LogFAQs > #973013062

papercup posted...

Oh so what PointCrow did is he commissioned someone to make a multiplayer mod for BotW, which you cannot do that. That is such a blatant breach of the software license, that Nintendo has to step in. The fact they just claimed his videos and didnt sue him, he got off easy.

Apparently in the US modding is viewed as copyright infringement, which is kind of stupid, since none of the mods include game files. The courts describe them as "distributing alterations of the game", which is misleading, since it implies it's distributing the game, which it's not.

Mods are better summarized as "a program that alters your games to do something else". They're programs that change your game, not derivatives of the game.

If I wrote a program that flipped one bit in your BotW game to make an item invincible, then shared that program, by the above logic that would be copyright infringement, because I "distributed a derivative copy of the game". If mods are piracy, then cheats and patches should also be copyright infringement. They do the same thing.

Feels like the US courts failed to understand how patches work, treating them as if with each patch a full copy of the game was included in the download, and after accepting that false premise went "this isn't protected as a parody".