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Continuation of abandoned mods


pra

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The way this community attempts to uphold these "fictional" copyrights really perplexes me sometimes. Legally non of the content uploaded in the Fallout section is personal property. it is all property of Bethesda.

If someone want´s to go ahead and make an unofficial patch for a mod it is Bethesda they should go and ask, not some mod author that attempts to claim copyright of "their" content in violation of the game EULA.

and permission already granted - so there so...

 

ofc i will still abide by the community rules while i am here.

but that does not mean that i support them.

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Actual law or not, I don't want to get banned.

 

But in any way, what about making a mod which is simply depending on another mod? Right now, I actually did modify lilkandeekid's ESP file. But I could just not do that, instead just create a new ESP, which references his assets. Then I release that without anything which has been done by him or any of the others. How about that?

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The way this community attempts to uphold these "fictional" copyrights really perplexes me sometimes. Legally non of the content uploaded in the Fallout section is personal property. it is all property of Bethesda.

If someone want´s to go ahead and make an unofficial patch for a mod it is Bethesda they should go and ask, not some mod author that attempts to claim copyright of "their" content in violation of the game EULA.

and permission already granted - so there so...

 

ofc i will still abide by the community rules while i am here.

but that does not mean that i support them.

Actually, this is completely wrong. Exhibit A, the Creation Kit End-User License Agreement:

 

2. GAME MODS; OWNERSHIP AND LICENSE TO ZENIMAX

A. Ownership. As between You and ZeniMax, You are the owner of Your Game Mods and all intellectual property rights therein, subject to the licenses You grant to ZeniMax in this Agreement. You will not permit any third party to download, distribute or use Game Mods developed or created by You for any commercial purpose.

 

So, yes, mod authors do have copyright over their mods.

 

You can use the established and approved practices described in this topic: Bethesda "WIP" Realtime Mod Check.

 

1. Do whatever you want

2. Send email to nowhere (i.e. mod author)

3. Wait for a response from nowhere ("If" mod author "has a problem with it, they certainly know how to reach" you "and ask" you "to shut it down.")

...

4. Profit

I sent a message to Cartogriffi, Community Content Manager for Bethesda Game Studios. He and I had a chat about the utility and the end result was that Bethesda would happily ignore it.

 

But of course you would already know that if you had read the rest of the thread. You would also know that I acknowledged that I made a mistake by releasing the utility without asking permission first, a mistake I fixed by writing the message to Cartogriffi and receiving a response / getting permission.

Edited by Reneer
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Regarding mod copyright and patches and all that. This isn't about what's legal and what can get you sued and what can piss off a mod author and what is kinda okay if you just kinda look at it from the side a little.

 

At its heart, modding is a community. We're a bunch of people, many of whom have been around a long time and know each other (or at least OF each other), and ultimately we depend on each other's work to do our own. Communities run on etiquette, because without that, it's everyone for themselves and nothing ends up getting done.

 

Is patching someone else's mod without permission legal? Does that matter?

 

What matters is extending the courtesy. You think highly enough of someone else's work to want it continued, so you should also think highly enough of the author to show some respect. You do that by asking permission, and if it's not forthcoming, by showing some maturity by not releasing. Simple as that.

 

When instead you start justifying doing it anyway and arguing legalities, what you're saying is that etiquette, maturity, respect, and ultimately community don't matter. You want what you want.

 

In short: grow up. If you want to continue a mod and the author doesn't want you to patch, then rewrite it, give it a new name, make a new mod that does the same thing but better. That's how it's done, not by piggybacking on someone else's work when they expressly told you they don't want you there.

Edited by Greslin
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They (Cartogriffi) basically told me that it was something they would happily ignore. They have not yet made a formal decision, but until they come down on one side or the other I'm going to keep the tool up. ... I asked for permission and their response was basically "eh".

"eh" is not "Yes, you have official permission".

 

3. Wait for a response from nowhere - is established and approved practices

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The way this community attempts to uphold these "fictional" copyrights really perplexes me sometimes. Legally non of the content uploaded in the Fallout section is personal property. it is all property of Bethesda.

If someone want´s to go ahead and make an unofficial patch for a mod it is Bethesda they should go and ask, not some mod author that attempts to claim copyright of "their" content in violation of the game EULA.

and permission already granted - so there so...

 

ofc i will still abide by the community rules while i am here.

but that does not mean that i support them.

Actually, this is completely wrong. Exhibit A, the Creation Kit End-User License Agreement:

 

2. GAME MODS; OWNERSHIP AND LICENSE TO ZENIMAX

A. Ownership. As between You and ZeniMax, You are the owner of Your Game Mods and all intellectual property rights therein, subject to the licenses You grant to ZeniMax in this Agreement. You will not permit any third party to download, distribute or use Game Mods developed or created by You for any commercial purpose.

 

So, yes, mod authors do have copyright over their mods.

 

 

 

does not seem like you know what Intellectual property means. Intellectual property only applies as it is in its unmodified state, and you can only claim a Intellectual property case if someone has taken your work as theirs without doing anything else to it, in other words a plain copy

but as soon as they modify it in someway it ceases to be your property and it becomes theirs.

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