This is the site feedback/questions section

[Thandal]

I'd like to suggest a sort of statute of limitations on the "require permission in order to use another modder's mod assets" rule. By that I mean if a mod hasn't been updated for say, a year or 2 then any modder can complete that mod or use it's assets for their own mods. I've seen so many mods that would otherwise be great left in a half finished state while their creators go off to who knows where so people can't get the permission needed to finish those mods or use the assets for theirs, and this idea would help fix that.

 

Dark0ne has made it abundantly clear that as far as the Nexus is concerned, authors retain full control of their material unless and until they explicitly relinquish it. Doesn't matter if it was five months, or five years ago that anyone heard from the author. (And yes, there are Morrowind mods that old here.)

[immortalfrieza]

Dark0ne has made it abundantly clear that as far as the Nexus is concerned, authors retain full control of their material unless and until they explicitly relinquish it. Doesn't matter if it was five months, or five years ago that anyone heard from the author. (And yes, there are Morrowind mods that old here.)

 

 

I know, that's why I'm suggesting changing that. IMHO, All that rule does is force modders to work harder than they have to when they could just use some of another modder's resources instead, cause mods that go dead that are half finished and/or filled with bugs be unable to be finished by someone else, it fails to take into account that some mod authors just leave and never touch the Nexus again, so getting permission in some cases is just plain impossible, and of course the fact that many of them probably aren't going to even notice if they're asked for permission anyway, seeing as it'll probably get buried under the 50 other PMs they get a day. In short, the rule has no benefit to the users, modders, or the Nexus site itself in any way. Worse, there's no wiggle room when it comes to this rule whatsoever, which is why I made the suggestion. I'm not even a modder so I'm not proposing this to benefit myself, but to benefit the site at large.

 

A rule against outright duplicating someone else's mods and passing it off as their own I understand, as well as giving credit where credit is due, but I don't get the logic behind this particular rule at all.

Edited July 25, 2013 by immortalfrieza

[Lisnpuppy]

This issue has been brought up time and time again to the modders here...without exception there has been an overwhelming...do not do this!!!

 

Now what has been met with somewhat more promise is the Nexus changing its permissions for FUTURE mods that would have the default as "yes use this"...and the modder would have to go and explicitly change the permissions on the mod to say no.

 

So far though it has only been discussed.

 

Trust me we ALL wish there was a way to reach modders for permissions or that they had just chosen to share outright in the first place. That is not how it is and is not the expectations that were set up at any time. I do not see that this will ever change for past files.

 

The benefit this has is that modders know that their work will be protected, their wishes either outright or by proxy will be upheld and it will allow them to share with us. Many places don't give this vigilance and mod authors no longer post their work at those places. To take that away for whatever "good" you may think it would have will instead take away the trust that has been built over all these years here.

 

To do other than continue to stand by our word in this would be a slap in the face on all the modders that have intrusted us with their mods.

[JimboUK]

 

Dark0ne has made it abundantly clear that as far as the Nexus is concerned, authors retain full control of their material unless and until they explicitly relinquish it. Doesn't matter if it was five months, or five years ago that anyone heard from the author. (And yes, there are Morrowind mods that old here.)

 

 

I know, that's why I'm suggesting changing that. IMHO, All that rule does is force modders to work harder than they have to when they could just use some of another modder's resources instead, cause mods that go dead that are half finished and/or filled with bugs be unable to be finished by someone else, it fails to take into account that some mod authors just leave and never touch the Nexus again, so getting permission in some cases is just plain impossible, and of course the fact that many of them probably aren't going to even notice if they're asked for permission anyway, seeing as it'll probably get buried under the 50 other PMs they get a day. In short, the rule has no benefit to the users, modders, or the Nexus site itself in any way. Worse, there's no wiggle room when it comes to this rule whatsoever, which is why I made the suggestion. I'm not even a modder so I'm not proposing this to benefit myself, but to benefit the site at large.

 

A rule against outright duplicating someone else's mods and passing it off as their own I understand, as well as giving credit where credit is due, but I don't get the logic behind this particular rule at all.

 

 

You couldn't change it for mods already uploaded, modders uploaded those mods on the understanding they would retain control of them, taking that control away retrospectively would be wrong. There was talk on the modders board of making the default permission for new mods "free to use" but I don't know if that was ever implemented.

[immortalfrieza]

 

 

 

You couldn't change it for mods already uploaded, modders uploaded those mods on the understanding they would retain control of them, taking that control away retrospectively would be wrong. There was talk on the modders board of making the default permission for new mods "free to use" but I don't know if that was ever implemented.

 

I would be in support of that.

[Thandal]

 

 

 

 

You couldn't change it for mods already uploaded, modders uploaded those mods on the understanding they would retain control of them, taking that control away retrospectively would be wrong. There was talk on the modders board of making the default permission for new mods "free to use" but I don't know if that was ever implemented.

 

I would be in support of that.

 

 

That's nice, immortalfrieza, but it has nothing to do with your original request, which was to take rights AWAY from mod authors after some arbitrary period of non-responsiveness. :armscrossed:

[immortalfrieza]

That's nice, immortalfrieza, but it has nothing to do with your original request, which was to take rights AWAY from mod authors after some arbitrary period of non-responsiveness. :armscrossed:

First, it has plenty to do with it. One could easily combine the ideas, i.e. the mod is free to be used after a certain period of time unless the mod author specifically says otherwise. I am merely asking for this rule to have reasonable limits, rather than have absolute power.

 

Second, mod authors have no "rights" to their mods, they don't own their mods any more than they actually own the rights to the game they're modding. The mods are creations their creators decided to put out onto the internet for free to anyone who wanted it for the public's enjoyment. If someone takes a mod and uses it's resources to create their own mods the original author should be happy that their mod is good enough to warrant such a thing, and if they don't want people to do that then they shouldn't have uploaded the mod(s) to begin with. Besides, the rule only protects mods and their resources from being used on THIS website without the mod author's permission, the rule is unable to keep that from happening on other websites, so even if the rule does/actually did (until I get an actual explanation for why this rule exists, I'm going to remain as neutral about it as I can) have good reasons to exist, the entire point of it is rendered moot anyway regardless of what those reasons are.

[blove]

 

That's nice, immortalfrieza, but it has nothing to do with your original request, which was to take rights AWAY from mod authors after some arbitrary period of non-responsiveness. :armscrossed:

First, it has plenty to do with it. One could easily combine the ideas, i.e. the mod is free to be used after a certain period of time unless the mod author specifically says otherwise. I am merely asking for this rule to have reasonable limits, rather than have absolute power.

 

Second, mod authors have no "rights" to their mods, they don't own their mods any more than they actually own the rights to the game they're modding. The mods are creations their creators decided to put out onto the internet for free to anyone who wanted it for the public's enjoyment. If someone takes a mod and uses it's resources to create their own mods the original author should be happy that their mod is good enough to warrant such a thing, and if they don't want people to do that then they shouldn't have uploaded the mod(s) to begin with. Besides, the rule only protects mods and their resources from being used on THIS website without the mod author's permission, the rule is unable to keep that from happening on other websites, so even if the rule does/actually did (until I get an actual explanation for why this rule exists, I'm going to remain as neutral about it as I can) have good reasons to exist, the entire point of it is rendered moot anyway regardless of what those reasons are.

 

 

You are either ignorant or a troll.

[TheVampireDante]

 

That's nice, immortalfrieza, but it has nothing to do with your original request, which was to take rights AWAY from mod authors after some arbitrary period of non-responsiveness. :armscrossed:

First, it has plenty to do with it. One could easily combine the ideas, i.e. the mod is free to be used after a certain period of time unless the mod author specifically says otherwise. I am merely asking for this rule to have reasonable limits, rather than have absolute power.

 

Second, mod authors have no "rights" to their mods, they don't own their mods any more than they actually own the rights to the game they're modding. The mods are creations their creators decided to put out onto the internet for free to anyone who wanted it for the public's enjoyment. If someone takes a mod and uses it's resources to create their own mods the original author should be happy that their mod is good enough to warrant such a thing, and if they don't want people to do that then they shouldn't have uploaded the mod(s) to begin with. Besides, the rule only protects mods and their resources from being used on THIS website without the mod author's permission, the rule is unable to keep that from happening on other websites, so even if the rule does/actually did (until I get an actual explanation for why this rule exists, I'm going to remain as neutral about it as I can) have good reasons to exist, the entire point of it is rendered moot anyway regardless of what those reasons are.

 

 

Moving the fact that you are so off track it's not even funny, I'm going to focus on this bit...

 

 

Besides, the rule only protects mods and their resources from being used on THIS website without the mod author's permission, the rule is unable to keep that from happening on other websites,

 

If you have been found to have reuploaded a file from here to another site without permission from the original author, then your account here will be terminated for mod theft - and to put it bluntly, once people see you as a content thief, then the only people that will associate with you are likewise of the kind, as no reputable site would want anything to do with you.

 

I doubt our rules regarding mod ownership will be changing anytime soon, and I seriously doubt any sort of "time lapsed re-use" policy will be put in place if they did.

 

 

Now, going back a section:

 

 

Second, mod authors have no "rights" to their mods, they don't own their mods any more than they actually own the rights to the game they're modding. The mods are creations their creators decided to put out onto the internet for free to anyone who wanted it for the public's enjoyment.

 

Wrong - the mods are free - to use - not to modify and redistribute. The only people that may do so are 1. Permitted users 2. Bethesda (in the case of mods for their games) - NOT the general mod using public.

 

The only time that is not the case, is if the mod's creator has already given open permissions for re-use.

[DrakeTheDragon]

Just to add to TVD's explanations...

 

It's Bethesda themselves who've always been after the content thieves, once being informed by the original author about the theft, and made sure reputable sites take down the stuff immediately or get in trouble with their legal department.

 

So if it's Bethesda themselves who will be after you, if you steal mod contents and publish them 'anywhere', how does it even matter which 'rights' the original authors have to their creations? Bethesda sides with them, so who are you to fight them?