IMPORTANT! A SITE IS STEALING MODS!

[Halororor]

These guys aren't going to listen to reason, that much is clear. If I were them, I'd dump the entire mod database, and open it up for mod devs to upload it themselves. It's a lot of work down the drain, yes, but that way they can spread the word around the modding communities and grow their mod database properly. The way it stands now, almost nobody was aware of your site until they found out it's uploading mods without the owners' consent. I'm definitely not going near your site, not even with a very long stick.

 

Clearly, though, that's not how you guys roll, and you're dooming your site to failure if this continues.

[JimboUK]

So it turns out that I have an old account here, from my Fallout 3 and Oblivion days. Nice.

 

I just thought I'd drop in and say hi to Mr. CEO here, who bailed on our thread on the Runic Games forums after everyone ganged up and told him to take down all the mods he stole and start over properly. Ironic that this is the EXACT SAME THING that this community came up with. I'm going to enjoy watching as the other sites you've taken mods from catch on and do the same thing.

 

Like I said before, and someone else said here, we like having proper competition, and legitimate alternatives to our sites. It gives us all reasons to improve our own sites. This kind of thing is just dirty though. As it was pointed out, some of the mods you've taken from this site even had Readme files with explicit instructions not to distribute them. Good work.

 

Still waiting for a response to my questions over on the RG Forums btw. I'd like a straight answer on what your business plan is with all this, and why you think taking content from other sites is going to help you become a successful company with groups over gamers who are fiercely protective of their work.

 

Webbste, I bailed on the Runic thread b/c no one was reading my posts. I was repeating the same thing over and over - but too many people just wanted to rant. Also, when I realized that you started the thread - it seemed less like a fair fight. You own the primary site for Torchlight mods and have made it very clear (despite what you say here) that you see us as competition. I joined the thread on Runic's forums because I was hoping to have a meaningful conversation with the mod community.

 

As for our business plan - our goal is to create an awesome site for the sharing of mods - the rest will follow. I want to be clear though - we will NOT be charging for access to mods!

 

People did read your posts but there is nothing you can say that justifies your actions, you took work that doesn't belong you and nothing you say is going to make that right. If you want to rescue something from this mess then you really need to remove stuff you don't have permission for, if you don't then you will continue to be seen as thieves and parasites.

 

Communities do not need sites like yours, they actually damage modding because they make people less likely to share in the first place. Why share something if you know you'll lose control of it unless you sign up and give details to a group of people with questionable ethics?

[zidders]

Wether you planned on charging for mod access or not, you still uploaded material that is covered by copyright. Bethesda/Runic/anyone who gives others permission to modify their work, have a copyright on the materials they created, and the materials the mod creators create is copyright them. Most developers that allow modding grant licenses to the people who want to mod their game.

 

Right there, you're in trouble. You might be allowed to download but you're in no way legally allowed to redistribute without specific permission. All this frustration with the fact that people are standing up for their rights has no justification. You broke the law-deal with it, and just be glad that the only thing you have to deal with for now is bad publicity, instead of having to spend money on a lawyer, or having your ISP shut you down due to a flood of DMCA takedown notices. ISP's tend to frown on their servers being used for anything illegal.

[Deleted1744345User]

I'm not surprised that what this guy is doing is in the name of money. Hopefully this sad excuse for a human will get slapped with so many lawsuits that he won't see the light of day again.

[antonkr]

I'm not surprised that what this guy is doing is in the name of money. Hopefully this sad excuse for a human will get slapped with so many lawsuits that he won't see the light of day again.

He said that the site doesn't have ads right now nor will membership cost anything.

[LHammonds]

...

Removing the existing mods you uploaded without explicit permission and allowing the community to upload seems like an easy solution to fix the bad publicity you are getting. I hope you are not thinking ANY publicity is good publicity.

 

If you are not going to cleanup your mistake by removing the mods you uploaded, then I will be asking you to remove my mods currently uploaded there:

 

Akatosh Shield

Day Walker Sword

Kodachi Swords

Lamps of Oblivion

Lost Paladins of the Divines

Mandalorian Armor

 

If you are going to remove the mods you uploaded, then feel free to leave the ones I mentioned above and I will gladly start to upload my other mods.

 

LHammonds

[Kreisher]

See reply below Edited July 6, 2011 by Kreisher

[Kreisher]

As for the mods we have up now: We don't expect the community to find our problem mods for us - We are going back through now and checking the mod permissions. If we find mods that ask to be contacted first - they will be removed.

 

It's ironic that you claim others haven't been listening to you when you have not been listening to us. You need to go back and remove any mods that either say you can't upload them elsewhere OR mods that don't have any specific instructions. Once again, if a mod has no instructions in their readme or file information pages about redistribution you don't magically gain the distribution rights for the file through the author's omission. You know why lots of authors haven't added distribution rights to their readme's? It's because every major site in this community has rules against the uploading of other people's work, so they don't feel it necessary to include it. Especially the older mods.

 

This is important, so I'd like you to reply on this matter with what you're going to do. Your response will largely influence whether your site becomes a "taboo" site, that cannot be linked here. I'll even go the extra mile and cook up a script that'll stop, and ban, your developers from spamming authors with private messages about your site.

 

Sort it out.

 

We are pulling down all the files on GMOD.com that are not attached to active users. Everyone here is right - and we've made a mistake and I apologize. I put together a video explaining our plans which you can find at http://gmod.com/video/Gmod%20Apology Dark0ne - if you could please highlight this post for everyone I would greatly appreciate it.

[Webbstre]

Well I'm impressed by how this turned out. I still need to see the TL mods taken down before I'm 100% satisfied, and it would be nice to see the ability to delete your own files after claiming an account, but if this goes as the video says I can't say I have any more complaints.

 

Yay for community activism.

[zidders]

I am, too. I think this all could have been easily avoided. I suspect they really had no choice but to do this, but that doesn't mean we can't all give them a second chance (well, with some folks you might. I can't claim to speak for everyone, and don't). Kreisher..modders can be your best friends, or your worst enemy. You've seen a bit of the latter..don't blow this. You've got some amazingly creative and inspiring people here. . I'd love to come back in a few months and see you working with modders in order to foster a community full of creative people inspiring other creative people.

 

No matter what, tho, i'm sure that I don't need to tell you that we'll all be watching.

Edited July 7, 2011 by zidders