Top EU Court’s Advisor Explains Why Video Game Cheats Are Not Copyright Infringement

Comments

• slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  [His] opinion asserts that manipulating transient data generated during gameplay through third-party software does not infringe copyright according to the EU’s Computer Programs Directive. This distinction between protecting a game’s code and the temporary data it generates is a very significant one for all developers of game-enhancing tools.

  The Advocate General also highlighted that the variable values in question are not original works of the game’s author but result from player interactions and game progression, which are unpredictable and dynamic. Since they depend on unforeseeable factors, these values lie beyond the author’s creative control.

  That is an interesting distinction, the code to generate your health total is copyright but the actual health value you modify with cheats is not.

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  • otp@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The music on the CD is copyrighted, but you’re free to use the Bass Boost feature or whatever on the thing you’re playing the music from

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    • hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah honestly this makes a lot of sense to me.

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  • MossyFeathers@pawb.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I mean, this is a pretty normal distinction afaik (human vs non-human creations; afaik non-human creations almost always have any human copyright claims voided when challenged).

    Imo what makes this special is how precise he’s being. If I understand correctly, he’s basically saying that the code for the health bar is a human creation and protected by copyright, but while the code to change the health value might be human-made, the actual values are machine-made and not under copyright (there’s probably a lot of nuance I’m skipping over, but my understanding is that’s the gist of it).

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    • cmhe@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Well, I think both are human creation, you are using the machine and the game to create something new. In that sense, a save game file could also be under the players copyright.

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    • notfromhere@lemmy.ml ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      What if the health values are human creations like special symbols or works of creative art?

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• RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Nintendo fuming

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  • Banichan@dormi.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    You just had to make it about Nintendo to sound relevant

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    • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Okay, and?

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  • hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Their lawyers are vocally rubbing their hands rn

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    • Paradachshund@lemmy.today ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I’m now picturing lawyers aggressively humming at their hands.

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• f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I used to use Game Genie to make replays of already-completed games more difficult. By getting more entertainment from what I already had instead of buying new games, I was obviously stealing from the game publishers.

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• cmhe@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  When the current copyright comes from books, wouldn’t plugins or transient changes/cheats be like taking side notes with a pencil on their individual copy?

  Are side notes copyright infringements?

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