Some rather worrying news for the sim racing modding scene come from the BATracer browser game which has been forced to go offline by Ferrari S.p.A earlier today.
Ferrari demands the deletion of all user-created Ferrari-related content such as carsets and logos due to the fact that these weren’t officially authorised . BATracer is a motorsports browser game, the material in question are nothing more than a few photos, logos and trademarked names. As a result, the BATracer website is now offline and users won’t be able to upload new content until further notice.
This may become a potential problem for the sim racing modding scene as BATracer is a free game, still Ferrari felt the need to unleash their lawyers on them. A few days ago, several VirtualR readers were discussing whether or not user-created content for racing simulations qualifies as artwork and as such, does not breach copyright. I guess we now have an answer what the license holders think about this issue….
