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Crytek sends letter of Cease and Desist to popular photomode modder Frans Bouma
- Thread starter Rumenapp
- Start date
More info from the modder
(I'm the person who made the camera tools and received their lovely email)
My suspicion is that they think I distribute some of their assets as the page they linked to seems to talk about that. But I do nothing of the sort, I only distribute my own code, none of theirs, no assets of any kind. The tools change code at runtime in memory, which is the same as running MSI Afterburner which hooks into the game for instance. The adjustments are solely done to be able to take screenshots from the game (I reenable 3rd person view too, which is in the game code to begin with, not sure if they're mad about that lol :D ).
What strikes me the most is that they didn't even ask first, like "Hey we saw you distribute a mod for our game, but are you distributing any of our assets?" (which is something I can understand), but they went into full offense mode.
I don't understand what their end goal is, to be honest. I do this now for a long time and I got nothing but support/praise from publishers and devs for my work. My photomode mods are usable in over 350 games (the Unreal Engine Unlocker alone in over 320 games), it's not new or anything :)
We'll see. I've replied back with questions which parts of the EULA I apparently violate (as I'm a EU citizen and EULAs aren't binding) and explained I don't distribute anything from theirs. It's a bit tiring tho.
Just wanted to say sorry you're dealing with this and appreciate all the work you've done. Community made photo modes/tools on PC are some of the coolest things from the mod scene and they should continue to flourish. Hopefully the knucklehead legal people from Crytek realize you're not doing anything wrong and back off. Best wishes.
Hunt Showdown is quite possibly the best multiplayer experience on PC right now. Baffles me they dont put more effort into it.
A smarter company would work with OtisInf to incorporate the tools and get feedback into ways of making the photo experience even better in their games. Photo modes are essentially free advertising.
That's crazy, really.
It's extremely unlikely this came from PR and not from higher ups/legal.
That's crazy, really.
It's extremely unlikely this came from PR and not from higher ups/legal.
I hope this somehow blows up in their face spectacularly. Like they get a lot of bad press, one of the higher ups sees this, and is like "Adam from PR did WHAT??""
I wouldn't be surprised if they're just salty that you're using Patreon and are thus "making money" off Crysis, even though you're making tools for hundreds of other games too.
That's most likely the case. They don't want anyone else profiting off anything involving their game. They probably also don't think there's a ton of people posting screenshots of their game either, so much loss in free advertising. Their games just aren't all that popular.
I still don't see how this is worth the effort.
I still don't see how this is worth the effort.
Adam from PR probably isn't to blame, but he will get the blame, best believe that.
I don't see how a EULA matters in this case anyway. It protects the forward ow er from having to offer you support or give you access to the software but in most cases that's it.
He's not really using the software he's offering tools that interact with it, and those tools to do not include any part of that software.
I don't think they can really do anything.
He's not really using the software he's offering tools that interact with it, and those tools to do not include any part of that software.
I don't think they can really do anything.
I don't think they actually targeted you from distributing the modified game files, which your camera tools certainly don't have, function or provide something like that.
I read the agreement site they provided from letter and Crytek possibly look at your camera tool as one of 'unauthorized software programs' that has been created, developed, distributed, or used to interfere with the outcome and/or the course of the gameplay of (Crysis) games.
I don't play Crysis Trilogy Remastered, but I believe they don't come with their own Photo Mode equivalent feature and possibly no Nvidia Ansel support? Which means, the games don't offer players to move the camera freely or using unlimited timespeed or camera paths in gameplay or/and cutscenes.
So, they also possibly think the camera tool itself, without any authorization as mentioned above, change the way of how the games work than intended.
At least this is how I understand after checking the related stuff. Their (Crytek) further reason might be different and maybe you will get even more clear answer
from them once they replied to you.
If you can sort this out with Crytek, while having your camera tools kept without being removed, that would be great and I just hope all the best.
That they have a different opinion about this is clear, but that doesn't mean it's reason to threaten someone with legal action.
Sadly, nope.
I've pulled the two cameras, as they stay with their stance and I have no energy/time to fight them over tools that benefit them. Removing them hurts them the most as no free advertising online. My write up:
I'm old enough to remember when they were raided for using pirated software to make far cry, kind of ironic they'd consider this a bridge too far.
This is the most Galaxy Brain actions by a developers legal team I have ever seen.
At least the legal shenanigans from Rockstar made financial sense: they were releasing remastered versions, and having mods that made the old versions look prettier than their subpar remaster freely available is bad for business.
But this mod allows people to produce phenomenal screenshots of their games. It keeps people talking about them. It's just fucking bizarre.
At least the legal shenanigans from Rockstar made financial sense: they were releasing remastered versions, and having mods that made the old versions look prettier than their subpar remaster freely available is bad for business.
But this mod allows people to produce phenomenal screenshots of their games. It keeps people talking about them. It's just fucking bizarre.
You patient as a saint, my dude. Excellent work you're doing - keep it up
As an EU citizen you can wipe your ass with their C&D letter. Please don't bend your knee.
Yep. PR people are the folks that sometimes have to take bad news or shitty decisions made by upper management and make it as palatable as possible to the public and and at the same time, they catch all the blowback from it.
Not surprised, some games might have or plan to have their own photo tools through which they do some social-media-ish stuff, ads, or even NFT stuff and don't want competition. Who knows though.
Just wanted to say sorry you are going through this and your photo mods are dope as hell
Why spend time and money in courts, even if you can win, to allow a tool to exist that essentially benefits the people suing?
haha, that's pretty much what it is, isn't it?
Crytek isn't in their right mind right now.
While I wasn't in a rush to play any Crytek games as it was, this drops that chance to a hard zero.