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from the I-see^w-hear-what-you-[almost]-did-there dept.
Voice-acting rights halt effort to put Fallout 3 inside Fallout 4
An ambitious modding project that sought to recreate Fallout 3 inside Fallout 4 is shutting down over unforeseen legal issues surrounding the original game's voice acting.
"The Capital Wasteland: A Road To Liberty" project was a five-person effort to implement the base content of Fallout 3 as a mod for Fallout 4, complete with the latter game's graphical and engine improvements. In a message to supporters, though, project lead NafNaf_95 writes that the mod has been shut down after a conversation with Bethesda, in which it "became clear our planned approach would raise some serious red flags that we had unfortunately not foreseen."
That planned approach involved an audio extraction tool that would have taken the voice acting from legitimate Fallout 3 files and converted them to a form that could be used in a Fallout 4 mod. Bethesda and an outside lawyer advised the Capital Wasteland team that extracting this licensed content, which wasn't fully owned by Bethesda, would be legally questionable under copyright law and could make the modders legally liable for damages.
Apparently, having installed copies of the two games and running a utility is not good enough for Bethesda's lawyers.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 16 2018, @01:16PM (5 children)
That would be a problem if Bethesda or the modders were doing the extraction and distribution, yes. The ground gets much, much shakier for the copyright holder if it's an end user simply transcoding formats for use in a different method of playback.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday March 16 2018, @02:42PM (4 children)
I'd agree it gets stickier. Were I arguing it my claim would be that since Fallout 4 is obviously a different work, and since the audio is being incorporated into it by whatever technical methods, that still falls under being a derivative usage of the original audio. It is not the transcoding that it at hand, which strikes me as being a reproductive right issue, it is that the audio recorded for the original product is now being used in a different product that it was not contracted for which is a performance issue.
I'm not saying such an argument is winnable. It may well not be and it wouldn't surprise me if any such suit would become case law. But any actor so affected wouldn't just sue the modder - they would include Bethesda in the suit as a named party. (First I'd imagine they'd notify Bethesda that such-and-such mod of Bethesda's product is doing thus-and-such and Bethesda owes the actor to intervene.) Whatever, Bethesda ends up paying legal costs for response in what the modders did even if they can back out of it easily. They therefore must advise caution. I think it is interesting that the original article seems to imply that they didn't just hand the modder a cease-and-desist, but seems to have entered into a conversation with them about where Bethesda's interests lie. And the modder responded to it. Rather civil, actually, even if it is bad news for the mod. Quite refreshing, that.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Friday March 16 2018, @03:58PM (3 children)
And would end up paying the costs themselves. Bethesda is not involved in this.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday March 16 2018, @07:10PM (2 children)
Bethesda would, by being named, have to start paying lawyers to make filings on their behalf. Even if it was a single demand letter for removal from the suit. More likely, following what little we know of Bethesda's theory, it would begin with a demand letter of the voice actors to enforce action against Modder F. Bethesda would then have to respond to the actors, and either take action or not (and then face being named as a codefendant - which at that point seems a little sketchy that they'd just get away with a demand to remove).
Obviously Bethesda feels it is better to take proactive action now to request the project be stopped, then pay more money later. (With a possible ulterior motive that they don't want the Fallout 3 content being used with the Fallout 4 engine because it will soften demand for current/new offerings).
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Tuesday March 20 2018, @10:43PM (1 child)
They have lawyers on staff that could make their filings for removal from the suit. Bethesda can go and fuck themselves for even thinking about asking those people to stop creating their mod, period.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:53PM
You'll pay their bills when the actors sue, then. Nice to see somebody stand up.
This sig for rent.