A Suggestion to Prevent Mod Theft

[RS13]

Seems to me there's an easy fix: just add a random naked person to qasmoke. It's obviously not a perfect fix--it would overload the adult files section--but I imagine Bethesda would rush to take down any adult files that found their way to Beth.net.

 

Even if the thief removed the qasmoke nudist, Beth would still probably take it down just to be sure. (They would almost certainly not want to check the mod themselves; especially if this became a fairly common practice.)

Edited June 6, 2016 by RS13

[TimeLadyKatie]

I don't think you even need to go that far. Cartographers used to do something like this all the time, to the point that the terms "trap street" and "paper town" are reasonably commonly understood. Bury something in your code to prove it's yours, anyone copying that code copies your 'signature' and the fraud is easily exposed. The problem becomes getting people to care. I would presume Bethesda and Nexus would both want to protect the intellectual property of modders simply to avoid the fiasco that sprung up around Steam paid mods and the vitriol that still simmers between Valve and the modding community writ large.

 

I've noticed, though, that certain folk have taken to the idea of finding interesting concepts on here and Reddit and declaring those concepts as their own before a mod sees release. In this instance, I'm certain that the populace won't give two heaps of radstag droppings about where an idea originated - simply provide your mod the best you can and stay strong in this instance.

[TeamBacon]

I keep people from stealing my mods by making mods that are sooooooo incredibly bad that nobody would want to steal them...

 

But in all seriousness, I am not going to uploading anything anywhere until all this stuff gets sorted out. I'm not going to risk having someone else releasing my work.

[RS13]

The problem becomes getting people to care.

 

 

I think that is the problem. Beth hasn't stopped mod theft. But they will stop adult mods. So make sure your mods has some offscreen nudity and voila. Alternatively, modders could adopt the convention of making, say, Nat killable and then Bethesda will rush to take the mod down.

[zc123]

I have heard a number of modders say that if it doesn't get fixed soon they will just make all their mods require script extender so consoles cannot use them at all.

[Chessboard]

Anything you add to stop it from being put on other sites like Bethesda can simply be edited out by the mod thief who has access to the same tools and many understand modding themselves. The problem is that the internet has allowed the idea of "stuff for free" to be a common mindset and not just among the modding community (MP3, movies, other apps, etc.). If Nexus started charging a mandatory subscription fee that 100% would go to the mod creator it would cause an explosion of people using Bethesda or increase the number of alternative sites where you would find all the mods that were on Nexus pirated and available for free.

 

Bethesda, with 100 programmers, proprietary software programs, and a legal department has not been able to soft piracy of its games...now you expect a hobbyist, no matter how talented, to succeed where they failed? If it really is just the console users being able to use mods and not simply mod thief as a whole what you need to do is make the mods so ambitious that only the top end PCs can run them so it doesn't matter if theirs a console port or not. As for the more average PCs...well, there are causalities in any war.

[TeamBacon]

Anything you add to stop it from being put on other sites like Bethesda can simply be edited out by the mod thief who has access to the same tools and many understand modding themselves. The problem is that the internet has allowed the idea of "stuff for free" to be a common mindset and not just among the modding community (MP3, movies, other apps, etc.). If Nexus started charging a mandatory subscription fee that 100% would go to the mod creator it would cause an explosion of people using Bethesda or increase the number of alternative sites where you would find all the mods that were on Nexus pirated and available for free.

 

Bethesda, with 100 programmers, proprietary software programs, and a legal department has not been able to soft piracy of its games...now you expect a hobbyist, no matter how talented, to succeed where they failed? If it really is just the console users being able to use mods and not simply mod thief as a whole what you need to do is make the mods so ambitious that only the top end PCs can run them so it doesn't matter if theirs a console port or not. As for the more average PCs...well, there are causalities in any war.

 

But the difference is, I want to give people my mod for free...

 

I just want to get credit for making the free mod that I am uploading for them to play for free, as opposed to someone else getting credit for the free mod that I am uploading for them to play for free...

[TimeLadyKatie]

 

 

Bethesda, with 100 programmers, proprietary software programs, and a legal department has not been able to soft piracy of its games...now you expect a hobbyist, no matter how talented, to succeed where they failed? If it really is just the console users being able to use mods and not simply mod thief as a whole what you need to do is make the mods so ambitious that only the top end PCs can run them so it doesn't matter if theirs a console port or not. As for the more average PCs...well, there are causalities in any war.

 

But the difference is, I want to give people my mod for free...

 

I just want to get credit for making the free mod that I am uploading for them to play for free, as opposed to someone else getting credit for the free mod that I am uploading for them to play for free...

 

 

Which is all the more reason that Beth doesn't want to get into the business of prosecuting. They may even call it a 'victimless crime' since no money is being lost.

 

I tend to be a minimalist when adding elements of design to something that already exists, so the idea of the nude in qasmoke seems a little over-the-top to me as an approach when subtler options are available. The less we do the less conflicts we create with other mods. And let's not forget that mod theft is not even remotely a new problem. We shouldn't punish console gamers for the issues present in our community.

 

I still hold out hope for a subtler way to work this all out, but as I said before the trouble is getting the stakeholders to care enough to do something.

[TeamBacon]

 

 

 

Bethesda, with 100 programmers, proprietary software programs, and a legal department has not been able to soft piracy of its games...now you expect a hobbyist, no matter how talented, to succeed where they failed? If it really is just the console users being able to use mods and not simply mod thief as a whole what you need to do is make the mods so ambitious that only the top end PCs can run them so it doesn't matter if theirs a console port or not. As for the more average PCs...well, there are causalities in any war.

 

But the difference is, I want to give people my mod for free...

 

I just want to get credit for making the free mod that I am uploading for them to play for free, as opposed to someone else getting credit for the free mod that I am uploading for them to play for free...

 

 

Which is all the more reason that Beth doesn't want to get into the business of prosecuting. They may even call it a 'victimless crime' since no money is being lost.

 

 

There are things in life that matter more than money.

[ddavies10693]

the F4SE option is probably the best idea I can think of (mentioned above). You don't receive anything for having a mod with thousands of downloads on here or beth.net, so thieves don't have a reason to take the time to make the necessary changes required to remove the F4SE dependency, which can be quite complicated if you do it correctly.

 

A mod with no dependencies can be converted very quickly to Xbox, so people will do it. A mod with a F4SE dependency to function would take actual time and effort to convert. People that steal mods are just like regular criminals in that they're both lazy, which is why they're doing this in the first place, rather than creating their own stuff.