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Vivendi & Valve Settle Lawsuit

by Maarten Goldstein, Apr 29, 2005 8:42am PDT
Related Topics – Valve, lawsuit, Vivendi, Sierra Entertainment

We just received a press release from Valve, announcing that they have settled their differences with Vivendi Universal Games and are dimissing all claims and counterclaims in the lawsuit which originally started when VUGames put Valve products in internet cafes. Valve said this amounted to copyright infringement. Vivendi later counter-sued, saying it was mislead about Valve's online distribution plans, and claimed ownership of the Half-Life IP. Here's what will happen now

Under the settlement agreement, VU Games will cease distribution of retail packaged versions of Valve's games, including Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Counter-StrikeTM, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source, effective August 31, 2005. Additionally, VU Games has notified distributors and cyber cafes that were licensed by VU Games that only Valve is authorized to distribute Valve games to cyber cafes and grant cyber cafe licenses. Cyber cafe operators that were licensed by VU Games have also been notified that any license agreement from Sierra Entertainment, Vivendi Universal Games or any of their affiliates or distributors that may have granted rights to use Valve games in cyber cafes, whether written or oral, is terminated.
Does this mean no more retail distribution for Valve games? No, Valve tells us they are working on post-August 31 deals but details are still being worked out. Expect to hear more about that before too long.


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