Steam mod with planetside 2 helmets DMCA and taken down

[ndelta6xxx]

So yeah, this is bs

Assuming the mod did not use official code or content from planetside 2, this is a baseless claim on what is clearly fair use

I mean we have a titanfall armor mod

We have armor from the predator series in the form of a mod

I mean, why now?

And why so quick too, this was uploaded and removed in the span of like 3 days

 

And with this i have questions

1. How would nexus respond to this is the same situation with the same mod occured

2. Has anything like this ever happened on nexus and what became of it

3. What are the thoughts of modders that make similar content like the titanfall mods opinions on this issue. Do they feel safe?

 

The website might have different rules, but this is clearly protected by the fan fiction side of fair use and as such this is ridiculous

[repusDude]

For #1, No clue but In nexus forum, under warning and banned topics, I read some members got either banned/ received formal warnings for uploading mods containing data/contents without permission from the creators. I'm sure a moderator will take action and remove such mods when found.

[Dragon32]

Suggest you read up on copyright, fair use and Planetside 2's EULA. Generally copyright law means you can't copyright an idea but you can copyright the expression of that idea. Depends on the country of course,

 

As to the Nexus, check the terms of use you signed up to when you registered.

 

IANAL, if I was I couldn't write this as it'd constitute legal advice.

 

Personally, I'm surprised there are quite so many XCOM 2 mods using content from other games available on the Workshop.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Dragon32

[ndelta6xxx]

Suggest you read up on copyright, fair use and Planetside 2's EULA. Generally copyright law means you can't copyright an idea but you can copyright the expression of that idea. Depends on the country of course,

 

As to the Nexus, check the terms of use you signed up to when you registered.

 

IANAL, if I was I couldn't write this as it'd constitute legal advice.

 

Personally, I'm surprised there are quite so many XCOM 2 mods using content from other games available on the Workshop.

I know much about copyright boundries on things like youtube, but this is a different case and as such no one really knows how to treat it.

Of course like youtube, if there are so many cases of this that start propping up then there will be outcry and we will settle for some sort of system like youtube

As it stands this is, by definition, fair use. Although to what extent code from planetside 2 was used, i have no idea which honestly would be the decider as opposed to if it was created by scratch

The reason people get so pissed off when these things happen is because they in no way hurt the company that files the claim in the first place and instead its either a nejerk reaction in the sense of 'STAWP USING OUR CONTENT YOU THIEVES" or just a dick move by the company to further pass on there media without there go ahead, which they dont need if its fair use

The biggest thing this situation has going for it is that no money was charged. Why would they care if no money was involved? Did they think money was involved? Who knows because like i said this thing was over in the span of 3 days and im trying to get in contact with the modder to say his piece and he hasnt gotten back to me

[Mythrell]

AFAIK most of these mods take models and textures directly from the game, ie. in this case probably from Planetside 2.

 

What comes to fair use, I don't think this kind of use is even closely covered by it. You can take a picture of the helmet and put it in your forum post is fair use, but you can't rip the texture and model and upload it as a mod to another game. Stealing assets and putting them into other game is a big no no.

 

I'm also a bit surprised on the amount of this type of mods and that they have not been removed from the steam earlier.

 

That being said, I do agree that it's just free advertisement for the original IP, but I guess we just now have to pester Planetside 2 guys to make an ad campaign where they put their helmets into XCOM 2 as a mod... well, I suppose that would be made impossible by some EULA somewhere,but one can dream.. :)

 

Yeah, legal stuff sucks but such is life.

[jgbaxter]

None of this is fair use.

 

Companies act this way because they need to defend their copyrights.

 

They don't bother hand holding because it's a waste of effort, much simpler for them just to file a complaint.

 

 

Not that I'm a fan of how they deal with copyright infringement, it is their right, and in most cases their obligation.

Edited June 3, 2016 by jgbaxter

[bunnytrain]

Mods that take content from one game and inject it into another game occupy a gray area of US copyright law. It's not necessarily fair use. It's certainly within any content creator's rights (in this case the Planetside publisher/studio) to issue a DMCA takedown for this kind of thing.

 

I think your expectations might be a bit skewed. Just because nobody has filed a DMCA takedown on the Halo or Titanfall content mods doesn't mean that they're legally fine. It only means that nobody has decided to make an issue of it. US law, especially copyright law, mostly only kicks in when somebody has a problem with what you're doing. What you're seeing is that somebody out there has decided that they're not okay with the content crossover that (might) be using assets ripped from their game specifically.

 

So...

1. It's not clearly fair use.

2. The assumption that it didn't rip assets from Planetside might not be correct.

3. DMCA specifically requires a quick takedown, and as the website hosting the content, Nexus is legally obligated to follow a specific script that includes taking down the content quickly. The mod author has the right to contest the takedown.

 

It's not great for people who were using the mod, but as far as US copyright law goes, this is all by the book, and the mod/author are not clearly in the right on this one.