Automobilista Subject to Copyright Claim

Paul Jeffrey · Mar 30, 2016

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

kedy89 · Mar 30, 2016

Bet's on FOM. If it is them (what I don't doubt), they can keep F1 and stick it up their arse.

Next step, sueing keyboard producers for the F1 key.

Nick Hill · Mar 30, 2016

kedy89 said:
Bet's on FOM. If it is them (what I don't doubt), they can keep F1 and stick it up their arse.

Next step, sueing keyboard producers for the F1 key.

At this point, I wouldn't put it past them...

Austin Ogonoski · Mar 30, 2016

Reiza made a quick edit in their announcement that implied it was FOM.

Hope somebody caught it.

Chris · Mar 30, 2016

kedy89 said:
Next step, sueing keyboard producers for the F1 key.

With the ridiculously short sighted decisions being made in F1 these past few weeks, I honestly wouldn't be surprised.

Alex McRacing · Mar 30, 2016

kedy89 said:
Bet's on FOM. If it is them (what I don't doubt), they can keep F1 and stick it up their arse.

Next step, sueing keyboard producers for the F1 key.

Just wait 90 seconds

Crivitz Chris · Mar 30, 2016

I'm assuming it is related to this. This article was posted last night, and Polygon is pretty reputable in the gaming industry

http://www.polygon.com/2016/3/29/11322962/formula-one-racing-game-mods-f1-takedown

Renato Simioni · Mar 30, 2016

Austin Ogonoski said:
How will crowdfunding refunds work if F1 finds out they took other peoples money to build a car that violated copyright laws?

Please explain how we "took other peoples money to build a car that violated copyright laws".

If you can´t do that in specific legal detail, you are once again sailing libelous waters. You really need to start being more careful with that. Your hobby of producing damaging factoids can have actual consequences, and not just for the companies / people you target.

Martin Larsen · Mar 30, 2016

Wouldn't be surprised if Codemasters think there F1 games dont sell well because off mods and ''F1'' cars in other games. So this is FOM's way to make F1 2016 sell...

But even if Codemasters have nothing to do with it(which I still guess they dont...) and they make F1 2016 as the best game ever then I simply wont care, why should I want to give FOM money...

When Bernie and the rest have meetings:
Some random guy: How do we get more viewers back to F1?
Bernie: Oh wait! I got! We piss off the viewers we still have!...

Craig Patteson · Mar 30, 2016

Hope it gets sorted out soon

Ho3n3r · Mar 30, 2016

BattleOvce · Mar 30, 2016

What is FOM ?

Ok I see what is it

Didnt read comments on 2nd page

Chris · Mar 30, 2016

BattleOvce said:
What is FOM ?

Formula One Management

Paul Bennett · Mar 30, 2016

Austin Ogonoski said:
Reiza made a quick edit in their announcement that implied it was FOM.

Hope somebody caught it.

Based on what ?

kedy89 · Mar 30, 2016

BattleOvce said:
What is FOM ?

Ok I see what is it Didnt read comments on 2nd page

wankers, see the post above yours.

CCKaren · Mar 30, 2016

R.J. O'Connell said:
If you are an avid follower of the sport run by the supposed claiming party, you can easily recognize who the teams and drivers are supposed to portray. This has been done for years by racing game developers who knew they had a top-quality product but could not acquire an official license. And it has been mostly okay to do that.

And as a note to this, it has been done by the implied company themselves when drivers have copyrighted their own names and likenesses separate from the series.

Bram Hengeveld · Mar 30, 2016

Crivitz Chris said:
I'm assuming it is related to this. This article was posted last night, and Polygon is pretty reputable in the gaming industry

These reputable sources are just copy / pasting the same incorrect information that our pretend journalist is spreading.

30 pages of mods really?

80 unique mods at most after which their associated comment pages have been merged into one single thread per game to avoid a big clutter in the sub-forums.

But claiming it's been 30 pages of mods says enough how much research all these reputable sources actually do before hitting the publish button.

Queequeg · Mar 30, 2016

Time to start watching DTM on weekends.

Renato Simioni · Mar 30, 2016

It´s important to make a distinction here: claiming to have a right is not the same as legally having such right. Of course if you are big enough, your claims might create actual repercussions.

We have evaluated the claim with the intent of addressing it, however at this stage we have been giving nothing further to address. Valve´s policy is understandably conservative with how they approach such claims, and we have to respect it. The issue is bound to be resolved one way or another, but at this stage the ball is not in our court.

Chris · Mar 30, 2016

Queequeg said:
Time to start watching DTM on weekends.

I still love Formula One and I still intend on staying up until the wee hours of the morning watching the Bahrain GP and all the pre and post race stuff on Sky.

Ironically, in arguably the worst week for the sports' public image in living memory, the Australian GP was an absolute cracker of a race.