Nexus "Living Will"

[dpgillam]

I, mot sure if this is the right forum for this, or if it should be somewhere else; moderators, feel free to move to appropriate forum.

 

I am wondering, as the focus on Skyrim fades, and modders move to new games, if we should have a "living will", where if a mod is inactive for a year or longer, and the author is no longer contactable that the mod could be considered "limited open content", usable for mods that do not charge or ask donations.

 

Case in point, I was trying to reach the author of Birds of Skyrim, and his mail box is full; thats the only way I know to reach people on here. So I cant get permission to use the mod; a mod that hasnt been touched since 2012. It was pure lick that the author came on as another modder was talking of his patch, and gave permission.

 

A perfect example would be InsanitySorrow, who has left at the bottom of his mods that if he is unreachable for 6 months, his work is under control of (I forget the group, but the fact that he's set it up is my point)

 

What do people think? Is it reasonable to request that works left behind by people who are now unreachable become limited-open-source?

Edited May 16, 2016 by dpgillam

[Phjner]

i feel like due to most national copyright laws, this wouldn't be valid without the actual mod authors being involved. since It's still their IP, not the nexus's.

[DrakeTheDragon]

This discussion regularly comes up now and again, actually, and so far the consensus has always been "no way" in the end.

You may find it disappointing not having free reign over someone else's cool contents, because they are no longer available for you to ask, but the alternative has always been deemed far more destructive in turn.

 

In a not-so-recent discussion/voting about changes to the current permission forms, the results of which I think have been duly noted and might be taken into account during, or after, the current redesign phase, the point of a so-called "snuff clause" came up and was refined time and again, related to what you propose. That is an author can specifically enter into the forms that after a specific amount of "unreachability" certain permissions to their mods/works are automatically granted. This would, in part, achieve what you're asking for here...

 

...But what it never will do is give you permission without the author's "agreement" to it. The website, Nexus, is in no place, neither ethically nor legally nor whatever else you might come up with, to grant you any rights to an author's work without their consent. The works uploaded under current terms have to remain protected under current terms, or all protection would become worthless. All feature term changes will only ever be viable in the form of "opt in", never "opt out", or the backlash will be massive.

 

So, no, I don't think you'll ever get your hands onto the work of those authors who already left and are no longer available for contact and permissions. They uploaded their works to the Nexus in strong belief and trust they'd be protected under the current terms, and remain so indefinitely, and the website just changing the terms, loosing all trust and screwing them all over in the process is highly unlikely.

 

But that's just my personal opinion on the matter, and a reiteration of the past consensus of all those discussions and similar as far as I perceived it. Feel free to discuss it to the death all over again, as was done countless times before and always will be, let's see if you'll reach a different consensus next time. But I personally doubt you will.

[csbx]

@dpgilliam: I think the example you gave (insanity sorrow) suggests that this is already in place. Mod makers are able to add that note if that's what their desire is. I definitely wish more would do that, and perhaps more would if they thought about it. My guess is that there are a lot who just abandon the work and actually don't care what anyone does with it. But I agree with the notion of presuming we don't have permission unless explicitly given by the author.