Rules of Forum use?

[Deleted1120339User]

kirinann, we cannot say that fan art is always acceptable. There are companies out there that literally hate people creating fan art based on their intellectual property (IP). I will point my finger squarely at the BBC. ;) Fan art is typically ignored by the IP owners but if you want a positive YES or NO, simply ask them. You'll probably get a generic response written by a lawyer though.

 

ccmechanic2, I don't think you understand what a vigilante is. It is explained in this pinned thread. The difference between a responsible member reporting a problem and a vigilante is that a vigilante will directly attack another member...thus opening the possibility of a flame-fest. When members use the report feature, it is never revealed "who" made the report and thus, no backlash between members can errupt.

 

XenoGenesis, I already covered that question / scenario explicitly in post #12, paragraph 3. It is what I called a "fine line" and it should be avoided.

 

Telyn, I think the "Files of the Month" mod being referenced was already taken care of...by me. There was a rideable creature which was a port from World of Warcraft.

 

kirinann, uploading images that contain mods not available on the Nexus but would not break the rules if hosted on the Nexus would not be a problem. If you don't know why the mod was removed, then that should be a pretty clear answer to your own question. Either find out why or avoid it.

 

aeriz, if you submitted a request for an unban and you were not unbanned, that means several staff members have reviewed and denied it. As for your all or nothing claim, you are going to have to get over that as well. We cannot possibly scan and review every piece of content uploaded to these sites. Of the reports handled, very few originate from the staff happening to stumble across activity that goes against the rules. We rely heavily on member reports.

 

LHammonds

 

It's nice to know that there are members here who goes out of the way to report such a minor violation. The people who posted in mod detectives better prepare for a big cleanout.

[lonewolfkai]

@LHammonds, that explains the logical reasoning behind these decisions; and I understand since Nexus had grown and the community cannot risk any activities that may or may not be illegal (best to play safe in all cases). However, as I said, the forum rules - and your post as well - is assuming that the purpose of screenshooting ripped content is to advertise it and distribute it privately.

 

Which I disagree.

 

Now I do not intend to deny that there are many users out there who desire ripped contents without actually owning the game. However, if a person purchased the game, liked it, and thus went over the hassle of exporting / ripping and converted it for Oblivion, chances are the person liked the art style and wanted to give more of a persona for his/her character in Oblivion. It is a thin, vague line at best - yes, but there are people who are doing it for aesthetic purposes and are not willing to share it. Much alike private mods which are built from scratch, some people will not wish to share the conversion sincerely because of the time and effort they spent to differentiate their character from others (legal reasons are first and foremost, but it does play a role).

 

I admit that while theoretically an owner of two games may wish to convert data to and from and keep it strictly for personal entertainment, it would be extremely frustrating to actually verify if the person in question had purchased the games - much less confirming that the person did not distribute it to an undefined public. Nevertheless, at the same time, posting images proves in no way that the person is distributing the ripped contents with others. As long as there are no links (or instructions) provided with the image, I cannot imagine it being a problem.

On a personal note, I agree with this as well. I do not see the issue here with such pictures, so long as it does not mention anything about the mod or is talked about.

 

I would like to stress again that this needs to be put somewhere in finer writing, not necessarily a book, but a simple one line sentence. Since Lon actually put some finer points in explanation earlier, a sticky here would be great too. Is this something you guys will consider please?

 

Roquefort, the Parody plead is probably as hard to prove as a Slander lawsuit is.

Edited April 14, 2011 by lonewolf_kai

[ziitch]

Personally different cases call for different requirements. Uploading or publicly sharing any ripped content is an absolute ban. Private distribution via PM or undisclosed site can't be enforced, but it should be advised that it not be done on Nexus.

 

However, I think images of ripped content need to follow different guidelines than normal acceptable shots. Such images can be uploaded but comments and endorsements have to be disabled by the uploader or forced to be disabled through a moderator. If the image is brought up in a Detectives thread, the response should be simple - It's a private rip and will not be shared under any circumstance, no further questions asked. PMs are allowed since they are private.

 

What do think of that?

Edited April 14, 2011 by ziitch

[Dark0ne]

PMs to share illegal rips still occur on this site and won't be allowed. It's a bit like using your country's postage system to send illegal content to your friends; if they find out, you've got issues.

[chakaru11]

Okay, so posting a screenshot showing something that looks like content that was ripped from another game gets removed, because it "advertises" that content. Okay, I get it.

 

But there is one thing that irks me about this.

 

Hypothetically speaking there is no proof that this ripped content was ever even in the posters game, because quite frankly, images and screenshots can be photoshopped to hell and back. So basically from now on you can have your screenshots removed for photoshopping?

 

Just askin'.

Edited April 14, 2011 by chakaru11

[Eiries]

I think Xeno's situation should be carefully considered. If the user specifically states within the description something akin to "ripped for personal use, do not ask for these models because I will not under any circumstance distribute them," would it be more allowable? Since he's not doing anything wrong, and he's publicly stating that he won't distribute them, it does a better job of covering his bases. Anyone else that's still stupid enough to ask about it will still suffer consequences.

 

Just throwing a suggestion out there.

 

EDIT: chakaru: We both know how much I care for this situation, and even I think that's a really thin hypothetical your pointing out. If someone puts all the work it would take to properly photoshop and entire outfit or weapon into their shots to make it effectively look like ripped content, then, if it's reported, they'll obviously be treated no differently. However, when attempting to appeal their case, they could easily present the raw shots to explain that it was shopped. Still, very profound hypothetical.

 

If I was to say anything about this situation, it's that dealing with this situation on a report-by-report basis is a very rocky way of enforcing this rule. If it's too much work for someone to monitor the imageshare, then try to fill in that gap. If the moderators don't have enough knowledge about ripped materials, then try to contact someone that does. I truly believe that these reports can be way too easily exploited as a means to achieve a vendetta against someone you don't like (I don't like person A that happens to use ripped content, so I'm going to report them, but I like person B that also uses ripped content, so I won't report them.)

 

Not gonna lie, I'm not a big fan of this rule to begin with, but I understand and respect why its in place. I just feel like if you're going to enforce it, to do so in the most efficient and unbiased way possible.

Edited April 14, 2011 by Eiries

[SavageArtistry]

Rather than analyzing it, I think it's easier for one to just post their content to other sites. Personally I have enough headaches in daily life to be worrying about breaking rules here. If I don't post, there's no rules broken and no reason to worry. Edited April 14, 2011 by SavageArtistry

[lonewolfkai]

Rather than analyzing it, I think it's easier for one to just post their content to other sites. Personally I have enough headaches in daily life to be worrying about breaking rules here. If I don't post, there's no rules broken and no reason to worry.

But at the same time, other posters here might get banned for things they have no knowledge about. I.E. those that were "helping" find such mods. This is why I brought up the thread in the first place: 1. to understand the intentions of this forum, and 2. to ask for a more specific TOS about this situation. As it stands now, I don't see anything that states such material is not allowed here. I hate to say it, but bannings based on those types of violations is a bit unfair. It seems unjustified when you consider the current content of the TOS and Rules of Forum use.

 

And Savage, you can't link to those sites to show people here your screenies, so how would that work?

Edited April 14, 2011 by lonewolf_kai

[SavageArtistry]

And Savage, IF you can't link to those sites to show people here your screenies, how would that work?

People either view my content where I post it or they do not. Makes a lot less drama that way. Edited April 14, 2011 by SavageArtistry

[lonewolfkai]

And Savage, IF you can't link to those sites to show people here your screenies, how would that work?

People either view my content where I post it or they do not. Makes a lot less drama that way.

But if it contains any sort of ripped material, you can't post the link here, correct?

 

Edit: I didn't catch the edit you made to my quote. Thanks for correcting my grammar....

Edited April 14, 2011 by lonewolf_kai