What's going on?

[frank lee]

With the sellers address as the simplest form of guarantee it would be a lot easier than a big company. I've had boxes of cockroaches (sold for pet reptile food) delivered through companies letterboxes on a Friday night, lots of time to chew your way out boys! And caused one outfit in another part of the world to have it's windows panned in.

 

In less fraught times I had a present given to someone who was leaving on an airplane trip, a wrapped book, with a sheet metal silhouette of a handgun in its pages. . . . He'd have been shot in the current climate!

 

There are many ways to reach out and touch someone.

[bben46]

From the rules: :thumbsup:

Do not upload files that require users to pay any sort of financial sum for parts or all of your file. You cannot charge money for the files you upload to Nexus sites.

 

And cannot have any restriction on downolading.

Do not upload files that are password protected or contain password protected sections.

 

I interpret this to mean NO link to a mirror that breaks these rules also.:down:

Bben46, Moderator

[Dark0ne]

Our site policy will always be that all mods are free, and free of "donate for work" mods that require users donate money in order for additional features to be unlocked or even worked on. If you see anyone soliciting donations please report the file for a moderator to handle.

 

Asking for donations may not be against the law, it might not be against Bethesda's EULA, but we still don't want it here and arguing the law as a reason for us to allow it won't work. This is my policy. You want to upload here? You upload it for free, and you don't beg for donations. If you want to make money off your mods make your own site; I want nothing to do with it.

[ghostfc3s]

This is why developers pay for licensing fees for the software. A production license for 3ds max cost more then most houses, this is why your game cost 59.99 now and not 22.50. The GECK is freeware none production development tool. If you were to gut NV and make your own game using the geck and the NV engine then sell it, you would see the business end of a civil subpoena.

If you look at license agreements anything you make in GECK you do not own, so the .esm file belongs to "Them" the resources you use, textures meshes animations are yours assuming you have legit production licenses or made on freeware software. Even with freeware it is difficult Blender and Gimp have clauses where what ever make with them can not be used for commercial use only personal, educational or free. Places like deviant art skirt around this all the time. I make a image of my favorite Ninja with GIMP and then deviant art sells posters of this image. This is technicaly illegal as I used a personal use license to make profit even though its through a third party. Look at it like tipping. You go to dinner you order meat and potatoes, you bill comes and pay for your meat and potatoes, nothing says you have to tip for the service, its just nice when you do. Modding can be seen as the service, and its optional to tip.

Ultimately it comes down to the service that hosts your file, if your not doing it yourself. It is up to them if they will allow you to ask for "Change for in game Changes"

Edited November 23, 2010 by ghostfc3s

[Rhapshady]

Asking for donations in a mod..I find that completely stupid. But, The thing it Donations are OPTIONAL. You can choose to donate to the mod (Like giving endorsements.) But you also have to ask where does the donations go? I mean, If you invest donations for yourself then you could get into Legal trouble (In some cases)

If you donate and take those donations for another company or something related to mod making then thats completely fine. You can't just make a mod and go "DONATE IN ORDER TO GET THE MOD." No. Donate and Buying are two different words. Donate to me is like sugar-coating the word Buy. In conclusion, All I'm saying is that you better have a damn good reason to put up a donation for a mod or your just breaking laws (In some cases.) Putting Donations on a mod bluntly says breaking laws.

Edited November 23, 2010 by Rhapshady

[ripple]

The thing it Donations are OPTIONAL. You can choose to donate to the mod (Like giving endorsements.) But you also have to ask where does the donations go? I mean, If you invest donations for yourself then you could get into Legal trouble (In some cases)

If you donate and take those donations for another company or something related to mod making then thats completely fine. You can't just make a mod and go "DONATE IN ORDER TO GET THE MOD." No. Donate and Buying are two different words. Donate to me is like sugar-coating the word Buy. In conclusion, All I'm saying is that you better have a damn good reason to put up a donation for a mod or your just breaking laws (In some cases.) Putting Donations on a mod bluntly says breaking laws.

 

You've contradicted yourself several times in your reply. On the one hand you say that donations are "optional" and on the other hand you say that donation is a sugarcoated word for "buy." It can't be both, and you were right in the first instance but wrong in the second one. Bethesda doesn't say "please donate if you enjoy FNV!" You can only legitimately own a copy of FNV if you bought it. I only saw one FNV modder requesting donations and he never said you can only get a copy of his mod if you donated money (it would not be "donations" then).

 

There are ways around this issue of violating EULA when asking for donations. For example, with some early modders for the Sims games, they secured their own hosting services, so the formal justification for requesting donations--or in some cases, membership fees--had nothing to do with selling modded EA assets (at least according to them), but was intended to pay for the server space and bandwidth (incidentally, this is also one of the justification used by Bethesda when they charged money for the first Oblivion DLC, which some players argued should have been frree).

 

It's not hard to understand why Dark0ne does not want modders who host their mods on the Nexus to make requests for donations. There is too much headaches associated with opening this floodgate. And if a mod is hosted on the Nexus, the modder can't very well use the justification I mentioned since the Nexus is supplying the server space and bandwidth.

 

What iiritates me about this entire conversation, is that no one seems to be able to think of compensations other than ''money', it;s like all of our imaginations are colonized by the crass consumerist cultures we grew up and live in. What modders who request donations want is support from the company that produced the game they mod, and perhaps some recognition. I don't think there is anything wrong with that sentiment, especially given how little support Bethesda and Obsidian has given to the PC modding communities in the past (releasing a stripped down version of one of the tools used to develop the game is a 'sales pitch', not 'support').

Edited November 24, 2010 by ripple

[RunningBare]

especially given how little support Bethesda and Obsidian has given to the PC modding communities in the past (releasing a stripped down version of one of the tools used to develop the game is a 'sales pitch', not 'support').

I agree, but I would rather have their sales pitch than no modding tool at all, amongst all the other sales pitches out there, it's one I can stomach.

[BooneoftheWasteland]

Interesting. The last time I was on the forums I had just finished reading several posts by modder badpenny on this subject of money for mods. Back in the day I had paid for a couple of Sims mods and I didn't regret it.

[BooneoftheWasteland]

^ I should add though that it was on their own sites and not part of the general more popular forums like the nexus here.

[secksegai]

Donations don't offend me, since people put in their own personal time and effort, whether it be a freeware program or mod. But it takes one hell of a "mod" for me to consider real payment. One mod that comes to mind is a little game called Counterstrike based of Half-Life, but even that was supported free and effectively "free" with Half-Life or Half-Life 2.

 

From a legal standpoint, I can completely understand why modding sites tend to be wary of donations. The income is rarely worth the headaches that often follow. Also, one has to keep in mind, donate means one can still use a product without monetary payment. If one must pay to have access to said product (other than paying for bandwidth (read ISP), electricity etc) than its no longer a donation.