this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2026
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This doesn't look meaningful at all. Why target valve and not the developers and publishers of these games? Were they not licensed appropriately such that they were compensated for their use? To my untrained eye this seems like they're trying to double dip.
I did some research and apparently they're sueing Valve because they think any platform where users can download something using their music should pay them, too. The publishers/devs are paying but Valve isn't.
No idea how well that holds up in court.
Did music stores need licenses to sell CDs?
What does this mean for Apple Music or Spotify?
Valve doesn’t let you play the music, unless the publisher adds it and you purchase it separately as an OST (for which Valve is protected as that is the publisher’s actions).
If this succeeds then I declare anarchy. Rules are no longer a thing, anywhere. If corporations can just make up any bullshit they want then I’m going to start suing all the music industry associations for including their music in commercials which did NOT license my ears to receive it.
They do license the music
They don't license the samples that an artist might've licensed, but they "sell" them as part of the song. The same braindead logic from the lawsuit can be applied here.
You're conflating the streaming side vs the buying a track side.
Valve profited, Valve is liable, Valve is a lot easier to get money out of than a bunch of indie studios that don’t exist any more.
With great margins comes great responsibility.
No. The publishers and developers have already paid for the right to use the music.
This is would be akin to having your local record store also pay a licensing fee to sell a CD or a movie store pay a license fee for selling a movie that has music in it.
It's a bullshit frivolous lawsuit.
Music licensing is complicated as hell.
How are you so sure the indie devs got it right when big companies screw it up all the time?
And what does that have to do with anything this article is pointing out here? They're not suing small indie developers for using unlicensed music they're talking about suing a store front that sells games that already has a damn license for their games. Hell they used examples of the large publishers here not even making a case that indie companies are the issue with them probably because indie studios aren't using big name artist unlike the large publishers they're pointing to.
No good sir, you do not get to provide a non-sequitur as a valid argument.
Explain how it's perfectly valid to sue a store to make them obtain a music usage license for selling a games that has already licensed their music in their games.
This would be like suing Walmart because people watch pirated content on TVs they buy from Walmart
We aren't even talking about pirated content. The game devs paid the licenses for the music in their game. They want to double dip and have Valve pay, too.
I really hope these leaches will have to pay all of Valve's legal expenses for this shit.
Well dang. I misunderstood, and thought the devs hadn't paid the music licensing. That makes this thing even more unreasonable, legally