sebazz - BANNED

[LHammonds]

sebazz banned.

 

Asset Theft

 

Reference post

 

A report was made stating that content from the JaySuS Tommygun mod was taken without permission and used in this mod.

 

I notified sebazz that his zero mod had been put in Moderator Review mode and why via PM. I also asked for upfront honesty and wanted to know from him if this was a true or false accusation before I start digging...the answer of which would weigh heavily if the mod did contain stolen/uncredited assets.

 

sebazz replied assuring me that the assets were in an earlier version but he worked with buddah and replaced them with his own version that he and his buddies made.

 

He sounded very convincing, except that I already knew the results of my investigation at this point.

 

sebazz went on to clarify that he and feiooos created the textures and "team mates at school" did the model work in 3ds Max and Blender.

 

Again, sebazz stuck with his story and stated it was no big deal removing verticies and edges.

 

When confronted with my research findings (see below), his tune changed. It became obvious that he believes that if you take work done by someone else and modify it, the copyright somehow vanishes...as if derivitives don't apply and thus permission and credits no longer required. ha!

 

I then noticed in his description a key sentence that re-enforces this misconception: "The assets used in this mod were provided from their respective owners, and all content that we didn't managed to get permission to use, were tweaked, made from scratch and improved to avoid copyright issues." This tells me that everything he did not get permission to use, he used anyway and modified/tweaked it and thought that was enough to justify the stripping of copyright. Ha!

 

Since I do not think this author (and friends) will learn from their mistakes (confirmed liars), I have made the decision to ban sebazz and remove the mod (which likely contains other stolen/uncredited assets)

 

LHammonds (File Admin)

 

--------- COPY OF MY INVESTIGATION REPORT ----------

 

I made comparisons between the original LaserPDW that shipped with New Vegas and Jaysus' Tommygun and sebazz's Tommygun.

 

Nexus Upload Info:

- Jaysus uploaded his initial version on 10/30/2010 and the latest on 11/17/2010 (date on NIF is 10/30/2010)

- NOTE: Jaysus' permissions have not changed since initial upload on 10/30/2010 and state that you MUST have his permission to use his assets.

- NOTE: Jaysus' name is not mentioned anywhere on sebazz's page in the credits section as of 12/1/2010.

- sebazz uploaded his initial version on 11/13/2010 and version 3 that has this model on 11/29/2010 (date on NIF is 11/15/2010)

- VERDICT: Jaysus clearly has the oldest version on record.

 

Wireframe (Original, Jaysus, sebazz) (ordered by most damning evidence 1st):

- Jaysus used a different collision model than the original (sebazz = Identical)

- Jaysus shortened the end of the barrel (sebazz = Identical)

- Jaysus removed all wiring some some extra model bits (sebazz = Identical)

- VERDICT: Wireframe comparison shows Jaysus and sebazz have the identical model.

 

NIF File Information (ordered by most damning evidence 1st):

- Original model vert count is 4,222, Jaysus = 2,894, sebazz = 2,894

- Original model tri count is 7,434, Jaysus = 4,907, sebazz = 4,907

- NifSkope ordering of nodes is identical in Jaysus and sebazz but not the original.

- Original NIF filesize is 261kb, Jaysus = 190kb, sebazz = 190kb

- VERDICT: NIF inspection shows that Jaysus and sebazz have identical files (only the texture path is different)

 

Texture Comparison: (Original Texture, Jaysus, sebazz)

- Original image dimensions are 256x256 (DXT5), Jaysus = 1024x1024 (DXT1), sebazz = 1024x1024 (DXT3)

- Original image filesize = 86kb, Jaysus = 681kb, sebazz = 1,366kb

- It is plainly obvious that there are many minute texture differences between the original and Jaysus' version.

- It is plainly obvious that the same texture differences exist in sebazz's texture that exist in Jaysus' version but not the original.

- NOTE: The original used DXT5 because of the laser alpha FX. With the laser FX removed, it was no longer necessary to use the alpha channel, which is why Jaysus correctly used DXT1 compression. sebazz incorrectly used DXT3 compression which still uses the alpha channel and thus needlessly doubles the size of the end-result file.

- VERDICT: Even though the texture is modified, it is clear that sebazz used Jaysus' texture as a basis for his texture...not the original that shipped with the game.

 

- FINAL VERDICT: sebazz is using the model and texture from Jaysus' mod in his Zer0 mod version 3