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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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?
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.
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!
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.
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.
wjdp|1 month ago
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.
b473a|1 month ago
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-...
exegete|1 month ago
“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
expedition32|1 month ago
Publishers don't care because there is no money involved.
unknown|1 month ago
[deleted]
metalcrow|1 month ago
j16sdiz|1 month ago
Jiro|1 month ago
unknown|1 month ago
[deleted]
easyThrowaway|1 month ago
(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)
chmod775|1 month ago
fishgoesblub|1 month ago
b473a|1 month ago
Pretty sure he could rerelease it for free and ask for donations.
funkyfiddler69|1 month ago
unknown|1 month ago
[deleted]
0xedd|1 month ago
[deleted]
pdntspa|1 month ago
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!
NL807|1 month ago
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.
imtringued|1 month ago
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.
Grimblewald|1 month ago
striking|1 month ago