After having the Cyberpunk 2077 bit of their R.E.A.L VR mod/framework taken down via a DMCA from CD Projekt, modder Luke Ross claims to have had another stike filed against their work. This time, the strike has come from Ghostrunner publishers 505 Games, according to a post from Ross in which they say they’ve been “forced to temporarily pause” their Patreon page.
While Ross’ Cyberpunk VR mod being behind a paywall was at the centre of CD Projekt’s decision to file a takedown, there appears to have been no indication so far as to whether the same is true of the alleged strike from 505.
The ‘About’ section of the modder’s Patreon page now hosts the following message:
Beware! Due to DMCA notices received from CD PROJEKT S.A. (see https://www.patreon.com/posts/148437771) and 505 Games, I am forced to temporarily pause the Patreon page. You can still subscribe if you want to support me, but be advised that for the moment there will be no benefits available. No access to the 40+ mods or detailed information about my VR conversions, until the legal situation clears out. Existing subscriptions will have their access extended for one month without further payments.
An alleged email from Ross to their subscibers expanding on the situation has been posted to r/virtualreality, as spotted by FRVR.
“Fast forward to today, and another publisher just sent a DMCA takedown notice to Patreon: namely 505 Games, for my VR conversion of Ghostrunner,” the email reads, following a recap of the Cyberpunk situation. “No mention of any terms of service violation this time. Again Patreon automatically complied. I don’t blame them; DMCA law is carefully worded to give infinite power to big companies, who only need to write on a slip of paper that they “believe” their copyright has been infringed in order to nuke from the sky anything they don’t like—and to give infinite headaches to creators like me, who instead have the only recourse of going to court, sustaining huge costs to get through the legal process.”
I’ve reached out to 505 Games for comment.
As a result of this alleged second strike, Ross wrote in the email that they’ve opted to make “all versions of the mods and also all the posts related to the wonderful work we have done here together for years” unavailable, citing the need to avoid incurring any more DMCA strikes in the near future.
Since I cannot stop people from subscribing without closing down the account altogether, I’m making it clear on the About and Welcome pages that new subscriptions will have the only effect of supporting me and that no access to the 40+ conversions can or will be provided at this time,” the modder added. “You don’t need to unsubscribe: I paused the billing cycle for one month so that your pledges will NOT be renewed automatically, and those of you who are already subscribed will have their access extended for one month without further payments. I hope one month will be enough for the fog to clear up, and to understand what is going to happen to our collective attempt to make VR available for AAA games.”
Ross was previously the subject of a DMCA strike from Rockstar Games over VR mods for GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 back in 2022. For now, it seems the modder’s plan is to lock things down and see if this storm can be waited out.
