Copyright issues and hacking/modding

[ludmeister]

I've been reading this site for awhile now, and have loved working with a few of the level editors I've found here, and one in particular (FFHackster) inspired me to attempt to figure out the GBA version of Final Fantasy 1. This is my first time posting here, so go easy on me though. I have searched the forum for answers to this, but I haven't found a thread that sufficiently answers the question for me.

As I said, some of my work are mods of games done via third party level editing tools. Others are straight hack jobs that I was able to do via a hex editor. I'd love to be able to distribute these mods/hacks on my own website, and possibly here. Here are have a couple of questions:

How do I protect myself in case copyright issues come up? Are copyright issues with modding/hacking even worth worrying about? In my mind, if I distribute only the work that I changed, that work is my own, but the game that I modified is owned by the whoever created it, and therefore it isn't perfectly clear to me if it is legal for me to offer mods based on their work, or level editors which modify game data, or even .ips patches of commercial ROMs. Again, I don't and won't distribute full games, or ROMs, just individual modded data files and executable IPS patches for console ROM mods.

Then again, I don't think copyright issues are likely to come up if I distribute mods/hacks on NES/SNES games, or PC games that are more than 8 years old... games that aren't even sold except in pawn shops, Amazon, and eBay and outfits like these.

I'd appreciate any/all of your opinions on the subject... forgive me if talking about copyright issues re: modding is taboo here, (for sure I have absolutely no problems with the site, or the content found here; you all do a great job) but like I said, I am having personal questions about whether I should post this content on a personal site of mine, through which it would not be hard to glean contact information for me. I may even submit stuff here later for inclusion when/if I get this worked out. But I would rather keep my work to myself if I place myself in considerable legal jeopardy from companies that understandably want to protect their intellectual property.

Thanks.

[The 9th Sage]

Well...rule of thumb seems to be that if you don't distribute the actual copyrighted material (the ROM in this case) it's ok to distribute other things such as the tools (obviously the company doesn't own these) as well as the IPS, since those are your changes to the data and not the game itself.

I certainly know that we've never been in any sort of legal trouble for hosting IPS files, at least not in all the years I've hung out around these parts.

[Reaper man]

I think you're fine dude, don't worry about it.

[ludmeister]

Thanks for the quick replies.

What would you say about distributing clean (unmodified) game files with the editor, for the purpose of users backing up those files in case they bork them? The editor in question is for a PC game; this particular issue is not technically a modding issue. It's not technically necessary, but it's a nice "just-in-case" thought, and maybe a silent "use-at-own-risk" warning.

I'm probably stressing about nothing; I'm sure you're right Reaper Man. :)

[The 9th Sage]

What would you say about distributing clean (unmodified) game files with the editor, for the purpose of users backing up those files in case they bork them?

You mean files from the game's install? This kind of goes into grey territory. I'm not sure if that would be ok since that data would technically belong to the company who created the game, though arguably it's not as bad as distributing (for example) the ENTIRE game, and isn't probably very useful seperately by itself without the executable and the rest of the files.

[InVerse]

Thanks for the quick replies.
What would you say about distributing clean (unmodified) game files with the editor, for the purpose of users backing up those files in case they bork them? The editor in question is for a PC game; this particular issue is not technically a modding issue. It's not technically necessary, but it's a nice "just-in-case" thought, and maybe a silent "use-at-own-risk" warning.

This would be a clear violation of copyright. It's doubtful that a company would actually go after you for distributing a few files from an installation, but it would certainly be within their right to do so. I wouldn't do it because it would be subjecting yourself to unnecessary risk simply to accommodate lazy users.

As for patches for hacks/translations... Technically, there is nothing contained in said patches copyrighted by the producers of the game, so one could argue that the patch is 100% legal. However, one could also argue that the sole purpose of the patch is to violate the original owners copyright.

So what it comes down to is this... As far as I know, the only time a company has ever gone after someone for a game translation patch was in the case of RPG Maker 95, which was slated for a U.S. release. From what I remember, the translators removed their work from their site and the case never went to court. Aside from that, I'm unaware of any occurrences of a company going after someone for creating/distributing patches, so you may or may not be safe from a legal standpoint, but you're fine from the standpoint of whether the law will actually be tested. (And the fact that Nintendo made no attempt to go after the Mother 3 translation says to me that it's unlikely that such an attempt will ever be made. If it does, I'm betting it's going to be by a smaller company who does so in attempt to draw attention to their product and it's unlikely that any products by such a small company will actually draw 0 day attention from anyone capable of producing a useful patch prior to an official release.)