A statement made by CDPR regarding Keanu Reeves mod is concerning

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I've read about a mod that was created by someone which replaced textures on a model the player can have sex with in the game, so that it appears as though the player is having sex with Keanu Reeves. In reaction to the mod, CDPR asked Nexus Mods to remove the mod, and they also issued the following statement about it to PC Gamer:

Our most important rule regarding user-generated content, game mods in particular, is that it can’t be harmful towards others. In the case of model swaps, especially those that involve explicit situations, it can be perceived as such by the people who lent us their appearance for the purpose of creating characters in Cyberpunk 2077.

I don't have any opinion on the mod or an interest in it. But what a CDPR representative said here can be misleading and sounds like CDPR either mischaracterized why the mod was removed, or otherwise were overstepping their authority.

Keanu Reeves could go after a mod using his likeness without permission if he wanted. But that's not CDPR's call unless Reeves has solicited them to act on his behalf in this matter. And a violation of what are called "Personality Rights" is a separate matter than a CDPR rule on mods, and is one which doesn't come down to whether people are allowed by CDPR to mod their game in a certain way.

People are always entitled to mod their own software per their sole discretion - excluding ToS violations for online services and copyright violations.


Nexus Mods could also remove the mod from their website for the sake of avoiding any issues stemming from a usage of Reeves' likeness without his permission, or just to make CDPR happy. But they are under no legal obligation to remove a mod just because CDPR or another publisher or developer disapproves of that mod in particular or the idea of people modding their games in general.


The only situation in which a company like CDPR has the right to impose a rule against modded content is when it comes to people's activities while playing on that company's own servers. That's because a company can set the terms for people to follow while using their servers, but a company cannot set the terms for what people choose to do with their own property in their own space, such as when running a game offline.

When a person violates a company's terms of a service, the company is only able to take action regarding their own property - which is their server and not the specific instance of the game that the person modded and used on their server. So, the person using modded content on a server that doesn't allow it could be banned from the server, but they couldn't have their game taken away from them - even though in certain cases the game itself might be useless without access to the online server.

And if a publisher bans a person from using their online servers because that person used prohibited content while playing on their servers, the violation wouldn't have been modding the game, but would have been using the online servers owned by the publisher while running content that isn't allowed on those servers.

A company can't tell the person what they may do with that person's own game elsewhere, and person is legally entitled to modify their own property in any way they see fit (which doesn't entitle a person to be able to use 3rd-party servers while doing so).


Ultimately, CDPR can't have a rule regarding what mods people may make and use with CP 2077 played offline because a publisher has no legal authority or jurisdiction concerning such matters. A person is free to modify their owned property, including their games.

Someone playing an online game using mods against a publisher's wishes isn't a case of a modding violation, but is a case of violating the terms of using an online service owned by a 3rd party. Using the likeness of a person without permission isn't a case of a modding violation, but is a case of violating a person's Right of Publicity / Personality Rights.


The PC Gamer article also says:

"CDPR will understandably not want to harm its relationship with Reeves, as his character could return in DLC or other forms."

But that's neither here nor there to the matter of whether CDPR has any authority in this matter. CDPR doesn't magically gain a legal power they never possessed just because they don't want to harm their relationship with Reeves.


So, there are grounds to remove a mod featuring a person's likeness without their permission. But the legitimate grounds are not related to a CDPR rule about modding. And unless Keanu Reeves is soliciting CDPR to act as his agent in the matter of protecting usage of his likeness, CDPR are probably overstepping their authority in claiming to disallow a mod featuring his likeness.



Added note:

Myajha made a lot of baseless and ignorant claims in this thread, all of which were ultimately proved to be false (select example 1, select example 2, select example 3). And at the end, they unintentionally conceded that this OP is true.
 
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CDPR was right to shut this one down, since they own the rights to Johnny Silverhand in game, as well as own all the relative licensing agreements on the game which you agree to when you buy and play the game.. Mr. Reeves could go after them as well if they want. Both are in their rights to do so. So no they're not overstepping their authority.

I know the mod they were talking about. In general the mod wasn't bad, and the creator probably didn't intend any harm from it. They made a tool, but others took the opportunity to use it in such a tasteless fashion. So CDPR did what any game company would do, and shut the mod down.

Also if CDPR wasn't in their rights to do so, Nexus wouldn't have taken it down.

As to your "A company can't tell the person what they may do with that person's own game elsewhere, and person is legally entitled to modify their own property in any way they see fit (which doesn't entitle a person to be able to use 3rd-party servers while doing so). " That's totally incorrect. That is why there are all kinds of agreements and legal things that you probably gloss over when beginning a game, that states what you can and can't do. Being able to virtually frack a real life person to get your rocks off is one of the things you can't do.

So it totally sounds like to me that you really do have an opinion on the mod or an interest in it, because CDPR isn't shutting down any other mods, and in fact are making modding tools available. It sounds like you have a problem with them shutting down this specific one, and are mad that you can't frack Keanu Reeves in game anymore.

Because if you didn't care, you wouldn't care.
 
And that's why bethesda avoids using celebrities in their games. Not only it's not really needed, but also brings such problems. Now this mod will become the most popular CP77 mod, and people will host it somewhere else.
 
Tbh your whole post illustrates why CDPR shouldn't have played nice and gave PC players mod tools.

Instead of being "hey these guys/gals were decent enough to put these tools out there so wee can tinker , lets not rip the piss" all your saying is mine mine mine i'll do wtf i want and you've no right to say otherwise cause its mine mine mine.

Be thankful they released anything as they didnt need to an couldve simply ignored the lot of you and show some courtesy if they ask you not to fuck about with something or just risk discontinued support and never any support for anything mod related again.
 
It helps to read the Fine Print - otherwise known as the EULA or End-User License Agreement. When you bought the LICENSE to use the game, you AGREED to these terms.


In the EULA, note near the top:

Fan Content Guidelines.


Follow that link and note Section D:

Don’t hurt us or others. Please be respectful to other players, fans and our games! Don’t create, do or say anything regarding our games that is racist, xenophobic, sexist, defamatory, illegal or offensive, or anything that could harm CD PROJEKT RED, its games, users or staff. Also, please don’t infringe the rights of other people (e.g. creators of other games, movies, books, TV shows etc.). This is also relevant for any real-life brands and people included in our games – you’re only allowed to use those brands or images of those people if they allow you to do so and provided you don’t harm them in any way! Basically, when making fan content, make sure you’ve got permission from all the people concerned (which might be people other than us).
 
CDPR was right to shut this one down, since they own the rights to Johnny Silverhand in game, as well as own all the relative licensing agreements on the game which you agree to when you buy and play the game.. Mr. Reeves could go after them as well if they want. Both are in their rights to do so. So no they're not overstepping their authority.

There are no licensing agreements which apply to a person playing an offline game that they've purchased.

See this thread for more information:

You own the software that you purchase, and any claims otherwise are urban myth or corporate propaganda

Also if CDPR wasn't in their rights to do so, Nexus wouldn't have taken it down.

That is not true. I gave a couple of reasons why Nexus Mods might take the mod down. But those possible reasons aside, oftentimes, people submit to a request or threat on the basis of an appearances of authority even when authority doesn't actually exist to make the request or threat.

Some companies are notorious for using Cease & Desist letters with no legal backing to intimidate people into stopping an activity.

Taking Nexus Mods' action as confirmation bias that CDPR's action was legitimate is not taking into consideration the actual reasons why Nexus Mods might have done their action.

As to your "A company can't tell the person what they may do with that person's own game elsewhere, and person is legally entitled to modify their own property in any way they see fit (which doesn't entitle a person to be able to use 3rd-party servers while doing so). " That's totally incorrect. That is why there are all kinds of agreements and legal things that you probably gloss over when beginning a game, that states what you can and can't do. Being able to virtually frack a real life person to get your rocks off is one of the things you can't do.

That is false. If you'd like to learn about what people's rights are concerning their purchased games, then I invite you to read this thread:

You own the software that you purchase, and any claims otherwise are urban myth or corporate propaganda

So it totally sounds like to me that you really do have an opinion on the mod or an interest in it, because CDPR isn't shutting down any other mods, and in fact are making modding tools available. It sounds like you have a problem with them shutting down this specific one, and are mad that you can't frack Keanu Reeves in game anymore.

Because if you didn't care, you wouldn't care.

No. I don't have an interest in or an opinion about the mod. What I have an interest in is CDPR's statement and the grounds on which they did their action, because their alleged basis for their action suggests an overstepping of boundaries.

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Tbh your whole post illustrates why CDPR shouldn't have played nice and gave PC players mod tools.

Instead of being "hey these guys/gals were decent enough to put these tools out there so wee can tinker , lets not rip the piss" all your saying is mine mine mine i'll do wtf i want and you've no right to say otherwise cause its mine mine mine.

No. I'm stating that CDPR's statement suggests a reasoning which infringes upon the ownership rights of people who've purchased CP 2077. Regardless of CDPR's appreciable conduct of supporting mods, they don't gain a right to take away people's ownership rights of their games, and to let a claim of such slide is very dangerous for gamers because it can lead to an expectation that publishers are justified in acting that way any time they wish to. But they aren't.
 
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[...] There is nothing wrong in my opinion if you could have sex with silverhand. Why shouldn't you? It's on your pc modded from you . Well there is some similarity to Keanu ( I know it is him like copy paste to virtual reality) but it's still a game. Fictional Setting and characters :shrug:
 
To be honest, you might be overthinking it. In my opinion, this is just a polite way of CDPR doing something for Keenu, since it looks like he got sensitive about it, and I guess it's understandable. I'm positive K and his management knew this could happen, probably weren't expecting it so soon and also considering all CP77 backlash. Even if the mod's not available in Nexus site, it's still out there, and memes and videos will still be coming out. I don't believe K and his chooms will start suing everyone and Nexus, if the mod was immediately removed from the site after the request from CDPR/K, but we could see videos being blocked on youtube.
 
It helps to read the Fine Print - otherwise known as the EULA or End-User License Agreement. When you bought the LICENSE to use the game, you AGREED to these terms.


In the EULA, note near the top:

Fan Content Guidelines.


Follow that link and note Section D:

Don’t hurt us or others. Please be respectful to other players, fans and our games! Don’t create, do or say anything regarding our games that is racist, xenophobic, sexist, defamatory, illegal or offensive, or anything that could harm CD PROJEKT RED, its games, users or staff. Also, please don’t infringe the rights of other people (e.g. creators of other games, movies, books, TV shows etc.). This is also relevant for any real-life brands and people included in our games – you’re only allowed to use those brands or images of those people if they allow you to do so and provided you don’t harm them in any way! Basically, when making fan content, make sure you’ve got permission from all the people concerned (which might be people other than us).

EULAs aren't legal documents and they have no authority over how people use their purchased software. Companies don't posses law-making powers, and the rules regarding parties' rights in a purchase transaction are government by copyright and other laws. Basically, anything an EULA claims that is beyond the scope of a © / copyright symbol is ignoreable.

Read this thread for full information about that:

You own the software that you purchase, and any claims otherwise are urban myth or corporate propaganda
 
It's amazing where people pull links from and think that some rando site overrides the LEGALLY BINDING language you agreed to when you bought a LICENSE to use the software. READ THE EULA.

And actually try some Barrister oriented sites and blogs to get some better insights before relying on said rando sites.


The general rule is that End User License Agreements are not always enforceable. However, there are instances where they are deemed enforceable as seen in the US court decisions in ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg and Feldman v. Google, Inc. (2007). It is important to note that whether or not a EULA is enforceable, it is still a valid contract between the software owner and the user.

But by all means, feel free to contest it legally, in the courts. Hope you got deep pockets, because the opposing side does.

3 USING CYBERPUNK 2077

3.1 Licence. CD PROJEKT RED gives you a personal, limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-assignable licence to display, view, download, install, play and use Cyberpunk 2077 on your personal computer, games console and/or other devices/platforms that are explicitly authorised by CD PROJEKT RED (the list of which is available here), depending on the particular device/system/platform you purchased the game for. This licence is for your personal use only (so you cannot give, ‘sell’, lend, gift, assign, sub-license or otherwise transfer it to someone else) and does not give you any ownership rights in Cyberpunk 2077.
 
That is false. If you'd like to learn about what people's rights are concerning their purchased games, then I invite you to read this thread:

You own the software that you purchase, and any claims otherwise are urban myth or corporate propaganda

LOL... oh dear goodness. Okay so what are your credentials is what I want to know before I believe a word you say in a reddit. I mean I can post crap too on a reddit, hell 90% of what I do post is crap, but man I can make it sound good too if I really wanted to, doesn't make me an expert or correct.

So what are your credentials to make you an expert. Else I'm going to believe William Casey, and that you're part of the disinformation.
 
I've read about a mod that was created by someone which replaced textures on a model the player can have sex with in the game, so that it appears as though the player is having sex with Keanu Reeves. In reaction to the mod, CDPR asked Nexus Mods to remove the mod, and they also issued the following statement about it to PC Gamer:



I don't have any opinion on the mod or an interest in it. But what a CDPR representative said here can be misleading and sounds like CDPR either mischaracterized why the mod was removed, or otherwise were overstepping their authority.

Keanu Reeves could go after a mod using his likeness without permission if he wanted. But that's not CDPR's call unless Reeves has solicited them to act on his behalf in this matter. And a violation of what are called "Personality Rights" is a separate matter than a CDPR rule on mods, and is one which doesn't come down to whether people are allowed by CDPR to mod their game in a certain way.

People are always entitled to mod their own software per their sole discretion - excluding ToS violations for online services and copyright violations.


Nexus Mods could also remove the mod from their website for the sake of avoiding any issues stemming from a usage of Reeves' likeness without his permission, or just to make CDPR happy. But they are under no legal obligation to remove a mod just because CDPR or another publisher or developer disapproves of that mod in particular or the idea of people modding their games in general.


The only situation in which a company like CDPR has the right to impose a rule against modded content is when it comes to people's activities while playing on that company's own servers. That's because a company can set the terms for people to follow while using their servers, but a company cannot set the terms for what people choose to do with their own property in their own space, such as when running a game offline.

When a person violates a company's terms of a service, the company is only able to take action regarding their own property - which is their server and not the specific instance of the game that the person modded and used on their server. So, the person using modded content on a server that doesn't allow it could be banned from the server, but they couldn't have their game taken away from them - even though in certain cases the game itself might be useless without access to the online server.

And if a publisher bans a person from using their online servers because that person used prohibited content while playing on their servers, the violation wouldn't have been modding the game, but would have been using the online servers owned by the publisher while running content that isn't allowed on those servers.

A company can't tell the person what they may do with that person's own game elsewhere, and person is legally entitled to modify their own property in any way they see fit (which doesn't entitle a person to be able to use 3rd-party servers while doing so).


Ultimately, CDPR can't have a rule regarding what mods people may make and use with CP 2077 played offline because a publisher has no legal authority or jurisdiction concerning such matters. A person is free to modify their owned property, including their games.

Someone playing an online game using mods against a publisher's wishes isn't a case of a modding violation, but is a case of violating the terms of using an online service owned by a 3rd party. Using the likeness of a person without permission isn't a case of a modding violation, but is a case of violating a person's Right of Publicity / Personality Rights.


The PC Gamer article also says:

"CDPR will understandably not want to harm its relationship with Reeves, as his character could return in DLC or other forms."

But that's neither here nor there to the matter of whether CDPR has any authority in this matter. CDPR doesn't magically gain a legal power they never possessed just because they don't want to harm their relationship with Reeves.


So, there are grounds to remove a mod featuring a person's likeness without their permission. But the legitimate grounds are not related to a CDPR rule about modding. And unless Keanu Reeves is soliciting CDPR to act as his agent in the matter of protecting usage of his likeness, CDPR are probably overstepping their authority in claiming to disallow a mod featuring his likeness.

Kudos for CDPR for doing what it did. It's called accountability. If OP's stretching it's noodle on it's basement to justify people modding some potentially harmful content, you are free to take legal action against it.
 
No. I'm stating that CDPR's statement suggests a reasoning which infringes upon the ownership rights of people who've purchased CP 2077. Regardless of CDPR's appreciable conduct of supporting mods, they don't gain a right to take away people's ownership rights of their games, and to let a claim of such slide is very dangerous for gamers because it can lead to an expectation that publishers are justified in acting that way any time they wish to. But they aren't.
You can use the mod without the game. Problem solved :)
 
Reeves should ( and could) bring civil and criminal charges against those who made the mod.

If they have any brains they should heed the warning and take it down.
 
No what's worse is that it's his own link and his own post on a different site that he's quoting, without giving any kind of references or credentials to its validity.

That is again false.

"The full sources for everything said in that post are contained within that post. Again, I invite you to read it to learn about the topic."
 
That is again false.

"The full sources for everything said in that post are contained within that post. Again, I invite you to read it to learn about the topic."

Your information is false. You obviously do not know the difference between criminal law and contractual law.
 
Keanu owns the rights to usage of his likeness. CPDR do not. As such, CPDR have no authority to allow users to modify Keanu's in game avatar in any way.

CDPR have no authority to allow or disallow people to mod their games.

This is no different from licensed music being removed from streaming videos. Anyone complaining about it has no justification.

That is a false equivalency argument. Streaming services remove licensed music from their platforms because they own their platforms, control what's shown on them, and so are responsible for what is published on them. But CDPR don't own the copies of CP 2077 which they have elected to sell, they don't control those sold copies, and they aren't responsible for how the people who purchased those copies use them in an offline environment.
 
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