars (eg. GT and Polyphony, FM and Microsoft) then maybe that's different but you guys (and even more-so: modders) are such a different case. It's like the people who run these big corporations (and, heck, governments for that matter) aren't human beings or something

I really hope everything works out for you guys regarding this situation.

 

[Craig Patteson]

@Renato Simioni you guys keep up the good work

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

C´e la vie.

*C'est la vie

(Sorry)

 

[David Dominguez]

Seriously, this is ridiculous. If you guys (Reiza) are making tens or hundreds of millions of dollars (eg. GT and Polyphony, FM and Microsoft) then maybe that's different but you guys (and even more-so: modders) are such a different case. It's like the people who run these big corporations (and, heck, governments for that matter) aren't human beings or something

I really hope everything works out for you guys regarding this situation.

FOM wouldn't act like that if the other party is Sony and/or Microsoft, as someone said few pages ago, unless there is a real and very specific copyright infringement, which isn't the case here.

 

[Rodent]

*C'est la vie

(Sorry)

Non, je ne regrette rien!

 

[Spinelli]

FOM wouldn't act like that if the other party is Sony and/or Microsoft, as someone said few pages ago, unless there is a real and very specific copyright infringement, which isn't the case here.

Maybe we're having a misunderstanding but...If the exact same thing that's happening with AMS at the moment happened with Sony or Microsoft, are you saying FOM (or whoever) wouldn't care? Yet they care about a much, much smaller dev (Reiza) making much less money? How does that make sense?

 

[xnorb]

It's jurisdiction ...
Ecclestone has more money stored in the drawer of his desk than Reiza has made from selling games and Reiza would go bancrupt on lawyer costs and fees before they even discuss the topic at hand.
Sony on the other side would just send their army of lawyers into court and dno't even are about it.

But so far we need to wait and see who claimed what

 

[Gringo]

Somehow that is not what triggers an emotional response from me, it comes with the territory.

Fair enough. I don't like the "your guilty because we say its so until proven innocent" deal that goes with the DMCA territory.

It's out of balance and it's wrong.

 

[Brandon Wright]

Maybe we're having a misunderstanding but...If the exact same thing that's happening with AMS at the moment happened with Sony or Microsoft, are you saying FOM (or whoever) wouldn't care? Yet they care about a much, much smaller dev (Reiza) making much less money? How does that make sense?

I believe the line of thinking is that Sony/Microsoft have teams of lawyers and the resources to fight such claims, thus FOM stands a much smaller chance of winning. Reiza probably doesn't have the resources/time/desire to fight a behemoth like FOM and would likely just have to concede rather than fight, so it's an easy victory.

 

[Guilherme Borghezani]

I'm really ANGRY with the latest posts from that site or ***** blog
ridiculous