Modding and Legality

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Modding and Legality.

By Facistinabag

 

Lately, I’ve noticed that a significant amount of Nexus users either don’t understand the legality of certain modding, or have a confused or incorrect idea of what it is. I intend this article to be a small guideline for modders and mod users out there.

 

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Incorrect Concepts

3. What you can do

4. How not to get sued

5. The Nexus

 

Part One: Introduction

First, I’m no lawyer. I’m going to put this right out in the open. However, I understand what exactly is illegal, and what isn’t. I may be incorrect in a few areas, so feel free to correct me.

All right, let’s look at what modding is.

Refrence.com defines modding as:

“Modding is a slang expression that is derived from the verb "modify". The term can refer to the act of modifying a piece of hardware or software to perform a function not originally conceived or intended by the designer. The term modding is often used within the Open Source software movement and within the computer game community, particularly in regard to creating new or altered content and sharing that via the web.”

This definition is pretty much spot on. In this case, we’re talking about Bethesda’s Fallout 3, and Oblivion games.

Another major definition courtesy of Refrence.com:

“In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e.g. different CPU, operating system, or third party library). The term is also used in a general way to refer to the changing of software/hardware to make them usable in different environments.”

In modding terms, porting is taking elements from one game, and putting them into another.

 

Part Two: Incorrect Concepts

Now, as I stated earlier, a lot of nexus users have the whole concept of legality completely wrong. Here, I’m going to list the three main concepts. Mainly, these concepts relate to Porting, and what’s illegal, and what’s not.

#1

“I bought both games; therefore I’m allowed to do whatever I want with it”

#2

“See all those reskins on the site? If my mod is illegal, then they are too”

#3

“x never said that I can’t convert stuff, therefore it’s legal”

(Where x is the developer)

 

The first example is most common. Essentially, the person believes that because they purchased the games, there can do whatever they want with it. Let me explain using an example:

10,001 Days

A new tool CD comes out. After purchasing it, you decide that it’s so blatantly amazing that you say “Everyone must listen to this music, EVERYONE.” So you rip it to your hard drive, and then post it on your friendly neighborhood torrent site.

Without a doubt, you must say this is illegal. You’re giving out music that Tool made for free. Tool wrote the music, recorded it, and got it put on the shelves, but you’re putting it up for people to download for free.

Now this is exactly what’s going on in scenario #1. Let’s put this into a context relating to Fallout 3:

Spy sappin’ my VATS!

You’ve played Fallout 3 for hours now and love it to death, but your buddy Karl says “Hey come play team fortress 2 with me.” So you peel yourself out of Fallout, and get playing some Payload on Hoodoo. After a bit you say “Man, how cool would it be to have an Engineer in Fallout?” So you decide, “Hey why don’t I just convert him over to fallout can’t be THAT hard.” So after a week, you successfully get it done. The engineer is in fallout. Your next step is to release it to the Nexus. 2 hours later Buddha has unleashed the ban hammer on you. Why? I own both games!

Let’s take a look, why did you get banned? And how is this similar to the previous example? Well, you’re giving people access to something they haven’t paid for. Sure, it’s just the engineer’s skin and model, but it’s still illegal. Elements from one game can’t be legally put into another game.

Of course, you can say “Hey, don’t download this if you don’t own the game!” but sadly, this isn’t a perfect world. People are going to download it.

“What if it’s Morrowind to Oblivion, Oblivion to Fallout, or Morrowind to Fallout, there all made by Bethesda!”

Unfortunately, that is still illegal. You’re still taking stuff from one game, and making it available for free on the internet.

This leads me into my next concept:

Modifications in General

After reading above, you probably think “Hey, doesn’t that make any mod that modifies fallout illegal?” One would think this way, figuring your giving somebody something they didn’t pay for, only slightly modified.

Reskins are perfectly legal, so long as you’re just not taking say, the assault rifles texture, putting it into a zip and uploading it, that’s illegal. This ability comes with having a mod toolkit.

However, Fallout and Oblivion mods come with a small problem. Take a peek at a chunk of Oblivions EULA:

(a)All Customized Game Materials created by you are exclusively owned by LICENSOR and/or its licensors (as the case may be) and you hereby transfer, assign and convey to LICENSOR all right, title and interest in and to the Customized Game Materials and LICENSOR and its permitted licensors may use any Customized Game Materials made publicly available to you for any purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to for purposes of advertising and promoting the Software;

 

Worm82075 translated this to English for us:

In other words, if you create a new mesh or texture it belongs to you but once it is converted for their game and released publicly it then belongs to them. Not that they can keep you from using the originals in any manner you see fit but they can take the very same liberties with the content you created for their game. If you wish to maintain sole ownership of your intellectual properties then don't release them publicly to the modding community because doing so is agreeing to let Bethesda do whatever they wish with them.

So, the moment you add your new texture to Fallout/Oblivion, it becomes Bethesda’s property.

They didn’t say so!

Finally, the last incorrect belief, this is the one I see the least. The person in question is attempting to say that a developer never said that you can’t port elements over into another game. I find this one to be the weakest concept, usually because those people never actually read the EULA (End User License Agreement). The EULA is a contract between you and the developers. You have to accept it to install the game. They’re commonly found during the games install process, and you MUST accept to them to continue. The moment you press next, it is assumed that you agree with everything that is being said in the EULA. It’s exactly the same as signing a paper contract with say, the bank.

The EULA is where you can find exactly what you can and can’t do with the game. Now, let’s take a quick look at Blizzards, World of Warcraft EULA:

A: in whole or in part, copy, photocopy, reproduce, translate, reverse engineer, derive source code from, modify, disassemble, decompile, or create derivative works based on the Game; provided, however, that you may make one (1) copy of the Game Client and the Manuals for archival purposes only;

 

And:

E. modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of the Game Client in any way not expressly authorized by Blizzard;

Essentially, by installing WoW your only allowed to have a single extra copy of the client, for backup purposes, and, you’re not allowed to change or copy anything in the game.

Now, if you look closely at most EULA’s, 95% of the time you will see those lines, or something similar to it. This of course means you can’t legally port anything in that game, to Fallout. If you do, it’s illegal, and a breach of your and said developers contract. No if ands or buts.

Part Three: What you can do

Borrow an Idea:

You can if you want, make a mod from scratch that looks like the Spartan Armour for Halo. So long as you do it from scratch, it’s perfectly legal. The only time I could ever see you getting into trouble, is if a company complained about its “IP” or Intellectual Property. Essentially, this is like the Fallout Universe, or the Star Wars universe. This is more of an issue with major companies, so I wouldn’t get to worried. Essentially, you can’t say “Hey, this is the next star wars movies, I made it, and it’s real.”

Part Four: How not to get sued.

This part is just a summary of what’s above. First, if you going to create a mod that you have to say “Hey, is this illegal?” it most likely is. What you can do is check EULA’s, and various other places to make sure it’s not. But for all intents and purposes “If it’s not created by you, and isn’t in Fallout 3, its most likely illegal.”

This includes other modders work. If you’re going to create a mod, make sure you have permission, and when you release a mod, make sure you state what other modders can and cannot do with it.

 

Part 5: The Nexus

This brings me to the final part of this article. The nexus has its own set of rules. If you want to stay on the Nexus, make sure you follow them. Remember, this isn’t the USA, or Canada, or Mexico, it’s the Internet, freedom of speech doesn’t apply here, Dark0ne and his league of modders can be as Tyrannical as they want, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Make sure you follow the rules, and you can’t get banned. If you don’t like the Nexus, there’s plenty of other websites that will gladly host you mod, like Planet Fallout and Moddb.

 

That brings us to the end of this article, thanks for reading it, and I hope to see some fine (legal) mods from on the nexus!

[LHammonds]

I would argue the point about everything in a mod becoming the property of Bethesda to do with however they want.

 

The .esp plugin, concept, storyline, etc. is not a problem since it was all created through the Construction Set but they never released BSA, NIF or DDS tools. Because I create a model and texture for Oblivion does not transfer ownership or grant a usage license of that asset to them. Same goes for a music composer that creates his own music and uploads a replacer set of music. That composer is not transferring his rights to let Bethesda do whatever they wish with them.

 

Furthermore, to exercise that right, they would need proof that the content they are taking was actually created by the mod author. This would be a hard sell in court so I seriously doubt they would ever try to do something like that.

 

But, with that said, I do agree with the spirit of what is being said about the subject. If you are easily upset with the idea of somebody taking / re-using your "goods" then uploading them to free-access sites is not one of your smarter moves. ;)

 

LHammonds

[dragonpen61]

How does this relate to creative writing done on the forums?

[MaikCG]

the strictness of the conditions of the license offset by the right their non-compliance

otherwise come to a situation where car-shop referred in the license on the car what cigarette driver can smoking )))