Patches are still legal.They're updates to the game content and code to fix bugs and broken features.
(and occasionally disable copy protection)
True story: I made a fan patch for the PC version of Silent Hill 2 because the dynamic lighting was broken for ATI users on certain driver versions. :O
http://files.filefront.com/SH2+PC+Ra.../fileinfo.html
As I was walking down the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
I wish, I wish he'd go away.
I've been downloading CoH: OF for 3 hours now. I've been capped at 197KB/s
BUT IS AN OPEN BETA YAY!