[Question] Are TES:IV mods considered abandonware by now?

[Legotrash]

 

 

 

For Lonewolf Kai: If you hide them like that, it means that you never wanted them to be public. You wanted just selected individuals to enjoy your work. That's fine, if you ask me. But that is different by uploading it on tes nexus and pretending no one will ever touch it - you are making it public and there is a chance someone will tweak it and republish it - not on tes nexus, of course. Maybe somewhere else. Well, whatever.

After all, you've got your own idea and I doubt I can make you change it! Good modding :smile:

 

 

 

Ah, but you're forgetting that the mod may have been originally intended for public use ... until it started getting abused. And the authors I'm talking about are exactly here on the Nexus and this was the case with them. They got tired of people stealing their work and have since put their files on hidden status, only letting select individuals download them. An author can put their files on hidden status that way here at the Nexus.

 

 

Didn't Saiden Storm ask for his Akatosh Mount mod to be removed after he left the site? You can still find it with a quick Google search though.

 

I'm just curious as to the actual procedure that Bethsoft/GStaff take when a mod author claims his mod is being hosted somewhere he didn't want/being copied. I know of hundreds of server hosts who simply throw away requests from even law enforcement. Someone could take a really popular mod such as Midas Magic or OOO, upload it to somewhere like Tor under their own name and then what? What then?

 

Wow this thread is kinda off-topic now but at least we're being civil about it.

 

The procedures don't really matter if you want my opinion. What I think that really matters is,should we respect each other because we want to or because we have to? Should people really need a boogeyman over their heads to act nicely?

Mod releases will become rare eventually if communities are up to no good. Who knows,maybe it's for the best.

 

Btw,why all this fuss about simple backups,I don't get it. If you want to back them up,save em in a usb stick and you're set.

[Sergio1992]

And about the backup stuff, I agree that you should not backup it in tes nexus.

[lonewolfkai]

And about the backup stuff, I agree that you should not backup it in tes nexus.

Actually, I think it's against the rules anyways to use the site as a backup location. However, that's also not what I'm talking about either.

[lonewolfkai]

 

 

 

For Lonewolf Kai: If you hide them like that, it means that you never wanted them to be public. You wanted just selected individuals to enjoy your work. That's fine, if you ask me. But that is different by uploading it on tes nexus and pretending no one will ever touch it - you are making it public and there is a chance someone will tweak it and republish it - not on tes nexus, of course. Maybe somewhere else. Well, whatever.

After all, you've got your own idea and I doubt I can make you change it! Good modding :smile:

 

 

 

Ah, but you're forgetting that the mod may have been originally intended for public use ... until it started getting abused. And the authors I'm talking about are exactly here on the Nexus and this was the case with them. They got tired of people stealing their work and have since put their files on hidden status, only letting select individuals download them. An author can put their files on hidden status that way here at the Nexus.

 

 

Didn't Saiden Storm ask for his Akatosh Mount mod to be removed after he left the site? You can still find it with a quick Google search though.

 

Yes he did, and those found on other sites are probably done without his permission. That being said, I believe he had also given permission to some individuals to use his assets. It's also quite possible someone may have gotten permission to upload it themselves as well.

[DrakeTheDragon]

Ah, so you wanna play that game? Alright, it's noted.

 

It's really hard to find trails of what happened in the past, because BethSoft forums clean up all topics older than a certain time. Lots of valuable information got lost that way already and links to it are only pointing into nirvana now.

 

I found related topics about unauthorized uploads to Steam Workshop, which could be debated because GStaff was also made a moderator there due to the overall lack of moderators for their Skyrim section, and there's also "trails" of similar steps taken when some peeps mass-uploaded stolen mods to FilePlanet/PlanetElderScrolls, but I fail to find a definitive statement of GStaff to quote him on in this regard now, and PES has long since completely vanished from the scene for different reasons.

 

You can read there that all these incidents have been dealt with, the unauthorized uploads have been removed, and the accounts of the uploaders have been dealt with as well, their names forever tarnished in the publicity that is the community forums and websites. The thief talked about in the topics about unauthorized uploads to the Steam Workshop can no longer upload files to the Workshop, maybe won't even be able to "download" files from there, was banned from the Nexus, tried to return, was found out in an instant, and was banned again, never able to download mods from here again either. And any "reputable" website in this community does follow suit and blocks known thieves, or removes unauthorized uploads when brought to their attention immediately.

 

But it takes quite a lot of searching and reading in the context of those topics created for each individual incident in order to find the actual written proof.

 

For what it's worth here are some links to topics created when things like this happened in the past and the subsequent posts always tell that things have been dealt with to the authors' satisfaction.

 

Here on Nexus: http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/484608-unauthorized-reidstribution/

On Steam Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=79477629

Topic about GStaff's involvement in their removal from the Workshop: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1349500-mod-stealing-and-recopying/page-2?do=findComment&comment=20338763

Unauthorized uploads to FilePlanet: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1320924-fileplanet-just-taking-mods-and-ignoring-modders/page-7?do=findComment&comment=19891426

 

I don't know why people always need to debate copyright "laws", why it is so hard to grasp that theft is a "crime", and what's so "evil" about mod hosts simply abiding by the laws to prevent getting shut down by a law suit, whether that's the reason for the rules being the way they are or not, at the end of the day it's still a legal requirement after all.

 

 

They got tired of people stealing their work and have since put their files on hidden status, only letting select individuals download them. An author can put their files on hidden status that way here at the Nexus.

I wonder where that one's coming from though. If you hide a mod page, it's hidden for everybody, and while you can restrict a certain group of people from accessing your mod page, you cannot restrict access to your mod page to only a certain group of people. That's against the rules and one should rather use a file share host for private sharing like this. It's along the same line as encrypting one's mod file upload with a password. These files will be removed in no time, and in case of repeated infriction despite previous warnings disciplinary actions will be taken against the uploader's account as well. So I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. :ermm:

[mhahn123]

Not to drag out this already extended topic...but just have to throw my two cents in on the abandonware issue. I think a mod authors wishes as stated on the mod page should always be honored. It's a simple matter of courtesy and respect. If you want to edit a mod for personal use that's fine, nobody ever has to know about it and certainly can't stop you...so long as it remains on your pc for personal use. However blatantly using someone else work without permission and uploading as your own is just plain unscrupulous.

 

With that said there really are a lot of abandoned mods out there, with original authors who haven't logged on for years in some cases. I think it should be ok to work with long abandoned mods. Providing one makes every reasonable attempt at contact (pm, email if available, reaching out to a moderator in advance), gives all due credits, and clearly posts in the readme/description that the file will be removed if there is objection from the original author at a later date. We already have at least one known precedent of this with the fixed version of Verona House: Bloodlines. And I've personally used the same route when attempting to get permission for patch files. I don't see a problem with this course of action because every effort has been made and the authors wishes will be honored if they ever return.

 

Anyway that's my take on things.

[lonewolfkai]

 

They got tired of people stealing their work and have since put their files on hidden status, only letting select individuals download them. An author can put their files on hidden status that way here at the Nexus.

I wonder where that one's coming from though. If you hide a mod page, it's hidden for everybody, and while you can restrict a certain group of people from accessing your mod page, you cannot restrict access to your mod page to only a certain group of people. That's against the rules and one should rather use a file share host for private sharing like this. It's along the same line as encrypting one's mod file upload with a password. These files will be removed in no time, and in case of repeated infriction despite previous warnings disciplinary actions will be taken against the uploader's account as well. So I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. :ermm:

The people I'm refering to no longer have their mods here, but at one point in time they did and would either open it up very briefly to allow public download or give individuals editing access. There was a point on the nexus files that you could grant permission to others to edit files.

[Keimpx]

I sent GStaff a PM on the BethSoft forums yesterday. This is his stance on my situation.

 

http://i.imgur.com/3cfkT1Z.png

[DarkSpyda04]

^ Bingo! Just as mhahn said. If the author asks for permission and you cannot contact the author, you can modify the mod so long as you give credit to the author and state that you will take the file down if requested. Very reasonable I might add. It'd be stupid if you couldn't edit the mod even though you gave the author credit. I swear that sometimes if for the greater good, rules can be bent. That's the way it should be. I hate forum cops who have a rule book up their butt and get in your business every time you do something slightly against the rules, even if you mean't good things. If you're not a moderator, back it up and get out of my face! Hey look, my profile picture is from FFVII. Problem?

 

And 1+ respects to Sergio. Authors have every right to be upset if someone takes their mod and calls it their own without permission. However, if someone reuploads your mod and gives you permission and is perfectly reasonable, it's a bit assy to demand that they take it down. I know that when I was modding Resident Evil 2, I was informed that someone uploaded a few of my mods to their site but gave me full credit and I was cool with it and just glad that people liked my work. I think more people should be like this.

Edited June 21, 2014 by DarkSpyda04

[Dark0ne]

Just to clarify that GStaff's stance is not our stance, and our stance supersedes GStaff's stance in this case, being: if you do not have permission (including if the person is no longer active or is refusing to communicate with you) then you cannot upload it here. No ifs, ands or buts.