Steam workshop EULA

[eltucu]

You do know the Morrowind EULA lets Bethesda come into your home and take your Morrowind disk + box at any moment they so choose?

 

Did they ever do it? NOPE.

Enforceability of EULAs depend on a per country basis (they usually put a clause saying that if some part is not enforceable, the other stuff still is valid) So its probably that in any country that has some sort of respect for its citizens wouldnt allow it anyway.

[magnemoe]

Relevant portions highlighted:

 

You grant to Valve a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, assignable right and license to (a) use, copy, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, modify, and create derivative works from Your Contribution in any media, (b) identify you as the source of the Contribution, and © sublicense these rights, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

You retain the right to use the Contributions as You wish, even in the context of another game. However, this Agreement does not grant You any rights to Valve materials, and You may not make any use of the Contribution that is inconsistent with the rights You have granted to Valve herein. For example, You may not license the Contribution to a third party on an exclusive basis.

 

Nothing in there in any way forces you to "give up all rights"; in fact, the argument specifically lets you retain non-exclusive rights to do whatever you want with your content. If you want to "make money" with your content (unlikely, except for the largest TCs, and not even likely there), go ahead -- that doesn't stop you from doing whatever else you want, as long as you don't exclude Valve from whatever you're doing.

This, see nothing wrong with the first part, might even be seen as a way for them to cover their ass. If you upload an mod and then redraw it Valve can not guarantee that some other member upload repackage and upload it again or that other uses part of your mod.

 

The part of demanding payment for mods is new, first I assume Bethesda is in on that as it's not allowed under the Oblivion CS rules.

[magnemoe]

I own the copyright on all the mods I have ever created.

Unless they used any part of Bethesda's material.

Using the Morrowind or Oblivion CS, is defined as using Bethesda material. If you create your own mesh and texture and add with Skyedit it's yours.

Again most of this is ass covering, you can not sue Bethesda for using something exact like your mod in Fallout 4.

[magnemoe]

Except profit from PC gaming has been going up in the last 6 years and is expected to surpass consoles by 2017, and most devs know this and that's why game dev expenditure on pc games has also been going up.

 

saying game Devs "plan to cut off pc gaming in the long run" is untrue.

This however console gaming peaks after release of the next generation, so it will go up again in two years then the next generation comes.

 

However with this Bethesda take moding main stream. It's not just an cheap way to keep an loyal fan base anymore, but something they are pretty committed to.

[Ghogiel]

I own the copyright on all the mods I have ever created.

Unless they used any part of Bethesda's material.

Using the Morrowind or Oblivion CS, is defined as using Bethesda material. If you create your own mesh and texture and add with Skyedit it's yours.

Again most of this is ass covering, you can not sue Bethesda for using something exact like your mod in Fallout 4.

If you create a mesh from scratch and use the MW or Ob CS, you still own the copyright to your assets. Read the EULA for the definition of 'Materials'. It states that materials refers to content created inside the CS. Which is pretty much limited to data entries, and does not ever claim to have any rights over material created outside their program.

 

Secondly, you must sign a written contract in front of a lawyer to make an exclusive rights transfer of copyright from one owner to another. And you could sue them for copyright infringement if they actually used your assets at all. If they make their own from scratch then they would have copyright on them, as those are original works. Of course if it is based on your original IP/design, would make it a derivative work and they would be liable if they steal your designs, unless you released the assets free of licensing restrictions, so that anyone could use them in commercial works if they desired. But if you released with a limited license then your work is as much protected as anyone elses under copyright law.

[Wraithofdoom]

yeah i made a thread about this a while back, they may be planning to charge for mods, so just dont upload there, use the Nexus instead.

[GisleAune]

Am I not getting something or does the EULA state it is for Valve's games?

 

"Valve accepts submissions of in-game items for Valve Game(s) ("Contribution(s)")."

 

Maybe Bethesda and Valve has another for Skyrim mods.

Edited February 2, 2012 by GisleAune

[Sunnie]

Am I not getting something or does the EULA state it is for Valve's games?

 

"Valve accepts submissions of in-game items for Valve Game(s) ("Contribution(s)")."

 

Maybe Bethesda and Valve has another for Skyrim mods.

 

No, you see that correctly. This EULA is for VALVE owned products. There will most certainly be a EULA that Bethesda writes, not Valve. Take a look at the EULA for the GECK, I'm pretty confident it will be pretty similar or even based off of that.

[gengrimm]

For example, You may not license the Contribution to a third party on an exclusive basis

 

Was the only line in that aggreement that had me worried for a moment. But its just saying that mods that you submited to Steamworkshop can't be then at a later date made exclusive to another third party group.

 

So there are no problems with uploading to Nexus, and if you still want to make money off of your mods you could do so via a donations account.

[Deleted301190User]

Haven't EA been doing a similar thing with the Sims for quite some time? As far as I know, nearly all moddable content has to be paid for minus the odd freebies, which are exactly that for a reason.