Nude Mod DMCA Lawsuit Settled

Back in February game manufacturer Tecmo filed a lawsuit against the administrator of the website ninjahacker.net and some undisclosed individuals for "creating, hosting and contributing content to a forum created to foster and facilitate the knowing infringement of Tecmo's proprietary software for its video game titles." The alleged infringements, under the Digital millennium Copyright Act, were some "nude mods" of Tecmo's games that stripped of the bathing suits of female game characters.

Tecmo now goes for an undisclosed settlement with the administrator, avoiding the possibility to put their DMCA claim to the test for the moment. Electronic Frontier foundation's Jason Schultz argued that Tecmo would fail this test in the light of fair use. I wondered if the Judge might stop short from the fair use issue at the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision and be favourable to Tecmo. I wrote I'd stand corrected till the outcome. We might get one if Tecmo decides to go after the "undisclosed individuals", if the administrator turned over ninjahacker's user list.

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