Video game modding: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:00, 24 March 2020

Revision as of 14:17, 27 March 2020

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===Legal status of mods===

{{see also|Copyright and video games}}

Copyright law, as it relates to video games and mod packs, is an evolving and largely unsettled legal issue. The legal uncertainty revolves around which party is legally the 'copyright owner' of the mods within the pack—the company that produced the game, the end-user that created the compilation, or the creators of the individual mods.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.jipel.law.nyu.edu/2016/02/the-ip-implications-of-video-game-mods/|title=The IP Implications of Video Game Mods - JIPEL Blog|website=blog.jipel.law.nyu.edu|accessdate=2 October 2017}}</ref> Video games are protected by copyright law as a "literary work".<ref name="auto1">{{cite journal |last1=Kow |first1=Yong Ming |last2=Nardi |first2=Bonnie |title=Who owns the mods? |journal=First Monday |date=3 May 2010 |volume=15 |issue=5 |doi=10.5210/fm.v15i5.2971 |language=en}}</ref> In the United States context, the mechanisms of how the modder gets into the code of the game to mod it may violate the [[Digital Millennium Copyright Act]] or the [[Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]] or even simply the [[end-user license agreement]] (EULA).<ref name="auto8"/> Most EULAs forbid modders from selling their mods.<ref name="auto5">{{cite journal |last1=Joseph |first1=Daniel James |title=The Discourse of Digital Dispossession: Paid Modifications and Community Crisis on Steam |journal=Games and Culture |volume=13 |issue=7 |date=27 February 2018 |pages=690–707 |doi=10.1177/1555412018756488}}</ref> A particular concern of companies is the use of copyrighted material by another company in mods, such as a ''Quake'' "[[Aliens vs. Predator]]" mod, which was legally contested by 20th Century Fox.<ref name="auto2"/>

Some regard the fan use of copyrighted material in mods to be part of a "[[moral economy]]", and develop norms about the reuse of this material,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Postigo|first1=H.|title=Video Game Appropriation through Modifications: Attitudes Concerning Intellectual Property among Modders and Fans|journal=[[Convergence (journal)|Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies]]|date=1 February 2008|volume=14|issue=1|pages=59–74|doi=10.1177/1354856507084419}}</ref> often settling on a system of shared ownership, where mods and code are freely shared with the common good in mind.<ref name="auto1"/> It has been argued that total conversion mods may be covered in the [[United States]] under the concept of [[fair use]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=SPARE THE MOD: IN SUPPORT OF TOTAL-CONVERSION MODIFIED VIDEO GAMES |journal=[[Harvard Law Review]] |date=January 2012 |volume=125 |issue=3 |pages=789–810 |url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/vol125_spare_the_mod.pdf}}</ref>

Modding can be compared with the [[open-source-software movement]].<ref name="auto4"/><ref>[http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JedrzejCzarnota/20130807/197775/Brief_overview_of_the_differences_and_similarities_between_open_source_software_development_and_cocreation_in_digital_games.php Brief overview of the differences and similarities between open source software development and co-creation in digital games] - Jedrzej Czarnota, [[Gamasutra]], 7 August 2013</ref>

In 2006, part of the reason that ''[[Second Life]]'' generated interest was how user-generated content (mods) werewas central to the experience, and how the [[intellectual property]] rights remained with the creator-player. This was developed by the publisher into a market.<ref>{{cite book |last1=van der Graaf |first1=Shenja |title=ComMODify |chapter=Designing for Mod Development |pages=1–2 |date=2018 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan, Cham |isbn=978-3-319-61499-1 |language=en-gb|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-61500-4 }}</ref>

===Controversy surrounding paid mods===