Getting Permissions from Authors for Assets / Combo Packs

[Derok]

I fear the only option is to wait, and I'm sure Grimoa will show up again. After all, she probably just taking a pause from modding and stuff.

 

EDIT: Also she could be still here. I asked a guy for permission for a retexture and he answered me, even if last visit was months before.

Last visit date is not always updated.

Edited October 29, 2013 by Derok

[Shadeybladey]

The interpretation shady cites above is an intentional misreading of the TOS of the CK used to rationalize stealing mods

 

What on Earth do you mean by that? I have never rationalised or advocated anyone stealing mods.

 

We have a licence to use the CK, and anything we make with it belongs to Bethesda. It does not belong to us and we have no licence we can grant to anyone else to use it as it already belongs to Bethesda.

 

When we upload it, people can download it and use it as intended, IE as a mod for their games.

 

The forum rules make it a bannable offence to use other modder's work and pass it off as your own without the author's permission, or to re-upload things from the Nexus to the Workshop, like that foolish girl who even edited comments by the real author and left the line showing that it was edited by herself.

 

But you will not get arrested for uploading a stolen mod as you would for fencing a stolen car or selling pirated copies of Microsoft Office as there is no crime involved. And, as a civil offence, I doubt you would ever get sued by a mod author for stealing their work and ideas either.

 

But you WILL get banned from the Nexus.

 

~.~

[Pevey]

You won't get arrested for any copyright offense. It is a civil matter, not a criminal one.

 

The rest I won't respond to except to say that you are misinformed and simply parroting an argument that is wrong and--I stand by my comment above--was only ever created to rationalize stealing mods.

 

If anyone has any question about where Beth and Valve stand in this issue, note that they routinely take down mods (including mods that are only CK-based, no new textures or anything else) from the Steam Workshop when a mod author asks them to citing violation of copyright. It is not just a Nexus policy decision. The Nexus policy is there to avoid liability.

 

I do this stuff for a living. I know what I'm talking about.

[Didact2401]

I fear the only option is to wait, and I'm sure Grimoa will show up again. After all, she probably just taking a pause from modding and stuff.

 

EDIT: Also she could be still here. I asked a guy for permission for a retexture and he answered me, even if last visit was months before.

Last visit date is not always updated.

Can anyone here actually send PMs to Grimoa?

[Derok]

Still not understand what's your problem, but I can try. She helped me alot when I was a newbie.

[Shadeybladey]

You won't get arrested for any copyright offense. It is a civil matter, not a criminal one.

 

 

That is what I said.

 

The Nexus is protecting itself against liability for copyright infringement action by record companies and software companies, not someone who makes a mod and has it stolen and re-uploaded.

 

Stealing a publically released mod and re-uploading it is against the site rules, it's not against the law. Making a mod for public use that contains copyrighted material without permission, such as textures and meshes from other games or music belonging to an artist is unlawful. Pinching your mod is not. Unless you have taken the legal steps to copyright it, which you have not, and which you cannot do as the licence belongs to Bethesda and the original music in it belongs to someone else.

 

You cannot copyright lines of Papyrus code that you have put in a certain order or CK forms to which you have attached scripts and they never belong to you. You cannot have any copyright on a mod you make except for things like original music (although you'd be an idiot to put that in a mod unless it is already, separately copyrighted) or totally unique meshes and textures made form scratch without using the CK at all.

 

Facts are facts, and they cannot be used to justify stealing mods, however much your paranoia wants to make it so. You even accused someone who could not get your mod to work of pirating Skyrim, so I'd take a pill and get some sleep before you get into this further.

 

Whichever way you look at it, stealing mods, using copyrighted material or using other modder's resources without permission are against the site rules and will get you banned, which means you can never download another mod from here ever again. But something is not "copyrighted" to a mod author just because they did it first. Look at all the smithing overhauls, for a start.

 

This reminds me of when they banned smoking in the workplace by law in Britain. Our site put a sign up saying "Smoking is illegal on this site". I pointed out that it is NOT illegal to smoke on this site, such as in the car park, it is illegal to smoke within the building in someone else's work space. Smoking in the car park is banned by a company rule, not by Law. In any event, all this time we had a little bus shelter out the back as a designated smoking area anyway, so it clearly was NOT against the law to smoke on site. After much faffing about, they changed the signs to "It is illegal to smoke in this building".

 

By the way, "Happy Birthday to You" is copyrighted, lyrics and melody. So anyone singing it in a public place is breaching copyright legislation. Who gives a toss? Nobody.

 

~.~

[Pevey]

You are incorrect. Beth does not own your work in the CK. They just have a non-exclusive right to do whatever they want with it. That doesn't have anything to do with the rights anyone else has to your work.

 

The purpose of that provision is the same reason studios have stated policies of not accepting unsolicited scripts and companies do not accept unsolicited product ideas. There is nothing completely new and original under the sun, and on the likely chance a new movie or product is a little bit similar to something submitted, they don't want the hassle. Beth is just protecting themselves with that provision. So many mods are made, and without that provision, a number of authors would swear up and down Beth just copied them. That already happened when Beth came out with Hearthfire after the Tytanis mod already included farming. Did Beth copy the idea or come up with it in their own? Probably the latter, but either way they are legally protected from being sued because the author of the Tytanis mod gave Beth a license to use, modify, distribute, etc. just by using the CK. But the action of using the CK to create the mod DID NOT grant anyone else that right, just Bethesda. Everyone else only gets whatever permissions the mod author states. No more. And yes, the mod author does have a legal right to their mods. Copyright is not like a patent. No special action need be taken. It automatically vests with the creator, but can be transferred or forfeited.

 

You are obviously misinformed about copyright and don't seem to be the sort to change your mind. Still, I feel the need to post this for the benefit of any others who might stumble upon your comments.

 

Copyright is not about anything being "against the law." It is about who gets rights to a creator's works, and specifically which rights. Using an author's material without being granted a license/permission is not against the law. But he or she (or it, which is pretty common these days) could sue you for civil damages. That is very different from saying it is "against the law."

 

Postscript: Not responding the a DMCA takedown notice is against the law. But that's a while separate issue and pertains more to service providers.

[Matth85]

Eh, you know what, I'll let LP1 say it. He knows better.

Good night!

Edited October 29, 2013 by Matth85

[Derok]

She blocked pms, so nobody can contact her. The only option is to wait imo. Probably she will be back.

[TheObstinateNoviceSmith]

Based on the bottom line, there's nothing to debate really, due to the fact that we're going a bit off topic and the fact that all that matters in this circumstance is this website's rules, that you cannot use that work or anything from it if you can't get in touch with the mod author.

 

If for whatever reason, you think the situation may be an exception to that, contact Admin and ask (they only bite on Mondays, Tuesdays, and the occasional Saturday). Other than that, you're out of luck.

 

So if you can not get the permission you seek, you'll have to do without but I do pose another question that I think is in line with the original topic, could you just do something by hand yourself if you couldn't contact the mod author or is the idea protected too?

 

Say someone made a Dwemer light switch. You see this and want to make a custom house and would like to add Dwemer light switches so you go to contact the original mod author but she (or he) has become a monk and has been living in a temple and have not been on Nexus for 115 years or so.

 

Could you just make your own Dwemer light switches by hand (without any of their assets) and use those in your custom house?

 

Would it matter if the method/models you used were exactly like theirs? Slightly different? Vastly different?