Remember when Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition finally made its way to PC with terrible resolution options, only to be quickly fixed by the community? Apparently Bandai Namco Games doesn't want you to remember that those fixes are even possible, as it has filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint to remove the popular mod DSfix from the internet.
DSfix is a Dark Souls mod by internet user Peter "Durante" Thoman, the author behind the popular downsampling tool GeDoSaTo. After patching out Games for Windows Live this past week to move Dark Souls to Steamworks, the popular mod was updated to version 2.3 to compensate for the new DRM the game was using and has apparently drawn the ire of Bandai Namco Games in the process.
Durante received notification from Dropbox that his mod was the "subject of infringing activity" and disabled his account after receiving the complaint from Bandai Namco Games Germany. The request is odd, because the DSfix doesn't include any of the companies material and merely acts as an unoffical patch to Dark Souls. The request is especially odd considering that it has been in existence for more than two years. You can read the full notification that Durante received and posted to NeoGAF below:
Hi Dropbox User,
We've received a notification under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") from BANDAI NAMCO Games Germany GmbH that the following material is claimed to be infringing:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ddwbdpd3qgm9upk/DSfix23.zip
Accordingly, under Section 512(c)(1)(C) of DMCA, we've removed or disabled access to the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity.
As a result of this notice, public sharing on your account has been disabled. We will reinstate your account's public links if you remove the file(s) listed above from your account.
Please be aware that copyright infringement violates our Terms of Service and Copyright Policy, which can be found at:
https://www.dropbox.com/terms#terms
https://www.dropbox.com/help/210
Also note that Dropbox has a policy of terminating the accounts of repeat infringers. If you repeatedly use Dropbox to infringe copyrights, your account will be terminated and you will lose access to your files.
If you believe that this DMCA notice was sent in error, you may file a counter notification. That notification must comply substantially with 17 U.S.C. § 512(g)(3) and include a statement under penalty of perjury of a good faith belief that the DMCA notice was the result of mistake or misidentification.
You can submit a counter notification using our online form here:
https://www.dropbox.com/dmca_counter...8721&h=7ccbb76
or by sending it to the following address:
Copyright Agent
Dropbox Inc.
185 Berry Street, Suite 400
San Francisco, CA 94107
copyright@dropbox.com
- The Dropbox Team
Hopefully you have the latest version of the mod downloaded already after picking Dark Souls up on Steam's Winter Sale, or you might be plagued with less than optimal graphical settings for some time. Regardless, this is a bit of a sad thing to see considering the good will the mod generated for Dark Souls on PC and you never like to see community members who contribute helpful resources squashed under the weight of publishers. Hopefully we will see DSfix return soon after the complaint is handled.