Raiqem Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 I'm interested in trying my hand and create content for Skyrim but from what I've read thus far, as long as you use their SCK tool to make your mod you basically give all your intellectual property rights to them be it that they might later sell the assets you made/modify/use it for their own needs etc. I can understand that you have to make some "compromises" in order to use SCK, but they just blatantly claim all your work as their own. I know a lot of people don't care about this or don't know and at this point it's too late to do anything in that regard since corporate greed is a standard nowadays in the gaming industry and they make their own rules since they have the money for it, but what of mods made without using SCK ? anyone know if you still keep all rights to that ? I'm not interested in making money off of it, but I at least want the peace of mind that my work will remain my own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankFamily Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 (edited) As far as i know that happens with most (if not all) modding tools such as Crysis, GECK; etc. The EULA is: "If You distribute or otherwise make available New Materials [Mods], You automatically grant to Bethesda Softworks the irrevocable, perpetual, royalty free, sublicensable right and license under all applicable copyrights and intellectual property rights laws to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, perform, display, distribute and otherwise exploit and/or dispose of the New Materials (or any part of the New Materials) in any way Bethesda Softworks, or its respective designee(s), sees fit." But it doesn't say if that ownership only covers the .esp itself or also assets associated and released with it. Edited July 17, 2015 by FrankFamily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galandil Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 :confused: Eh what? As far as content goes created by Skyrim's Creation Kit your not allowed to charge money for your work. This is something they tried to change back in April or was it May, which was very unpopular and hence pulled back. The mod that you create belongs to you, the content you create be that a new armor or whatever is yours. But your not allowed to add it to Skyrim and then charge money for your ESP file, if that makes any sense. Essentially as long as it is in Skyrim, you cannot charge money for it. You can create anything you like, be it a Basket in the Drunken Huntsman or a wide scope project like Rochebere. Further more I wouldn't worry too much about Bethesda stealing your idea's or the content you provide in your mod. You really think modders here even scratch the surface of what they are capable of creating? Aside from encouraging angry Keyboard warriors on their website, it wouldn't be in their interest to steal from content creators when franchises like The Elder Scrolls survives largely on the modding community. I get it though, you don't like corporations, but please take off the tin foil hat and start modding. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankFamily Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 If you think about it, it makes sense that they have the intelectual property since when you make a mod with the ck you are using their tool for making content for their game using their assets and all the functionallity they've made so you claiming the rights of a mod made with it would actually be stealing a part of their game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raiqem Posted July 17, 2015 Author Share Posted July 17, 2015 (edited) :confused: Eh what? As far as content goes created by Skyrim's Creation Kit your not allowed to charge money for your work. This is something they tried to change back in April or was it May, which was very unpopular and hence pulled back. The mod that you create belongs to you, the content you create be that a new armor or whatever is yours. But your not allowed to add it to Skyrim and then charge money for your ESP file, if that makes any sense. Essentially as long as it is in Skyrim, you cannot charge money for it. You can create anything you like, be it a Basket in the Drunken Huntsman or a wide scope project like Rochebere. Further more I wouldn't worry too much about Bethesda stealing your idea's or the content you provide in your mod. You really think modders here even scratch the surface of what they are capable of creating? Aside from encouraging angry Keyboard warriors on their website, it wouldn't be in their interest to steal from content creators when franchises like The Elder Scrolls survives largely on the modding community. I get it though, you don't like corporations, but please take off the tin foil hat and start modding. :smile: Who said anything about making money off of SCK ? that was more as a side note to donations if ppl even do that nowadays. Even if I were to ever sell my own work for things outside of Skyrim, as stated by SCK you can't do that even if it's used outside of their game, so that much is clear. I'm interested in the second part of my question, and that's if you keep all rights if you otherwise don't use SCK and can otherwise use your work for whatever you please be it in Skyrim or not. Edited July 17, 2015 by Raiqem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galandil Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 (edited) :confused: Eh what? As far as content goes created by Skyrim's Creation Kit your not allowed to charge money for your work. This is something they tried to change back in April or was it May, which was very unpopular and hence pulled back. The mod that you create belongs to you, the content you create be that a new armor or whatever is yours. But your not allowed to add it to Skyrim and then charge money for your ESP file, if that makes any sense. Essentially as long as it is in Skyrim, you cannot charge money for it. You can create anything you like, be it a Basket in the Drunken Huntsman or a wide scope project like Rochebere. Further more I wouldn't worry too much about Bethesda stealing your idea's or the content you provide in your mod. You really think modders here even scratch the surface of what they are capable of creating? Aside from encouraging angry Keyboard warriors on their website, it wouldn't be in their interest to steal from content creators when franchises like The Elder Scrolls survives largely on the modding community. I get it though, you don't like corporations, but please take off the tin foil hat and start modding. :smile: Who said anything about making money off of SCK ? that was more as a side note to donations if ppl even do that nowadays. Even if I were to ever sell my own work for things outside of Skyrim, as stated by SCK you can't do that even if it's used outside of their game, so that much is clear. I'm interested in the second part of my question, and that's if you keep all rights if you otherwise don't use SCK and can otherwise use it for whatever you please. Pardon me, perhaps I misunderstood you but it seemed like you were hesitant with starting modding because you disliked the notion that Bethesda would own your work and would be able to use and modify your work for their own purposes. Essentially its like this. If you modell an armor from scratch, you don't use any of Bethesda's shapes or textures in your work and you upload it to Skyrim. Bethesda isn't going to send lawyers at your door if you decide to say... upload it to Dragon Age, or Witcher. Or if you start your own gaming company and wish to use your own handcrafted work. The legal cases surrounding modding has to do with as I said, people wanting to charge money for the work they've made. Since people would be using tools created by Bethesda for a Bethesda game, it stands to reason that Bethesda would want a piece of the income, and without rules and regulations it is better not to allow people to charge money for what is being used in a Bethesda game. So like I said, don't worry about it. Create stuff and have fun. Edit; And no. If your going to mod, use the Creation Kit. I believe a few select people managed to mod without the Creation kit before it was released but... It does not matter. If you create something for Skyrim and upload it to Skyrim Nexus or anywhere else, the same rule applies, but in the end it counts for nothing as long as you don't try to charge money for your work on a Bethesda Game. Edited July 17, 2015 by Galandil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBizkit Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 If you create a 3d model and convert it to nif, then it is yours and bethesda has no claim to it, regardless of whether it is included in a mod or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raiqem Posted July 17, 2015 Author Share Posted July 17, 2015 Pardon me, perhaps I misunderstood you but it seemed like you were hesitant with starting modding because you disliked the notion that Bethesda would own your work and would be able to use and modify your work for their own purposes. You didn't misunderstand anything, that's exactly why I'm hesitant about it IF I were to use SCK for a mod. As I mentioned, I am fine with certain rules on it since you are using the tool they made, but as soon as you release your work you basically give all your rights and ownership of your work to Bethesda which in my personal opinion is ridiculous. Read the paragraph Frank quoted above to understand what exactly it implies working in SCK. If you create a 3d model and convert it to nif, then it is yours and bethesda has no claim to it, regardless of whether it is included in a mod or not. This is what I wanted to know. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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