General questions and discussions.

Ubisoft themselves made a statement that all the source codes for Heroes of Might and Magic are irrevocably lost.
What kind of illegal manipulations can there be with something that doesn't exist in reality?
Ubisoft themselves made a statement that the Heroes series is closed.
Therefore, they show no interest or make no claims.
Besides, Hota is a free modification, and there's nothing to complain about.
It is installed on top of Heroes of Might and Magic, which all players have officially and legitimately purchased.
For example, Skyrim has hundreds of such modifications.

Section "Dialogues about nothing".
1. The loss of source codes does not make Hota an official version = as it was 10 years ago, a pirated version (like TE, Wog, WT), it remains so. There is a very big difference between the loss of source codes and an open-source product.
2. The copyright holder's statement about closing the series means only that no sequels are planned.
3. The free nature of Hota is not a basis for violating the same copyrights (it's just that in our kingdom, everyone really doesn't care about anyone else).
4. Hota is not installed on top of the purchased Heroes of Might and Magic, but is distributed without purchasing it, and is available for free download.
5. If the HD mod can still be considered, with some stretch, as a "mod," then Hota is no longer a "mod," but a hacked and rewritten game code.
6. Thus, Hota was, is, and will remain a pirated version until the copyright holder shares the rights to use the brand itself (and he won't - negotiations were held).
And I don't see any problem here: I'm just calling things by their names.