Hello GoG'ers!

I was just wondering with all these mods for all these old games, What does GoG's terms and condition's/service say about modding or altering these games? (From a legal viewpoint?)

& If modding them isn't legal (Which would be maybe unlikely?) then what do you think of GoG's stance on modding? and whether or not this is a stance they should take?

I am also aware that posting this might make me look stupid!
But I would very much like to know what you all think! :D

Modding is perfectly fine. Was there something you read that made you think it wasn't?

http://www.gog.com/news/mod_spotlight_nexus_the_jupiter_incident
GOG even has some official modding suggestion things occasionally. You can mod your games to oblivion if you so desire :p

To be more specific:

Modifications of the files provided is not legal in general, but most of the publishers don't care as modding helps to spread the game even better.

Most of modern games are intented to be modded by providing a SDK, for these titles, it is legal everywhere to develop or use modifications.

You really have to separate here what is modded. Are you changing files like the games executable, it is mostly illegal nearly everywhere. You are legally only allowed to use the software as provided.

If you add content without changing anything of the original code, it is absolutely legal (here: in my point of view), as long you don't use any copyrighted material. (Let's take the Enterprise or Stargate Mod for FTL. Those are illegal, as copyrighted material is used. But most of the IP Holders don't really care (beside the IP Owener of Stargate, who has already contacted Mod developers for some games to stop working on them))

Your answer is very concise! , So lets say mods that bring back content that was not originally meant to be showed but was within the game. These mods would most likely have used methods of reverse engineering in order to be bought out, would such modifications fall under being illegal?

Also what does the phrase " You are legally only allowed to use the software as provided. " mean?
"software as provided" could perhaps even mean that no additional files be added, nor taken away or modified? What are the differing extents that this phrase could possibly mean?

And many thanks to those that have answered, and no I am not trying to cause trouble I just want to understand the full underlying legalities that are being shown here in GoG's Terms of service.

I see therefore, in most cases it would be deemed as (Because of it being against the terms of service?) illegal? This is a point that has always bothered me when I read over different games and services, and their terms of service forms, unless they provide some sort of official modding tool or provide a clear way that the modder won't be prosecuted over modifications, the game was therefore made with no intention of it being modded and as such any modifications could be a breach of these terms of services/conditions. Indeed, if I could get a lawyer or someone knowledgeable and official from GoG to answer such questions, I as an active consumer of GoG would be for one extremely happy, and two would count GoG as a reliable and incredibly trustworthy game provider that is extremely in touch with the community. Which would all make me want to put in even more money into such a wonderful company and their services!

Regardless it's important to say that despite all these points being made, GoG seems to approve of modifications in many fronts but that does not necessarily mean that the company's that provided GoG with their games are sharing the same opinions.

That and I assume most company's would probably not care to much over modding, to minor extents.

Sorry for putting you on the spot, I just had to ask these questions. As I thought that I could not have been the only one wondering these questions, it's therefore important to find out even more and make sure others wanting to know, know as well.

Thanks Ubivis, You have answered my question, unless someone even more knowledgeable then us all will enlighten us further on these topics.

Precisely that, although many jurisdictions allow for the modification of software for personal use, and this right cannot be overridden by any EULA.

Besides that, it's an arse-covering measure and almost never enforced. Ignoring the fact that it is invalid in many cases as I stated above, should the publisher wish to assert rights against someone modifying the software, this provision is designed to enable that.

Common sense would, however, dictate that a publisher benefits little from a hobby hacker or modder patching a game to run on modern platforms or provide additional features.

In short, they *want* you to mod and enhance the game. They *don't* want you to circumvent the copy protection or cheat on online servers.

I am arrogant enough (and got the degree) to call my self more knowledgeable ;-).

But Ubivis had this excellently covered. And the most important thing to remember as a user is that nobody really cares.

IT law in general is terra nova and AFAIK there is no real precedent ruling in modding for games. The very strict legality would be indeed "use it as delivered and don't touch it" as Ubivis explained. But I wouldn't bother with this. (There are also a few hidden depths with modding that I don't want to get into, as they won't concern any of us).

As long as you don't start to commercially exploit any of this, the very worst they can ever to as a first step is to say "stop it". Up until then just go ahead with modding. Don't bother yourself to much with the legality of such things. Life is to short to bother with legal stuff (Trust me, I know ;-) ).

Pretty much and when all is said and done, copyright provides very little control over a work once it's been sold. You can't take a game here and publish it yourself and you often times can't make money leasing it, although that ones a bit questionable as sometimes that does happen with console games.

The rights owners ultimately put a lot of things into the EULA which aren't known to be legally enforceable, but since they never get taken to court nobody really knows what would happen.

Actually, it is not quite that clear, as it can have a rats tail of legal problems for the original rights holder. Or to be more precise: Marketing and Sales wants you to mod the game to make it more attractive to buyers. It's Legal that is screaming :"NOOO!" But nobody hardly ever listens ...

The only cases that I'm aware of involved bots that could be used for cheating. I think Blizzard won a suit against that autopilot program a while back.

But in general nobody has taken it to court so, of course nobody really knows the legality of it at present.

That is actually changing with the "digital age". (Or not, if you go with the ECJ.)

What that will bring in the future will be very interesting to see.
A case like this can be solved with boring "old law" (and it probably was). Something like TuTu would be a really nice case. But right holders, in the end, have to much to lose.

There's a difference between what's legal and what actually happens. Which is really the issue, as long as people don't file suit against folks like Sony for vandalizing their property, we'll never know what US law says about that.

Sony can hide behind a wall of lawyers as they trash other people's gear and then claim that people agreed to the new ToS, even though it was required in order to play new games on the console that they already bought and have no ability to get a refund for.

Which really explains why folks hate attorneys so much.

Now, now ;-P