Boulder City Restored

[dangman4ever]

Now I'm wondering if there should be an update policy on this site.

 

If someone starts work on a project, but doesn't finish it, their mod gets taken down.

 

Mainly because people will keep finding it on searches, try it out and then discover it's barely complete.

No way for several reasons:

1) Not all of us care whether or not the mod has been finished.

2) People have different definitions and standards of what constitutes as "finished." For example, you say that Boulder City mod isn't finished due to it having rubble everywhere and open buildings. I say it is finished since it keeps to the spirit of Boulder City as a city in ruins. Now imagine having this debate/discussion with every single mod available here on the Nexus.

3) Some people would rather play with the mod in its "unfinished state" than not be able to play with it at all. An example of this is the Weapons Retexture Project. It technically isn't finished since not all of the projectile guns have been retextured. It has a "What's Left" list that shows this. Another example is the NCR Rearmament mod.

4) Some of those unfinished mods have open permissions which would allow others to continue work on that mod. Or least use assets from those mods. The Vegas Girl Outfit is an example of a "unfinished" mod where people still continue to use assets from in their mods.

Edited August 12, 2013 by dangman4ever

[XTgrndr]

Well, in this particular case, we know it is unfinished.

 

Since the author stated they intended to do more, but as they didn't, well, that makes it unfinished.

 

The page claims it is a complete restoration project, but in truth, it's nothing of the sort!

 

It's just 3 shops inserted into Boulder City.

 

No actual restoring is involved.

 

 

And that is why I'm disappointed with this mod, there was meant to be more, but there isn't.

 

Like someone selling you a house and you're only getting a bed and a kitchenette.

[dangman4ever]

Doesn't mean that should be used as a reason to remove the mod. Again, look at the Weapons Retexture Project. There's a list linked on that mod page that indicates that there were other guns that were suppose to be re-textured. Or take a look at the NCR Rearmament where the mod author lost the original files for the mod in a HDD crash. Since he said he "can not continue the work without them", that would indicate that mod is unfinished to an extent. Or the Vegas Girl outfit, where the author stated "Due to time and other projects I have walked away from this project so use it as you see fit." Or the Sexual Innuendo mod where the mod author wrote "Please note that the mod is in work-in-progress state."

 

 

Using your logic that since the mod author has stated in some form or another that the mod is unfinished or that there were plans to do more with the mod, all of the mods I mentioned should be removed, correct? Do you see the problem now?

 

 

Fine, the Boulder City project is unfinished. But it's a bad idea to remove it from the Nexus for being unfinished since that will set a precedent for the removal of other mods that can be considered "unfinished" but are in a mostly playable state.

Well, in this particular case, we know it is unfinished.

 

Since the author stated they intended to do more, but as they didn't, well, that makes it unfinished.

 

[devinpatterson]

Doesn't mean that should be used as a reason to remove the mod.

Dangman has a important point, it'd be a travesty to loose that content. I know it's frustrating for you XTgrndr, but many people see it completely different and really enjoy the mod even in it's unfinished state (as you can tell by the endorsements).

[XTgrndr]

Okay, another approach then.

 

I know there's a policy that says, we can't use someone's work even if they abandon it, unless they have written in the description, feel free to use it for other mods.

 

What if a "public domain" policy was enacted?

 

To explain, under legal law, when a copyrighted work reaches a certain age, something like 100 years maybe (not sure), the copyright is declared null and void and it's said to "belong to the public" and anyone can use it.

 

So, in cases like this, the author has given up their right to restrict use of the work and it can be given to another modder to keep going.

 

To be fair, you'd still have to credit them with the work they did so far, but unless they come back and want to assist the new modder, they're no longer needed to keep the mod project updated.

[dangman4ever]

The problem is that Nexus has users from all around the world. As such, some countries may have laws against doing what you propose. Here in the U.S, we have something called "perpetual copyright" which may outright prevent the work from ever being in the public domain. Not to mention that such copyright laws are in play after the author's/creator's death. Granted some of us gamers aren't in the best of shape or health but it's not like we're dying quickly and rapidly.

 

In addition, such a public domain policy may only apply to mods created after the policy was created since the pre-policy mod creators may not have had a chance to see that new updated policy. So that still wouldn't help us in this case with the Boulder city mod. Applying the policy to pre-policy mods would be a bad idea as not every modder out there likes their mods being used in another mod. In other words, it's a form of disrespect to the modders in that we're telling him or her that they have no say in how their mods are used. Considering that this is a community and not some giant business, respect is a big deal.

 

Not to mention that there are plenty of modders who have explicitly said that (at least in the permissions portion) that no one else can use the assets in the mod. That there already counts as "maintaining a copyright" in some aspects. You also forget that many mods includes the works of other modders. Those modders may have only given permission to that specific modder use their assets and no one else. So thats more legal hoops to go through as well.

 

So all in all, not a good idea at all. The only benefit of such a policy is to allow others to use other people's mod assets. Sounds great in theory but then you'll see that the creator of those mod assets won't like that idea at all and may end up not creating mods altogether if others can use them freely and without their say-so.

 

There's a post here on the Nexus that covers the issue of Copyright quite well:

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/771842-copyright-and-you/

Edited August 13, 2013 by dangman4ever