Creator of Deleted Cyberpunk 2077 VR Mod Says He's Being 'Punished' by Pirates
The creator of the R.E.A.L. VR mod for Cyberpunk 2077, Luke Ross, has stated that after removing the project at CD Projekt's request, he has faced a wave of piracy. According to him, users have begun massively distributing the mod illegally across the Internet.
Earlier this month, CD Projekt issued a DMCA strike, causing the mod to disappear from Ross's Patreon page. Following this, a journalist from IGN inquired whether the author was considering making the mod free. Ross replied that such a step would require significant reworking.
I'm not ruling out making the mod free for everyone, but that will take time because my software supports over 40 games and many completely different engines. Because of this, creating a version that will only work with Cyberpunk 2077 is a non-trivial task.
Furthermore, the people who voluntarily supported my work might not be thrilled that the mod is suddenly given away to everyone just because I was forced to do so.
In any case, this has largely lost its meaning because after the unexpected DMCA strike and the forced removal of the mod from Patreon, people, fearing they might lose VR support for their favorite games, started pirating and illegally distributing the mod all over the Internet. At the same time, they shamelessly declare that since I didn't comply with CDPR's terms, my work is now supposedly 'fair game,' and I should be punished by having my work stolen. So in a way, CDPR has already achieved what it wanted.
Luke Ross
The cause of the conflict was not the VR modification itself, but the method of its distribution. R.E.A.L. was part of a package of Ross's other mods and was accessible through a Patreon subscription. CD Projekt deemed this a violation of their own rules, which prohibit selling content based on their games. The company allows voluntary donations but does not permit charging money for access to modifications.
Ross openly spoke out against the Polish company's decision. In an address to his subscribers, he criticized CDPR's approach and stated that corporations act solely for financial reasons, while expecting modders to work completely for free. He also noted that, in his opinion, the concept of 'derivative work' is being artificially expanded in this case.