NBCUniversal has shut down twenty Battlestar Galactica themed mods by sending a cease-and-desist to the popular mod hosting site, ModDB.
Fans of 2004’s relentlessly grim Battlestar Galactica remake aren’t spoiled for choice when it comes to game tie-ins. Faced with a middling browser-based MMO and a poorly-received retro shooter, fans decided to take things into their own hands, developing a series of BSG themed mods for games like Nexus: The Jupiter Incident and Freespace 2.
Unfortunately, the trailer for the frankly excellent looking Nexus: Battlestar Galactica, helped along by a feature on Kotaku, came to the attention of BSG copyright owner NBCUniversal, who promptly popped off a cease and desist to ModDB, the site hosting the mod. In response, ModDB removed Nexus: Battlestar Galactica from the site, along with nineteen other mods that infringed on NBCU’s copyrights.
“I was shocked and saddened when I got the message from ModDB admins that our mod, the Nexus BSG mod is being pulled due to copyright claims of NBC Universal,” said a lead dev for the mod. “This we cannot fight, these are the terms of ModDB, and we are making our projects based on NBCU’s intellectual property.”
He went on to add that the only way the project could continue would be with NBCU’s blessing, and suggested that fans of the mod contact the company via their contact us page. He also stressed that mod proponents have to make their points “politely and with logic,” presumably disappointing several angry forum members who were busy looking for a shoebox to defecate in.
According to Kotaku, creators of BSG: Diaspora, a BSG themed space-combat sim based on the Freespace 2 engine, were angered by the removal of their work from ModDB and promised that development of the free game would continue elsewhere.
Source: ModDB forums via Kotaku
