An unofficial patch, sometimes alternatively called a community patch, is a patch for a piece of software, created by a third party such as a

user community A virtual community is a social network of individuals who connect through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. Some of the most pervasive virtual commu ...

without the involvement of the original developer. Similar to an ordinary patch, it alleviates bugs or shortcomings. Unofficial patches do not usually change the intended usage of the software, in contrast to other third-party software adaptions such as mods or cracks.

Motivation

A common motivation for the creation of unofficial patches is missing

technical support Technical support, commonly shortened as tech support, is a customer service provided to customers to resolve issues, commonly with consumer electronics. This is commonly provided via call centers, online chat and email. Many companies provid ...

by the original software developer or provider. Reasons may include: *the software product reached its defined end-of-life and/or was superseded by a successor product (

planned obsolescence In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is the concept of policies planning or designing a good (economics), product with an artificially limited Product lifetime, u ...

) * the software was originally designed to operate in a substantially different environment and may require improvement/optimization (

porting In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desig ...

) * the developer has gone out of business and is not available anymore *support is not economically viable (e.g. localization for small markets) *a fast solution for a time critical problem (e.g. security holes) when an official one takes too long * the official developer is unable to cope with the problems

Types

Unofficial patches are also sometimes called ''fan patches'' or ''community patches'', and are typically intended to repair unresolved bugs and provide technical compatibility fixes, e.g. for newer

operating systems An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

, increased display resolutions or new display formats. While unofficial patches are most common for the PC platform, they can also be found for console games e.g. in context of the emulation community.

Translations

Unofficial patches are not limited to technical fixes; fan translations of software, especially games, are often created if the software has not been released locally. Fan translations are most common for

Japanese role-playing game While the early history and distinctive traits of role-playing video games (RPGs) in East Asia have come Video games in Japan, from Japan, many video games have also arisen Video games in China, in China, Video games in South Korea, developed ...

s which are often not localized for Western markets.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110716024241/http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/1900/tra26ba.jp

https://web.archive.org/web/20110718200429/http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7259/tra42bl.jpg] Another variant of unofficial patches are Slipstream (computing), slipstream like patches which combine official patches together, when individual patches are only available online or as small incremental updates.

Methods

The most common case is that the

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

and the original development tools are not available for the software. Therefore, the faulty software's binary must be analyzed at run time by

reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...

and

debugging In engineering, debugging is the process of finding the Root cause analysis, root cause, workarounds, and possible fixes for bug (engineering), bugs. For software, debugging tactics can involve interactive debugging, control flow analysis, Logf ...

. If the problem is found, a fix to the program must be applied. Sometimes only small changes in

configuration file A configuration file, a.k.a. config file, is a computer file, file that stores computer data, data used to configure a software system such as an application software, application, a server (computing), server or an operating system. Some applic ...

s or the registry are required, sometimes binary hacks on the

executable In computer science, executable code, an executable file, or an executable program, sometimes simply referred to as an executable or binary, causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instruction (computer science), in ...

itself are required to fix bugs. If a

software development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific t ...

(e.g. for modding) is available, fixes to the content can be easily produced, otherwise the community would need to create their own tools. These found fixes are typically packed to user deployable patches (e.g. with NSIS,

Innosetup Inno Setup is a free software script-driven installation system created in Delphi by Jordan Russell. The first version was released in 1997. History Since Jordan Russell wasn't satisfied with InstallShield Express which he had received upon pur ...

). If the source code is available, support can by provided most effectively. Sometimes the source code is released intentionally, sometimes by

leak A leak is a way (usually an opening) for fluid to escape a container or fluid-containing system, such as a Water tank, tank or a Ship, ship's Hull (watercraft), hull, through which the contents of the container can escape or outside matter can e ...

ing or mistake, such as what happened with the

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

of the ''

Thief Theft (, cognate to ) is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal short ...

'' series. Sometimes fans even completely reverse-engineer source code from the original program binary. With the source code available even the support of completely different but recent

platform Platform may refer to: Arts * Platform, an arts centre at The Bridge, Easterhouse, Glasgow * ''Platform'' (1993 film), a 1993 Bollywood action film * ''Platform'' (2000 film), a 2000 film by Jia Zhangke * '' The Platform'' (2019 film) * Pla ...

s with

source port A source port is a software project based on the source code of a game engine that allows the game to be played on operating systems or computing platforms with which the game was not originally compatible. Description Source ports are often ...

s becomes possible.

Law

While no court cases have directly addressed the legal ramifications of unofficial patches, similar cases have been tried on related issues. The case of '' Galoob v. Nintendo'' found that it was not

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

by a user to apply an unauthorized patch to a system (while the scope was very specific to the

Game Genie The Game Genie was a line of Video game accessory, video game accessories that allowed players to alter codes transmitted between ROM cartridge, game cartridges and a video game console, known informally as a cheat cartridge. Developed by Codemas ...

). On the other hand, the case

Micro Star v. FormGen Inc. ''Micro Star v. FormGen Inc.'' 154 F.3d 1107 (9th Cir. 1998) is a legal case applying copyright law to video games, stopping the sales of a compilation of user-generated levels that infringed the copyright of ''Duke Nukem 3D.'' Micro Star d ...

found that user-generated maps were

derivative work In copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major copyrightable elements of a first, previously created original work (the underlying work). The derivative work becomes a second, separate work independent from ...

s of the original game. In '' Sega v. Accolade'', the

9th Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

held that making copies in the course of

is a fair use, when it is the only way to get access to the "ideas and functional elements" in the copyrighted code, and when "there is a legitimate reason for seeking such access". According to

Copyright law of the United States The copyright law of the United States grants monopoly protection for "original works of authorship". With the stated purpose to promote art and culture, copyright law assigns a set of exclusive rights to authors: to make and sell copies of the ...

17 U.S. Code § 117, the owner of a copy of a program can modify it as necessary for "Maintenance or Repair", without permission from the copyright holder; an argumentation also raised by Daniel J. Bernstein professor at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

. Similar user rights are given also according to European copyright laws. The question of whether unauthorized changes of lawfully obtained copyright-protected software qualify as

fair use Fair use is a Legal doctrine, doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to bal ...

is an unsettled area of law. An article of Helbraun law firm remarks, in the context of fan translations, that while redistributing complete games with adaptions most likely does ''not'' fall under fair use, distributing the modifications as a patch might be legally permissible; however, that conclusion has not been tested in court.

Reception

Reception of unofficial patches is mixed, but by large, copyright holders are ambivalent. When the software is not considered commercially viable unofficial patches are ignored by the copyright holder as it is not seen as a source of lost revenue. There have been seldom cases of

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...

letters to unofficial patch and fan translation projects. Sometimes the copyright holder actively support the patching and fixing efforts of a software community,Community-based update to GalCiv 2 Ultimate Edition
by MarvinKosh on 25 September 2014 sometimes even by releasing the

under a

software license A software license is a legal instrument governing the use or redistribution of software. Since the 1970s, software copyright has been recognized in the United States. Despite the copyright being recognized, most companies prefer to sell lic ...

which allows the software community the continued software support by themselves.Blue Saga's Source Code Has Been Released
by Matt Chelen on mmos.com (30 July 2016) Examples for such software are in the

List of commercial video games with later released source code This is a list of commercial video games with later released available source code. The source code of these commercially developed and distributed video games is available to the public or the games' communities. Background Commercial video ga ...

. The

free and open source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

movement was founded in the 1980s to solve the underlying problem of unofficial patches, the limited possibility for user self-support in binary only distributed software due to missing source code.

Free and open source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

demands from distributed software the availability of source code, which prevents the technical problems and legal uncertainties of binary only user patching of

proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software, software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing t ...

Examples in video games

Examples in general software

References

{{Independent production Software maintenance Software release Unofficial adaptations Video game development Fan labor