Please note that if you need to download a copy you can find the latest official release at github release page[github.com], which can be unzipped in a folder under:


Thank you for your continued support and patience.

I am working on a solid way to bypass Colossal's Workshop. You will love it just as much as Colossal will hate it.

Yep, it took them 15 days of intense scrutiny and personal attacks to come up with "Steam Community & Content Guidelines violation".

Assuming for a brief second that it's true, how incompetent is CO if it took 15 days to figure that out?

Of course, the fact that they've started the assault on me only after I exposed their shady practices means they are driven by pure hate now, and are willing to pile on the lies on top of each other.

There is no violation, no explanation, they got cold feet after their DMCA attempt, but that was one irreversible step. I hope it turns out that hiring an incompetent developer is far more expensive than they imagined, and you can't fix this problem by throwing more hate and rash decisions at it.

Quick update.

The Harmony Redesigned mod has been hidden from view, and shows the following notice banner:

Note the reason for removal is "violation of Steam Community & Content Guidelines", and not "Copyright infrigment"

I'm speculating that this is Colossal Order's removal, and not Valve removing it as per DMCA law.

In any case, dear users, you can keep using your copy, I would even suggest making a local copy in case of further CO shenanigans. I'm working tirelessly to resolve this issue.

Please note that if you need to download a copy you can find the latest official release at github release page[github.com], which can be unzipped in a folder under:


Thank you for your continued support and patience.

When I bring the counter-claim and take the party responsible for the fraudulent complaint to Court, I wonder if that party is Felix Schmidt, or Colossal Order, or possibly both, jointly.

In the timeline I showed above, Felix was an employee at CO when he first started work on his Harmony Mod.

The Harmony Mod itself does not serve any other function than to enable the community to modify the vanilla software. The success of the CSL product is largely attributed to the community making such modifications. The Harmony mod augments the ability of the CSL software to be modified, and it should be viewed as part and parcel of the product itself. There is simply no other purpose to it. It seems to me, that although Felix put his name in the MIT license, his mod benefits his employer, and only his employer, and it must be viewed as part of CO's product, and not a modification made by a community member.

As far as I can tell, it is CO, and not (only) Felix Schmidt that bare the liability for the fraudulent DMCA complaint, so Colossal Order is the proper defendant to be named in the lawsuit, possibly jointly with Felix Schmidt.

引用自 33Rev：

I'm still not understanding how a DMCA applies here...the original framework by Andreas Pardeike, the Harmony mod, and Harmony redesigned are provided under the MIT license... it just doesn't add up to me.

The Harmony Library (MIT) is distinct from the Harmony Mod (whether boformer's - MIT, or mine - GPL). The Mod includes the library or a derivative of the library, but also includes some glue code to make various versions of Andreas' library work together. By design, Harmony Library versions 1.x and 2.x are incompatible and cannot be used simultaneously in the same environment. The glue code bridges the incompatibility gap with some patches to the the older 1.x library, which makes it able to function in the same environment as a 2.x library. The glue code exists in boformer's mod (licensed MIT), along with some other functions which I discarded. Very similar code exists in my mod, and implements the same necessary function.

Now, I used an earlier version of the code base than Feb 14 where the MIT license was added, and thus the MIT license text file is missing from my code base. Admittedly, this was my slip where I didn't cross a t and dot an i. I don't know if this is what the complaint is about, but it will be fixed in the next update. If this is the reason for the complaint, it still leaves the complaint as fraudulent, because after adding this missing file, the resulting compiled version would still be identical to the existing published file, bit for bit.

33Rev, thank you for your insightful response.

Valve has not yet contacted me or provided a copy of the complaint, so I don't know exactly what the complaint contains or who made it. But, I have some additional clarification in light of your response:

I believe that the need to demonstrate harm, etc, is an issue that would arise when the matter comes before the Courts. As far as Valve is concerned, my understanding is that they need to comply with the statutory provisions, which is to say, they must inform the allegedly infringing party of the complaint and remove the content in dispute in some amount of time, unless they receive a counter-claim. When a counter-claim is served, Valve will have done its job in the eyes of the law and no longer has to take any action, and may restore the content if it was removed. It is important to note that Valve is not required, nor able to make any judgment on the merits of the claim or counter-claim. It's role is to put the parties in contact in an unambiguous way.

The purpose of the counter-claim is to fend against fraudulent complaints, and to absolve the service provider of liability. It contains the counter-claimant's address for process purposes, at which point the two parties in dispute can take the matter up in courts, and Valve itself is no longer involved.

With respect to the potential conflict of interest, Felix Schmidt was already employed by CO when he started work on his Harmony mod, which is what I am guessing the complaint is about:

1. Colossal Order post on Playstation Blog[archive.ph] dated March 25, 2020, talking about Felix Schmidt as an employee at CO
2. Felix Schmidt's initial commit to the Harmony mod project[archive.ph], dated March 30, 2020
3. Felix Schmidt's commit specifically adding MIT license to his source code[archive.ph] dated February 14, 2021
4. My first commit to my Harmony mod[archive.ph], dated March 10, 2021. I use the GNU Public License, which is more restrictive than MIT, without using a meaningful part of Felix's code, though I copied a few paragraphs, for which I gave attribution in the appropriate places in the source.

I think what's left to do about the DMCA is to satisfy Valve by providing them with the counter-claim letter, and then pursue the fraudulent claim in the courts.

EDIT: Fix link #3

Hi YuLun,

Having a look at your log files, you have some mods that are mentioned in known issues - they need to be unsubscribed and resubscribed so they load after Harmony:

2262054175
2368396560

Also, FindIt, UltimateEyecandy, CameraPositions and FPS_Booster are throwing many NullReferenceExceptions - you should point out your log file to the respective authors, and maybe unsubscribe them until they are fixed. If they're not breaking your game completely, they are likely causing low performance, as the game is more busy filling the log file with exceptions than what it's supposed to do.

It's hard to tell if these exceptions are caused by each other; I'd unsub the mods one at a time until all your NullReferenceExceptions go away.

Even my Transfer Broker is throwing a NullReferenceException, due to the two mods that need to be resubscribed. Resubscribing will workaround this error, and in 0.5 the problem is properly fixed.

Regarding how to update my mods, both Harmony and Transfer Broker will use either the workshop or you'll need to unzip a file from Github into the local mod directory. I'll include exact instructions when I release the next versions.

Sure, saving your old log would be interesting, if you need to compare with the logs after switching. It can't hurt to have "before" logs

There's nothing you need to save in order to switch back or forth, just be aware of the "known issues" and "missing dependencies" - they are the most common questions.

I've encountered problems with Steam not downloading items I just subscribed, and I think it's related to unreliable subscription event handling, ie the handshake with the client is not of the "reliable" kind, where a positive acknowledgement is required to complete the transaction. It looks like the steam client is notified on a "best effort" basis, so if it happens there was a momentary packet loss, the notification can lost.

The workaround I found to work is to unsubscribe the undelivered item, and re-try the subscribe. It's annoying because it requires you to keep track of what you subscribed and whether it was actually delivered.

It is possible "verify integrity" would also fix the lost updates, but I haven't tested.

It seems to me, as I posted on my blog[arno-the-fabulous.blogspot.com] and elsewhere that Colossal Order is actively sabotaging competing workshop assets, in order to drive more DLC sales. Felix Schmidt is the one actively breaking NExt2, and continues to advocate on the forum that people should abandon this mod, under various excuses. He does not explain why the mod worked flawlessly until his Feb 14 upgrade of Harmony, then suddenly became "not good any more", LOL.

What is a promising alternative to you is an existential threat to the company that gets paid for an inferior product.

The ban was given by the developer, not by Steam.

I have taken the issue up with Steam Support, and they explained they would not be lifting the ban because they allow developers "some leeway" to implement their own policies as to what is acceptable. That criticism at their own address is unwelcome is quite understandable.

A competent company that has some integrity would take the criticism and fix up their act. Colossal's response demonstrates they are not one of those competent companies with integrity.