Sega claims SteamDB takedown of Yakuza: Like a Dragon was an error of automated anti-piracy
According to Sega, the takedown demand against SteamDB was the result of an accidental flag from the company's anti-piracy systems.
It was just recently that SteamDB revealed that unfortunately, it was forced to temporarily take down its listing of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Apparently, while the site is no stranger to an attempted DMCA here and there, Sega’s particular legal pursuit of the matter left little option at the initial stage of the issue. However, following an open outcry over the matter, Sega is now reportedly in conversations with SteamDB and claims that the legal action was the result of an error in its anti-piracy systems.
It was on March 29 that SteamDB creator and lead Pavel Djundik went to Twitter to share the issue about Sega’s legal team demanding the Yakuza: Like a Dragon page be taken down. According to Djundik, Sega’s legal team claimed SteamDB was illegitimately distributing Like a Dragon, something the site does not do. Rather, SteamDB tracks stats, listings, and other factors of products that appear on Steam, such as the recent appearance of possible Streets of Rage 4 DLC.
SteamDB does not support piracy, it does not provide downloads, it does not sell keys, it does not link to any websites that do any of these activities. https://t.co/Cv33ml7Anm
— Pavel Djundik (@thexpaw) March 29, 2021
According to a statement provided by Sega, the issue occurred because of automated anti-piracy measures which incorrectly flagged SteamDB’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon page as an unlicensed distributor.
“Earlier this week, one of our games was incorrectly flagged on SteamDB,” a Sega spokesperson told us. “We utilize anti-piracy software to protect our games at a large scale, but sometimes it makes mistakes. Sega will continue to fine-tune these systems to avoid this in the future and we appreciate SteamDB cooperating with us to resolve the issue quickly.”
And so it seems that it was less of a curious effort by Sega to remove Like a Dragon from SteamDB’s listings and more that some sort of automated system brought SteamDB’s listing to Sega’s attention in an inaccurate way. Furthermore, Pavel Djundik also recently shared that the matter has since been resolved in a satisfactory matter and the Like a Dragon page is back online.
It certainly raises questions as to what SteamDB’s listing of the game contained to trip Sega’s automated anti-piracy systems, but that may be more of a matter for SteamDB and/or Sega to figure out. For now, this particular incident seems to have come to a satisfying conclusion for both parties.
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replyTJ Denzer posted a new article, Sega claims SteamDB takedown of Yakuza: Like a Dragon was an error of automated anti-piracy
