Skyblivion faces legal threats from a former volunteer over decompiled code

Skyblivion, the long-running fan remake of Oblivion built inside Skyrim, is facing legal threats from one of its own former volunteers.

Lead modder Rebelzize laid out the situation in a video, writing in the description that the team wants "to be completely transparent with the community about what has happened since their departure."

According to Rebelzize, the dispute is about code. After the volunteer left, access to the original source code repository was revoked, and the team decompiled parts of his work to keep systems already in the project running and fix issues. Rebelzize says "the main disagreement centered on their objection to our decompilation of parts of their work."

It escalated from there. Rebelzize says the former modder sent a series of legal threats demanding the real names and home addresses of several other volunteers, "something that we are simply not willing to share with somebody that we don't even know." He called the demands "disproportionate."

Rebelzize hasn't named the person, saying he wants to avoid an online witch hunt. His message to the community, per PC Gamer: "Please don't turn this into any kind of witch hunt."

The former modder is reportedly looking to sue for damages. PC Gamer reports the volunteer team is seeking pro bono legal aid.

As Polygon points out, this is Skyblivion's biggest legal challenge yet, and it isn't coming from Bethesda. It also lands as the project nears release, which could mean a longer wait for the mod.