I have a question to those of you who are more versed in law aspects of gaming than I am. I started doing a Polish translation for The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall and almost immediately this question occured to me: will I be able to post it in places like this forum for example, or Nexus mods, or Github, etc etc? Is there a possibility I may get into trouble by doing that?

Thanks

Freedom of speech and logic, dictates "go ahead". Knowing the world is full of bull$h!t? "Use caution".

Joking aside, it is considered acceptable. So long as you give it for free.

3 caveats:

1. I'm not a lawyer, take advice with huge grain of salt.
2. I skimmed through the 1994 Polish copyright laws in English. Unless stated, the most updated and original language of the law will always take precedence.
3. As with most international law cases, it's not clear which country's laws will be applied you'll be subjected to when you're sued. There's a lot of uncertainty and framework to navigate between multi-jurisdictions.

TES 2: Daggerfall is owned by Zenimax, which is based in the US. Here is their EULA. As per the EULA under section 4 paragraph B, you are not authorized to creative a derivative work (translation in your case) or else it would be considered copyright infringement. This is valid in the US.

If you're outside North America, then they claim they will sue you through England laws. And the original IP owner has limited rights over adaptations that includes translations.

In Poland, only the original author has the rights to perform their own translations under Chapter 7, Article 4 for computer programs. Granted, this is before any updates after 1994, which there have been. It's in Polish, but I'm confident this remains intact. Maybe you can try looking it up yourself.

In the end, you need permission from Bethesda/Zenimax to make a translation. However, because of how muddy laws work, then in such a case where they OK'd it, then you would own the copyrights to the translations in both the US and Poland. In the UK, I believe they're a bit lighter and would consider derivative works if they were original enough. And I don't think they'd be happy with that risk.

Now will they sue some random Polish person for creating a translation for a 27 year old game that they've made into freeware and that very little people care about? Unlikely, but they're legally justified and could if they wanted to.

I'd get permission first and if they ignore you or say no, then I wouldn't pursue it. And in such a case, that will save you a ton of stress, money, and time.

^^^....by that logic all modification is illegal. Translation is fine as it can be considered a mod or ignored if provided for free. In short a company only cares when money is involved or a besmirch of their product occurs. Which translation is hardly harming, unless it were translated so poorly as to be laughable. They could not take legal action either, as it falls under satire.....or a facepalm, in which ignoring you is best.

*passes around the salt shaker*

Yes, all mods are technically illegal outlined by lawmakers. OP asked for legal aspects and that's what it spells out.

But if you're looking for a different non-legal answer, then it's morally and socially acceptable because no one is being harmed, especially because it's freeware, and your intentions are benevolent.

Of course, if Zenimax did sue you and you're forced to go to court, then you have to rely on the judge and/or jury to have enough common sense and reasoning to toss the case out and/or rule in your favour. And that's after hiring legal counsel, waiting through months of regulatory framework, and having to appear in court. And that's a risk they don't wanna bother with.

While that is a fair point. In reality, to sum up if he can do it, nothing will happen to him. Besides, a scary EULA is often not taken seriously. Most of the time companies make up stuff that they cant enforce or is flatly illegal. Literally nothing would happen legally even if he had them pitch a lawsuit. Because the blowback in public relations alone would punish the company severely.

This is a legal question that you are asking to non-lawyers.

And even if there are lawyers in this forum, then that wouldn't make any difference either, because I guarantee that literally none of them would offer you any kind of legal answer to your question for free anyway.

So the only way you are ever going to get any kind of legitimate & legal answer to your question will be, unfortunately, for you to pay up and hire a real lawyer, in real-life, to answer your question for you.

And even then, the answer the lawyer gives you may turn out to be BS, because ultimately, it would just be his speculative opinion, and the actual truth of the matter would be determined by a Judge in a court of law, not by the lawyer who you paid to give you a speculative answer.

Any speculative answer from a real lawyer who you pay in real-life would still be way more legit than would be any non-legal answers you will get from forum users, like in this thread, though.

I'm fairly certain before you get sued you'd get a cease and desist letter (hope i spelled that half-way
correct). Imagine if the RIA sued everyone who copyright infringed in youtube videos...
Also last I checked Elder Scrolls copyright is owned by Microsoft.

There is also fair use, which a translation could easily fall under. Remember kids, just because a company says you can't do something, doesn't mean you actually can't. But they can usually just drag you to court and use the legal system to abuse you since lawyers are exhorbitantly expensive.

I guess what I'll do is this: I'll proceed with the translation anyway because I enjoy doing it, pure and simple. I'll then write to Zenimax once I'm finished and if worst comes to worst and they say "fuck no you can't translate our game", I'll find some under the radar channels to spread it. I did some research myself and it seems there are already some unofficial translations of said game even on UESPWiki itself. I guess I'll write to those guys in case Zenimax support isn't enthusiastic about the whole idea. It would be a shame not to share it since many people are asking for it in Polish forums.

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post, I appreciate it. You gave me a lot to think about.

Yes, the possibility exists.
If games are considered a form of art, then the original creator owns the content, and also owns it regardless of which language it is translated in.

On the other hand, you as a translator own your own work, so no one can use the translation without your permission either.

But because your translation can't exist on its own, but it's a replica of the original work, then the original creator has the ultimate authority over it, and in theory, they can sue you for a number of reasons.
One even being if your translation is bad, they can make the claim that it devalues their creative work.

Now, for all practical purposes, nothing is going to happen.
I don't think anyone has ever been sued over fan translated games. The only thing that can happen is being guilty of piracy, if you upload the entire game, instead of some small patch which modifies some text files or scripts.

In fact, the biggest risk is that your work will be used without your approval.
I seem to recall that Blade Runner Enhanced used some fan translations without asking permissions, which caused a minor issue over it. (If it wasn't Blade Runner, it was some other game, but that happened anyway.)

The Gentleman's agreement between all, but the most litigious companies is that you can do it freely, as long as you don't make a single red cent off the things.

The issue is, as described, do a bloody favor and ask the fans to integrate. Even if it is in their legal right, it's a bad PR move and ethically cloudy at best.

But quite simply, why not simply contribute to the Daggerfall Unity translation program? New codebase, no problem, less insane headaches from Xengine.


Plus maybe you could do us all a favor and translate Daggerfall Unity into Daggerfall Godot.

I wouldn't worry about it. If Bethesda sued everyone who enhanced their games and banned all mods, they'd be virtually unplayable... ;-)