Mod "Contract"

[JimboUK]

One can pick-up and work on another's mod, 70 years after their death. :tongue:

 

Extract from Wikipedia article on US copyright duration:

Works created in or after 1978 are extended copyright protection for a term defined in 17 U.S.C. § 302. ... these works are granted copyright protection for a term ending 70 years after the death of the author. If the work was a work for hire (e.g., those created by a corporation) then copyright persists for 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever is shorter.

In real, practical terms, the author of a creative work retains whatever rights in the particular work they were entitled to upon its creation. And unless they specifically waive them no third-party (e.g. the Nexus, or another modder) can decide they no longer have those rights simply because they don't respond to attempts to contact them.

Not quite. That would be based on whether or not the mod author has the right to the copyright in the first place. Because the EULA or ToS may forbid any copyrights at all, and may cover them under the lisence of the game itself, or the toolset, or both, or none, or steam. Or all three. Or none or all of it. It can also mean that there's a variety of laws that come into play because the files are served from a variety of different places across the US and UK. So that means that each state that they're served from, and EU law, and UK copyright laws too. Because the content of the material is held with the original creator of the material itself, not the person creating the mod based on their content.

 

It's not really quite so clear cut.

 

People own the rights to the textures, models, sounds and any dialogues they create.

[Mashiki]

 

People own the rights to the textures, models, sounds and any dialogues they create.

Not always. Especially in countries which are covered under things like fair dealing.

[alonsomartinez]

People own the rights to the textures, models, sounds and any dialogues they create.

Not always. Especially in countries which are covered under things like fair dealing.

 

 

I am pretty sure I own the models I make... pretty sure.

[Erenar]

Well, getting back to the original point, would it not be an idea to have a permission addition in regards to upkeep by a 3rd party after a period of inactivity? :P

[Thandal]

As several people pointed out, a modder's "rights" to their work may vary widely depending on a number of things, (including, for example, the EULA of the tools used to create the mod. BethSoft, for example, retains all rights to anything created with the GECK.)

 

Which is why I very carefully said:

... the author of a creative work retains whatever rights in the particular work they were entitled to upon its creation.

We here on the Nexus Staff are well aware of the plethora of overlapping and/or mutually exclusive claims that can be made over mods and their distribution. As J.R.R. Tolkien once famously wrote in his foreward to Ballentine Book's American paperback edition of LotR after Ace Books took advantage of a loophole in US copyright law at the time to bring out an unauthorized, (and royalty-free) version:

 

Those who approve of courtesy, (at least) to living authors will purchase it, and no other.

We'd like to hope that both players and modders extend each other a similar courtesy regarding the Commuity-developed content (with the permission and support of the original game publishers) that makes the games we play all that much more enjoyable! :thumbsup: