Cookie Thief
Can translation patches be legal?
I was randomly wondering about this. You could dump the game yourself, and the apply the translation patch, but then what would you do with it. You'd have to burn it or put it on a flash card. Say if I was on a TV show that reviewed video games, would it be illegal if i reviewed the game with the translation patch applied?
Former Lizard Person
I don't believe there's anything illegal about patching the software, but dumping the game is illegal-ish, as are most of the ways you could actually play it. Also, if you were on a TV show that reviewed games, your producers/legal department probably wouldn't allow you to show translated footage or mention the translation patch. Although, if you were to do something like Mother 3 and contact the publisher (NOA) about getting permission, they may allow it.Originally Posted by lizard81288
Vagrant Wizard
You have to modify files to get the script, I assume it isn't legal.
Former Lizard Person
/necropost
Not necessarily. It's usually considered a derivative work, which may or may not be legal based on which rights are reserved under the copyright. But generally derivative works are legal as long as it's for completely personal use and never distributed. But showing it on television can be construed as a form of distribution.
Vagrant Wizard
It's only been a few days. There have been worse, and recently.
Publishers have gotten pretty inclusive about their copyrights in recent years; I'd be shocked if the copyrights on newer games didn't mention something. It might fly under the radar if the broadcast was local.
Former Lizard Person
Yeah, almost anything released commercially will be All Rights Reserved. But indie developers may end up releasing things with just commercial rights reserved.
Senior Member
I never heard anything about not-legal-to-translate. But here in Brazil, all the games that aren't released in our language (basically ALL), get a translation for portuguese from some group, generally, PC games. But this groups never modify execution files, only language files, so someone would still need to play the game with origial CD/DVD and/or serial number. So I think as long as no authenticity files are modified, you can translate your game. Some groups went so far with some games as dubbing them. This is just a mod you're adding to your own game, you are not breaking the rights of a language that some don't understand, it's not their fault, they just want to understand the story of the game.
But I think it's totally different with console games, as besides modifying the game, you'd have to modify the system too to be able to play, and that's illegal. (I think)
Warking flavorfull
Technically since its a translation its a derivative work and would be harder to hold up a case against as far as legality goes. As long as you aren't trying to sell it. On top of that, some groups like the ones doing Tales of Graces use that Riivolution patcher (OR for the old PS2 crowd, ESR) which technically modifies nothing in the game itself and even requires the disk and such. Those kinds of projects would be really hard to nail down as being strictly 'illegal', though most groups would stop if issued a C&D if just because it'd be a lot of legal hassle/cost with an unclear resolution.
I'm from Brazil and the gaming scene there is kind of scary. Basically just people buying copied games and modded consoles. But I don't live in Brazil anymore. I live in the U.S. So I get games in English and understand them. As far as making a translation patch and using it on a game you own or just distributing the patch it should be aloud. Since I came from Brazil I can understand people wanting to experience one of the most immersive types of media right now and not being able to understand it. So if you aren't pirating a game, thus helping the publisher, why can't you have your game in your language. (Games very, very, very rarely get localized for Brazil.) SO LET A GAMER GAME!!!
Member
To be blunt - Developers get pissy when people mess the game/software code and spread the altered code to the rest of the world. It would be like going to the Louvre and giving Mona Lisa blonde hair.
Former Lizard Person
It's closer to buying a print of the Mona Lisa and making the hair blonde. However, that would be completely legal and could even be sold as an original work. See L.H.O.O.Q. by Marcel Duchamp. The difference here is that there is no copyright on the Mona Lisa, and even if there was, it would have expired by now.
Emuparadise Infected User
Well it depends on what the game's medium is. Anything released 'after' the DMCA was passed in '98 would be protected from having it's DRM bypassed, with special exceptions for 'fair use'.
So, no. There is absolutely nothing illegal about releasing a translation as long as it's in patch form only, and no DRM protection schemes are bypassed in the process.
Airing video of any copyrighted for public consumption is illegal(ish), but it is currently up to the IP holder to decide whether or not to pull the video from wherever.
Bill S.978 on the hand would put the enforcement of video prosecutions in the hands of public officials, with no say from the actual IP holders. Regardless of whether they previously allowed it due to free advertising...
Member
Back up a minute! Copyright Infringements used to be covered in Civil Court, not Criminal Court! This bill is so vague that saying a company's copyrighted catch phrase could be considered Copyright Infringement. Even 'parodies' like Robot Chicken or 'Weird' Al Yanckovich(sp?) could get into trouble.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s978/money
Why the hell am I not surprised the usual suspects(Reid and Pelosi) are pushing this?
Last edited by Graeystone; 13th-August-2011 at 15:24.
Senior Member
LOL, the scene here isn't so bad right now. I think we are learning to support developers. The thing is, games are so expensive here, that it's not worthy to follow this entertainment method, so we just found other ways to get our games. And since people are already pirating a game, they go ahead and add a translation to it, so they can sell better. But generally when buying an original copy of a game, some people prefer PAL versions, since it generally comes with the spanish language (that is similar to ours, so we understand it, without further studying of it), or even portuguese from Portugal (it's a bit different from our portuguese, compare it to british and american english differences).
But I'll just say it, translating doesn't hurt.
Video game addict
I don't know how much this would apply to other patches, but as far as I can tell, from what was posted on earthboundcentral, the Mother 3 patch was distributed, and since the game was coded so well, very much hacking was done to even make an in-game translation possible, so I would not know how legal that kind of translation is. I guess it depends on how much a developer hates their customers enough to shut down fan projects that would potentially cause more sales for future titles from a game series/Developer. I think Square has been starting to shut down fan projects for a while now, just because they feel like someone is doing a better job than them, and that they could not do the same level of quality anymore.(Ex: Chrono Resurrection could have been an amazing project (and Square could have even hired them to help make it an official remake of CT in 3D), had it not been shut down by Square).
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