Trying to understand

[Neonsquare]

I kind of just blew my own mind by realizing how flimsy mod ownership actually is. Your ownership of a mod is basically only as good as the contents within it. In other words, take my mod for example, Acting Pays for The Sims 4. There isn't anything in it that I can claim ownership of outside of the very specific changes I made to the tuning files for the game. So anyone could recreate the mod and as long as it's not a 1 to 1 copy, I couldn't actually do anything about that (cause it's not like I can own the idea of the mod). Even if a company like BGS explicitly states you have ownership of your mod, if there isn't anything content wise that is original, any mod can be recreated legally ... which makes "ownership" of it kinda crap. The only parts that would be safe is like art assets, stories, etc. But even then that depends too. Like if you modeled a sword that is based off of a real life sword or from something else you don't own, as long as the new mod author remodels it themselves, it's fine.

 

I just started to think about this because I am under the assumption there will be some mod authors who stay here who likely will take up the mantle of mods that were removed by creating their own version of it. But it's interesting to think about because it means removing your mods only removes the mod author (you) from the equation ... not the mod itself. The mod is only temporarily lost but can just be recreated essentially ... as long as someone is willing to do so ... o.o

 

Or am I wrong about this and am missing something?

You're correct, and multiple people can have the same idea, although the chances of both turning out exactly the same are kind of slim, unless it's a simple tweak to a file. It's a good thing when multiple people try to tackle the same task, as it creates competition and the user gets a choice.

[WileCoyote68]

I kind of just blew my own mind by realizing how flimsy mod ownership actually is. Your ownership of a mod is basically only as good as the contents within it. In other words, take my mod for example, Acting Pays for The Sims 4. There isn't anything in it that I can claim ownership of outside of the very specific changes I made to the tuning files for the game. So anyone could recreate the mod and as long as it's not a 1 to 1 copy, I couldn't actually do anything about that (cause it's not like I can own the idea of the mod). Even if a company like BGS explicitly states you have ownership of your mod, if there isn't anything content wise that is original, any mod can be recreated legally ... which makes "ownership" of it kinda crap. The only parts that would be safe is like art assets, stories, etc. But even then that depends too. Like if you modeled a sword that is based off of a real life sword or from something else you don't own, as long as the new mod author remodels it themselves, it's fine.

 

I just started to think about this because I am under the assumption there will be some mod authors who stay here who likely will take up the mantle of mods that were removed by creating their own version of it. But it's interesting to think about because it means removing your mods only removes the mod author (you) from the equation ... not the mod itself. The mod is only temporarily lost but can just be recreated essentially ... as long as someone is willing to do so ... o.o

 

Or am I wrong about this and am missing something?

Oh, it seems like your fatigue has worn off again. So we can continue to go around in circles :laugh:

[MarchinBunny]

 

I kind of just blew my own mind by realizing how flimsy mod ownership actually is. Your ownership of a mod is basically only as good as the contents within it. In other words, take my mod for example, Acting Pays for The Sims 4. There isn't anything in it that I can claim ownership of outside of the very specific changes I made to the tuning files for the game. So anyone could recreate the mod and as long as it's not a 1 to 1 copy, I couldn't actually do anything about that (cause it's not like I can own the idea of the mod). Even if a company like BGS explicitly states you have ownership of your mod, if there isn't anything content wise that is original, any mod can be recreated legally ... which makes "ownership" of it kinda crap. The only parts that would be safe is like art assets, stories, etc. But even then that depends too. Like if you modeled a sword that is based off of a real life sword or from something else you don't own, as long as the new mod author remodels it themselves, it's fine.

 

I just started to think about this because I am under the assumption there will be some mod authors who stay here who likely will take up the mantle of mods that were removed by creating their own version of it. But it's interesting to think about because it means removing your mods only removes the mod author (you) from the equation ... not the mod itself. The mod is only temporarily lost but can just be recreated essentially ... as long as someone is willing to do so ... o.o

 

Or am I wrong about this and am missing something?

Oh, it seems like your fatigue has worn off again. So we can continue to go around in circles :laugh:

 

Naa, I am heading to sleep. It was just a thought I had while heading off to bed.

[WileCoyote68]

Naa, I am heading to sleep. It was just a thought I had while heading off to bed.

I don't want to rob you of your illusions, but I really don't care for your thoughts and comments. They offer nothing in terms of content that could appeal to me in any way

[Gruffydd]

I kind of just blew my own mind by realizing how flimsy mod ownership actually is.

...

Or am I wrong about this and am missing something?

That's like saying the Tolkien estate doesn't own The Lord of the Rings because Terry Brooks wrote a blatant ripoff of it.

As long as you do it yourself, you can cover all the same concepts without issue. If that includes setting changes you can make the same ones. If it involves writing code, you'd need to do it yourself from scratch, or using code that's been released for reuse.

As you said (and as US copyright law also says) you can't copyright a concept.

But mod ownership isn't about owning the concept (a few authors have tried to make it so, but it's not true), it's about owning the work. If someone else wants to put in the work to make a mod that does what someone else's mod already does, that's their choice, and there's nothing wrong with it. But if they take even one of the original mod's assets to do it, they're in violation.

As an example, my mod adds signs and posters to the Fallout 4 settlement menus. It uses modified or custom meshes, and public domain, licensed, or custom art. Another mod can also add signs or posters (and a number do - great, more variety!). They can even use the same public domain or licensed art (minus any modifications I've made). But they can't swipe my meshes or custom art, they need to make their own.

[Guest deleted34304850]

apropos of nothing, i checked my download history for fallout 4 and according to that, 143 mods that i have downloaded from nexusmods over the years are no longer available. that's only what i've downloaded - heaven knows what the actual number is.

i'm not looking forward to my other bethesda game reports.

:(

[Zanderat]

How do you tell if a mod is no longer available from download history? Looking at mine, I don't see an "available" indicator.

[HeyYou]

How do you tell if a mod is no longer available from download history? Looking at mine, I don't see an "available" indicator.

I suspect you would have to check each one individually.... Which for some, can be quite a long list. :D

 

We will never know just how many authors have left over this, or how many files have been removed. Nexus staff will know, but, I highly doubt they will tell us.....

[Guest deleted34304850]

go to your download history page, it gives you a message that your download history is being generated, let that complete and you get a list of mods for your specific game. so for me, i was in fallout4 when I did this.

 

Once you have your history, there's a search box just above, in that search box put the word "DELETED" and it will filter all the mods in your download history that now have a status of "DELETED".

On my screen, when I did this, 143 mods that I had downloaded at least once, are now marked as deleted.

Edited August 5, 2021 by 1ae0bfb8

[Zanderat]

Awesome. Thank you.

 

edit: my results were not nearly as catastrophic. Out of a total of 2,649 mods that I have downloaded (across all games I have modded), 163 have been deleted. And to be fair most were deleted/removed before the controversy, in normal course of modding. But maybe that proves the point that mod authors should have the right to remove their mods if they so choose?