5 réponses à ce sujet

[junglejaguar]

I've been taking a look at the list of mods in the pinned thread of this section, and I believe it would greatly enrich the Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 experience if they were installed. Not only are there mods that change the game story, sometimes significantly, but there are even guides that teach people how to create a mod.

My only concern is: Is it legal to make and install mods? If I own a legal copy of the games, am I breaking any laws by creating or installing a mod for BG 1 and 2?I can think of 2 ways that this practice can be made legal: either a provision in the law specifically allows for creating and installing mods, or the game's publisher(s) have explicitly given permission for us to do so. There may be another way to make modding legal that I don't know about. Please cite evidence to support your position.

Modifié par junglejaguar, 21 novembre 2013 - 12:16 .

[Grond0]

The relevant bit of the original license terms is as follows:
"General Product License. This copy of Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (the Software) is intended solely for
your personal noncommercial home entertainment use. You may not decompile, reverse engineer, or disassemble the
Software, except as permitted by law. Interplay Productions and Bioware Corp. retain all right, title and interest
in the Software including all intellectual property rights embodied therein and derivatives thereof. The Software, including, without limitation, all code, data structures, characters, images, sounds, text, screens, game play, derivative works and all other elements of the Software may not be copied, resold, rented, leased, distributed (electronically or otherwise), used on pay-per-play, coin-op or other for-charge basis, or for any commercial purpose. Any permissions granted herein are provided on a temporary basis and can be withdrawn by Interplay Productions at any time. All rights not expressly granted are reserved."

Modding would clearly be illegal if done for a commercial purpose.  For non-commercial purposes it will be affected by the general laws of a country about what is 'fair use'.  I suspect that in most countries it would be counted as illegal if really put to the test in court, but no-one really has an interest in doing that to prevent non-commercial use of such an old product. 

In the case of BGEE Beamdog have actively been encouraging modding and therefore are implicitly giving permission for this to take place.

[The Potty 1]

Evidence?

OK as a general rule, most successful games have been modded by people who are completely unrelated to the company which coded the game. Even games which do not lend themselves to engine changes, have often been 'skinned', for example the only assassin's creed mods seem to be for texture changes / different colour clothes, etc.

That said, once a game is paid for and installed on my computer, if I choose to apply a mod to the game, I would consider it an invasion of privacy for this game to dial home and complain.

It gets more complicated unfortunately, because some people skip the crucial 'paid for' step, and the 'mod' they apply circumvents the games DRM. I have no answer for this, and frankly neither do most software developers. I can only hope for some brighter future where DRM isn't bloated, overbearing, or short-sighted, and the users aren't .. thieves?

[junglejaguar]

I am concerned solely with games that have been legally purchased, whether in CD/DVD form, or from Gog.com or Beamdog.

I don't think these 2 games have DRM, but if I'm wrong, do any of the mods circumvent it?

I'm also not concerned about the issue of the game dialing home and complaining about an installed mod. In this case, I am solely concerned with following the law because it is the right thing to do, not because I'm afraid I will get caught.

I don't know who the copyright holder is (is it Bioware? Electronic Arts? Black Isle Studios? Interplay Entertainment?), but it seems to me if whoever it is gives permission, then it would be legal for us to install mods.

If they don't, we would have to fall back on either some law or provision in the license agreement that came with the game (mentioned by Grond0). I'm hoping that they will give permission (or have given it already in some way that can be cited), because being able to install mods would fix glitches and increase replayability.

[Flamedance]

It's an entirely theoretical question. Every company under the sun actively encourages modding for the simple reason it keeps players interested in those particular games. Bethesda actively encourages modding for relatively recent games like Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas. Livelier modding community=more interest in the game=more sales. If 'i'd be Bethesda, i'd be worried if no one was interested in producing mods for FO:New Vegas.

[ussnorway]

Yes modding a game that you own is legal.
Exception 1, selling that mod on is not normally legal unless 1, you have written (not implied) permission or 2, the original holder has been dead for X years.

Games come under the same rules as written documents so if I buy say "Lord of the rings" and decide to write about what happens after they all sail back home with the elves then that’s legal… even if I "publish" my muse on a webpage somewhere for free download, I'm still within my legal rights as long as the material conforms with normal standards i.e. does not promote say, having sex with young children or attacking people of a certain race, gender and religion.

Exception 2, is about the public media and gets into ideas like what if I write a story that kills off all the hobbits or introduces characters from star wars… this is still technically legal but I could also be sued for loss of plausible revenue if a judge rules that my story has 1, been accepted into the public record (i.e. lots of people have seen it) and 2, ends the story that’s already in production elsewhere… the star trek movie giving Klingons a powerful new cloak would be a good example of this type of event.