Absolutely devastated to hear the news that No Players Online got removed from Steam due to a potentially false DMCA takedown 💔
False and fake DMCA claims hurt everyone; they hurt you and me, the developers, and the entire industry. Copyright is serious business and they should only be given out when there is actual copyright infringement taking place. Taking down a game because you claim you own the rights to it (keyword: CLAIM) is a horrible argument and is a bad legal defense. This game has not been removed from Itch, so I am very suspicious and I am pretty sure that this is yet another example of companies abusing the DMCA to get what they want, but we will see. If it is, then I won't be surprised at all given past incidents. In fact, the same thing happened to Misery recently; it was also hit with a fake DMCA claim and was removed from Steam about a week ago. So, it really won't be surprising if it's yet another case of flagrant abuse of the system by bad actors.
Submitting false and/or fraudulent DMCA claims should have serious legal consequences and ramifications for constant misuse and abuse of the system, such as hefty fines and compensation to the individual or the developer(s). But the current system is weighed in favor of the fraudulent party and 9 times out of 10 the claimants are the ones who win these legal battles because of the system being weighed in their favor. It's absolutely unfair! The right to a fair and honest trial exists for a reason.
We need this current DMCA system completely repealed and replaced with a more up-to-date system that includes fines and legal liability for claimants who repeatedly and constantly abuse the system.
[I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.]