The rise of Fortnite’s new Creative mode editor gave a chance for many creators to express their creative vision in ways you wouldn’t expect. Some of the most noteworthy projects are recreations of maps and mechanics from games like Call of Duty and Rust, allowing players to play the game from a first-person perspective and experience what’s essentially a home away from home. Unfortunately, these creations don’t exist in a vacuum, and they can put the copyright of properties from companies like Activision in jeopardy if they are allowed to exist.
Because of this, Activision has reportedly begun issuing DMCA takedowns against creators of Call of Duty-related projects that were created using Fortnite’s Creative 2.0 mode. This was first spotted by content creator Jake Lucky, who noted that this was an inevitability that even Epic Games foresaw when it comes to copyrighted content being recreated through the Fortnite Creative mode.
This was made by @MistJawaYT who has since removed all of his CoD inspired creations and maps
Epic Games had previously warned creators of potential copyright issues pic.twitter.com/7XqpUrRJqx
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) April 3, 2023
The enforcement policy doesn’t lie, either. Even if the work is left unpublished, you can get banned from Fortnite as per Epic Games’ terms regarding policies. Activision has reportedly issued takedowns, taking down several projects that radically changed Fortnite’s usual mechanics to mimic those found in games like Call of Duty. One of the creators, Mist Jawa (who is known for his recreation of the Shipment map), talked about one of the takedowns he had over his project Modern Fartfare:
I will no longer be recreating any copyright maps
Modern Fortfare along with some zombie maps
have been deleted and can no longer be played
I still plan on creating unique experainces for shooter
& Zombie fansi have also removed all tweets and YT Videos related to the topic. pic.twitter.com/TGVoHnulSu
— Mist Jawa (@MistJawaYT) April 3, 2023
Here’s the thing. Fortnite allows creators to essentially share a cut of the revenue Epic Games gains from their maps with the advent of Fortnite Creative 2.0. Because of this, the issue goes way beyond the realm of copyright and right into the realm of trademark infringement, as Epic would essentially host users profiting from copyrighted work. This has a lot more nuance, but currently, this is just an oversimplified explanation behind the prompt action from Activision.
There are other restrictions regarding the material that are not allowed to be recreated by Fortnite users, like how users cannot recreate previous Fortnite maps (sans Chapter 1) in this new mode. However, any sort of copyrighted material is not allowed to be recreated through the newly issued Creative Mode 2.0.
What will happen in the future of this new creative tool? It’s hard to say. Let’s just hope that creative users’ experiences don’t get hampered by this development as much.
