CDPR Bans Cyberpunk 2077 VR Mod for Copyright Infringement
Recently, LukeRoss, a well-known modder in the VR community, attracted the attention of CD Projekt RED's lawyers. They sent him a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice.
The issue arose with his VR modification for Cyberpunk 2077, which allowed gamers to play in virtual reality. However, this was not a free project, but a premium one — LukeRoss distributed it among Patreon subscribers.
Formally, CDPR is right, but LukeRoss notes that the company itself did not make an official VR mode for Cyberpunk, but is blocking his project:
As usual, they stretch the interpretation of the term "derivative work," as if my system, which allows visualizing 40+ games in fully immersive 3D VR, somehow uses their intellectual property. And as usual, they absolutely don't care how the VR version of their game pleased people, and they can't just be grateful for the additional copies of the game sold thanks to this mod — without having to invest money in an official conversion (no, they don't plan to release their VR port). The bottom line is what matters, and gamers can go ***** [very far].
He noted that he supported the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod "for [several years], during which time (along with other modders) he spent a lot of time keeping the mod working despite constant breaking updates from CDPR":
[...] All this time, they didn't even know or care about the existence of the VR mod, and now they just react reflexively because someone reported that the mod exists and is not free
