Square Enix accused of abusing copyright law to silence fan criticism-Izzie Jones-Entertainment – Metro

Max takedown (Square Enix)

The makers of Life is Strange: Double Exposure are accused by fans of using legal takedowns to limit discussion and criticism of the game.

What does a niche lesbian video game subreddit have to do with the future of freedom of expression on the internet? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

I’ve been looking into concerning allegations that suggest Square Enix has been abusing copyright takedown powers to target and shut down criticism from fans of their new game, Life is Strange: Double Exposure.

The subreddit r/pricefield is a community dedicated to the Life Is Strange franchise, primarily shipping the lead character of Max with her love interest Chloe from the first game. It has 12,000 members, many of whom have engaged in discussions critical of the decision to omit Chloe from Double Exposure.

The subreddit is an independent space for Life is Strange fans to talk fan theories, share fan art and discuss the games, and is wholly unaffiliated from Square Enix. These fans noticed that more and more of their posts and comments were being taken down by Reddit, after a third party began issuing copyright violations.

In response, and fearing that they risked further penalties from Reddit, moderators of the subreddit published an open letter to Square Enix, stating that they believe someone at the company, or developer Deck Nine, was ‘wilfully removing non-infringing content for reasons other than infringement’. They believe this is happening because Square Enix is unhappy with not having editorial control over the page.

Takedowns on the subreddit, they say, appear to have included text posts containing publicly available information, including discussion of public tweets made by the game’s developers. Many fans in the community are worried that this is a targeted and hostile move to shut down fair and reasonable criticism of the new game.

Chloe in the original Life Is Strange (Square Enix)

‘It’s been both deeply saddening and incredibly frustrating to see how Deck Nine and Square Enix have treated us – one of the most enthusiastic and outspoken offshoots of the fandom,’ moderator HoHoey told GameCentral.

‘Not only are they trying to silence genuine criticism and snuff out the voices of rightfully disgruntled fans, they’re also making attempts at intimidating members of the community with DMCA takedown notices and abusing copyright law to control the reach of publicly available information.

‘At the end of the day, we’re just a bunch of Life Is Strange fans trying to celebrate and enjoy two of the most beloved characters in the franchise.’

If a publisher is deciding to use their powers to shut down public forum discussions, it would set a worrying precedent that companies can simply block and remove conversations between internet users that they do not like.

What’s so striking about this story is that the publisher isn’t attempting to damage control against ‘anti-woke’ internet trolls on a crusade to ‘cancel’ the game, featuring themes they don’t like, but rather they seem to be targeting long-standing fans of the franchise.

The implications that this would have on the future of free expression online is concerning, but perhaps symptomatic of a wider anxiety we are seeing amongst video game publishers at the moment.

You only have to look at the review-bombing of Dragon Age: The Veilguard on Metacritic in contrast to its ‘mostly positive’ reviews on Steam (where you actually have to own the game to review it) to see the power online communities can command.

It’s clear that publishers face challenges when it comes to the power of the internet and the impact this may have on the success of their products.

We spoke to Square Enix about the allegations, and were provided with this official statement:

‘In relation to DMCA notices, all steps taken were in accordance with appropriate legal requirements and Reddit’s own procedures for reporting intellectual property violations. These processes apply to infringing content shared prior to a game’s release, including leaks or confidential information due to breach of non-disclosure agreements and datamined content. No DMCA notices were sent regarding any posts outside of these circumstances.’

We also reached out to Reddit for comment, and at time of publication are yet to hear back from them.

If you’ve experienced anything similar to this, please do get in touch.

Square Enix are risking the Streisand effect (Square Enix)

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