CD Projekt issue DMCA takedown notice against popular Cyberpunk VR mod

https://www.patreon.com/posts/another-one-dust-148437771

by wjdp • 6 months ago

77 46 6 months ago

wjdp2• 6 months ago

Context: It's a paid mod but doesn't appear the guy was in it for profit, rather to support the time spent which covers multiple games.

The precedent here I find a little weak, a mod isn't facilitating piracy nor is it a replacement for the original product. You need to own the game, the mod is a layer that adds additional features.

When mapping the context to the real world it's more worrying, you don't get car makers suing accessory makers for selling phone mounts advertised to fit their vehicles.

b473a2• 6 months ago

At $10/mo for access even if he's not doing it for profit he's absolutely making bank. Verge in 2022 estimated about $20,000 a month [1].

CDPR has an explicit policy allowing free mods with a tip jar, but not mods that are pay-only. Whether or not you agree with that policy it's CDPR's right to make that decision, and you can't complain when they enforce it.

1: https://www.theverge.com/23190201/luke-ross-vr-real-mod-gta-...

wjdp2• 6 months ago

Question is, as long as he's not using their assets, what leg have they to stand on and enforce this? He's selling his software, not infringing on theirs.

On the money, had not spotted how much he was making from this. Given he's been at this for several years and the quality of the product I'm quite happy he's been able to devote the time to this.

NL8072• 6 months ago

CDPR's policy and the law are orthogonal things. They would have to demonstrate that the mod and its business model violates some kind of law.

somenameforme2• 6 months ago

How is it their right to make that decision?

This is taking the whole 'you don't actually own this game' to a whole new level when trying to dictate what mods you can use with it. The digital world needs a major reboot in terms of consumer rights, and this should happen sooner rather than later as companies are increasingly trying to take this into the real world by attaching software to hardware and then seeking to gain both rent and control due to nonexistent state of consumer rights associated with software.

Wowfunhappy• 6 months ago

It shouldn't be CDPR's right to make this decision. A mod is just software that runs on top of other software. Microsoft doesn't get to dictate what I do with Windows. Apple does try to dictate what I do with my iPhone, but even then, if I manage to jailbreak my phone there's nothing they can do about it.

exegete2• 6 months ago

AFAIK DMCA is such a strong law that you just have to circumvent any kind of access mechanism to violate it. I’m not a lawyer.

“No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.”

“to "circumvent a technological measure" means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner;”

I’m not sure how modding works in the case but usually this is why companies can come after folks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-circumvention

matrss• 6 months ago

“No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.”

This wording always bothers me. If a person were to circumvent a technological measure that tries to control such access, then the circumvention itself proves that this measure was not effective at doing what it is supposed to be doing. Therefore the person is not circumventing something that _effectively_ controls anything. They just showed that it is ineffective, and therefore the law does not apply to them.

Of course, no one who actually has to interpret these laws shares my opinion.

expedition322• 6 months ago

Modding is actually a legal minefield.

Publishers don't care because there is no money involved.

metalcrow• 6 months ago

Question for people who are lawyers or lawyer adjacent: would you be able to reasonable argue against this in court, assuming you do not use any Cyberpunk assets or content directly, and instead just offer a dll mod of the game that writes memory at specific addresses and modifies code (i'm assuming that's what this mod is doing)? To me, if you're not using any of the actual game's content CDPR can't reasonably claim that you're infringing on their copyright, but ianal.

Jiro• 6 months ago

In the 9th circuit you would have to get https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Star_v._FormGen_Inc. overruled.

Y_Y• 6 months ago

There are a handful of relevant fair use cases, e.g.:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Galoob_Toys,_Inc._v._Nin....

j16sdiz• 6 months ago

I suspect this is not a copyright issue, but rather a ToS issue.

chmod775• 6 months ago

Meanwhile thousands of modders make some money on nexusmods from their Cyberpunk mods. My Cyberpunk mods get me like 200 USD/month in passive income. Why is this guy getting singled out?

fishgoesblub• 6 months ago

Difference between selling your mod rather than getting revenue from ads on the download site.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF• 6 months ago

So why is the download site not being targeted?

(Not arguing that it should be, just continuing OP's logic.)

b473a2• 6 months ago

CDPR's policy is you can have a tip jar but you can't put it behind a paywall. Dude was asking $10/mo on Patreon for access. I imagine he does quite well because he has the same mod for a lot of other games.

Pretty sure he could rerelease it for free and ask for donations.

PetitPrince• 6 months ago

"he has the same mod" is downplaying it. He's adding VR for games with widely different engines. Same functionality yes, but vastly different codebase.

Grimblewald• 6 months ago

Damn, and I was just getting to love gog as the not-a-fuckwit alternative platform. guess i'll stick with steam afterall.

striking• 6 months ago

GOG split from CDPR just before the new year: https://www.gog.com/blog/gog-is-getting-acquired-by-its-orig...

pdntspa• 6 months ago

Today's lesson: don't paywall mods!

Like it or not, mods should be free. Unless you want that scene to turn into another shitshow, just like what happened with Youtube. The moment you open the floodgates on that, the modscene will be flooded with crap and yet another commercial-free space gets molested by the icy hand of capitalism. Financialization destroys everything it touches!

NL8072• 6 months ago

Like it or not, mods should be free.

Why? If it's original work, and it does not violate existing laws, whoever makes it should have the right to seek compensation for their work, if they see fit. It's basically software like any other. Licensing models have been successfully applied to software plugins in past, mods fall into that category.

jeroenhd• 6 months ago

it does not violate existing laws,

That's an issue if you're USA-based: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Star_v._FormGen_Inc.

Game mods extending video games almost inherently violate copyright as they are a derivative work.

Ukv• 6 months ago

I'd agree that the modder should have the legal right to create a $10/month subscription mod, because I don't like copyright being so extensive as to give the game's authors control over that, but also really don't want to see such "licensing models" spread to another community that has so far remained largley uninfected.

imtringued2• 6 months ago

Today's lesson: Suck it up and do what you're told.

Like it or not, you should accept that you're always at the mercy of a large corporation and you must follow their policies to the letter even if the law says something different.

I don't think that's a sane stance.

easyThrowaway• 6 months ago

Very unclear about the reasoning behind CDPR decision. Unless he was redistributing code or assets from the game, how is this any different from any library emulation/wrapper like Wine/Proton or the multitudes of libraries like DK3D? Are they gonna sue Valve once their game works on the Steam Frame?

(I can only assume they're planning a specific version for the Frame and they fear this mod would offer a superior experience for a lower price)

funkyfiddler69• 6 months ago

why didn't they put him on their payroll? surely they could have negotiated a proper deal?

CD Projekt issue DMCA takedown notice against popular Cyberpunk VR mod

Related Stories