Is it illegal to patch a PC game, with a patch made by fans?

Is it illegal to patch a PC game, with a patch made by fans? I'm talking about patches that do things like alter and enhance the graphics and music.

Beware the Patch Police... they're watching.

Isn't it fair use if you don't try to resell it?

Nope, it's not.

Vampire The Masquerade and Gothic3 are prime examples of this...... both amazing games once they got patched up by the community.. but on relase they both had tons of issues.

Nothign illegal with downloading community patches for Gothic3, Stalker or Vampire.

There's one user-made patch that basically saved the game: Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines. If that's a crime, then the developers should be punished excessively for abandoning their game in a broken state. :PElann2008

They were forced to. You know, with Activision as their publisher.

It's not illegal. Against the terms of service maybe, but not illegal unless proven in a court. Most games come with terms that say you aren't allowed to modify the game files in any way except official patches. However, I have never heard of anyone sued or convicted for doing it unless it disrupts multiplayer (bots, hacks, etc).

It's not illegal. Against the terms of service maybe, but not illegal unless proven in a court.

James00715

[QUOTE="James00715"]

It's not illegal. Against the terms of service maybe, but not illegal unless proven in a court.

hydralisk86

considering that fan patches often gets help from devs or ex devs, I doubt you should ocnsider it illegal :P

The cases where a fan patch is not allowed by devs are really rare, and If I weret o point fingers at likely publishers who would consider it illegal I would say Activision and Ubisoft.

Generally tho,most publishers and devs allow it, shows that the community cares, and you can find alot of talent there.

You could say that it is a gray area, what could make it illegal, is that it falls under the same juridical place as hacks, and security bypasses.

How could it be illegal?MonsieurX

It can be. You have to read the TOU for the specific game to be sure. Some specifically say that you can't modify the game files.

Realistically though, even if you get caught they'll probably not care. How likely is it that they will find out? Not very.

[QUOTE="James00715"]

It's not illegal. Against the terms of service maybe, but not illegal unless proven in a court.

hydralisk86

Vampire The Masquerade and Gothic3 are prime examples of this...... both amazing games once they got patched up by the community.. but on relase they both had tons of issues.

Nothign illegal with downloading community patches for Gothic3, Stalker or Vampire.

kozzy1234

Gothic 3 is a nightmare without the user patch, Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines... not really, I've played it like 5-6 hours and I hadn't found a single bug, but the performance is atrocious.

Illegal, I doubt it. The only catch is the developer/distributor won't support it. Concidering how many times these patches have been made for brand new games they should support it as a thanks for not suing us for selling you more broken garbage.

Of course not

I don't think so. It might be against the TOS, though, which could get you banned from the game's multiplayer, or something like that.

If it's a patch to crack a game that you don't own legally, though, then that's illegal.

As long as the patch doesnt cercumvent copy protection then no it isnt illegal.

It is not illegal.

And people, breakign an EULA is NOT illegal.

So you're safe TC.

In fact, mods and community patches are a hallmark of Pc gaming. IT's one of the many things that sets PC gamign apart from consoles.

Nope.