Copyrighted material in mods

[LHammonds]

if they contain any copyrighted material the site could get sued by the owners of that material.

This is one part you don't have correct that I know about. Dark0ne / Admins / TESNexus cannot be held liable for the content that is uploaded by its members which is also mentioned in the agreement you "sign" when you acquire membership here. Here is a quote from the Terms of Service:

 

Due to the community-driven nature of Nexus sites it is impossible for us to confirm the validity of all the content available on these sites. We do not actively monitor every piece of user-generated content uploaded or added to a Nexus site and we are not responsible for their content. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any content presented. User-submitted content expresses the views of the author, not necessarily the views of any staff on a Nexus site.

What normally happens is that the copyright holder contacts TESNexus and asks for the offending file to be removed. If the file is not removed and it is a copyright violation, that is the point where TESNexus could get in trouble but I guarantee you that this particular situation would never arise as Dark0ne, Buddah and myself would never try to knowingly keep copyrighted material on the site.

 

Before it comes to that though, we rely on other members of this site to use the report button to let us know about copyrighted material being posted on the site. Now I am no copyright lawyer or expert in the field but clear-cut cases of music uploaded that we know copyright owners clearly do not like having their wares distributed is quickly removed such as Metallica and Disney. If the music is Conan the Barbarian, I just so happen to have the DVD and can tell if the music is identical but I do not know if it is a copyright violation as the original author of the music might have made the music free for download...I simply do not know but maybe another admin might. This is where it's helpful if the members reporting the music issues could actually provide some evidence that the copyright owners actually have an active "claim" (don't know exactly what to say here) or are known to actively request their content to be removed and not shared. There was a particular instance where one member was basically flagging each and every music upload as a copyright violation but not providing any kind of evidence. We simply don't have the time or expertise to review / research each and every file on the site especially if there is a possibility of the file being OK to upload. The files (for the most part) are treated with an "innocent until proven guilty" mentality. It makes our job MUCH easier if the author includes something in their readme file that they either received permission to distribute or a location where the material was obtained (such as the original authors site who has made the material public domain or something).

 

Other examples might be where the material is copyrighted and normally never allowed to be reproduced but the individual has received specific permission to do so. Here is an example: PC Gamer Fantastic Four article re-print. I received explicit permission by the Editor-In-Chief at PC Gamer to scan and upload the page to share with everyone I can...as well as gaining permission for the other authors featured in the article. I posted the link on Bethesda Official forums and it was promptly removed since their admins are used to removing links to normally copyrighted material but after I pointed out that I had specific permission which was displayed on the page, the link remained.

 

Something else to note is that different types of "art" are covered differently. As previously mentioned, you cannot simply re-create Metallica music using your own tools and have it be legal (although you'd be a really talented stud)...but if you do the same thing for game models, there doesn't seem to be a problem if you are not selling it such as using Blender to re-create models from other games. I'm not talking about importing models from other games, I'm talking about creating them from scratch to look just like the other models. Example: Ghogiels Armor Resource is a re-creation of Morrowind armor but he created the model and textures from scratch and is not making any money from the design. At least one exception to this is if the copyright holders are developing a game in the same field as your "mod" and would be considered "competing" with its own intellectual and design property. I've seen Star Wars mods get canceled because they would compete with a product that was in development (free vs pay-for game).

 

Another example is taking material such as a model that somebody else created and passing it off as your own. A very cool-looking armor mod was uploaded not to long ago but it was quickly pointed out that the armor was obtained at another site and designed by another person/company. Now this company does sell this particular model for about 30 or 40 US dollars so it was conceivable that this person purchased the model, rigged it for Oblivion and made it available legally but the big problem is that the author was trying to conceal the identity of the original creator which was very suspicious. We set the file to hidden and I verified (at least 99.9% sure) that the model was identical down to the vertex to the model on the other site. Dark0ne tried to contact the person that uploaded the mod as well as the people that created the web site but we still have no information (it's been a month now).

 

LHammonds

[SGTBOB]

simply put heres your three options

 

1)

you can have it hosted on your own website (if file size is small enough you can just use a free website server)

worst thing that could happen to you is you recieve a cease and disist order from the organization that owns the rights to conan

 

2)

you can contact the organization that owns rights and ask for permission to have it in your mod

 

3)

like the others have said just make one from scratch

dont be too worried about having it to similar because filing a lawsuit is far too expensive and once again you HAVE to recieve a cease and disist order first before they can do anything

 

 

 

i mean why do you think family guy did and entire episode of star wars which had blatantly followed the real star wars plot?.. well its because a cease and disist order is your free card and they always have to send that first before they can press charges

:starwars:

[nuska]

Even though I do oppose the currently standing copyright laws in the EU and the US (I prefer working on a Creative Commons licence), it can lead to some serious consequences if you use material copyrighted to a big-ass company without proper permission. There is no such thing as a percentage rule or whatever legends have been posted here. If you've recognizably used commercial, copyrighted material in whatever you've come up with, you're treading on some dangerous grounds. It might go unnoticed and it might bring a lawsuit down on you. Especially with the anti-piracy war going on, the bigwigs are very keen on suing people, be it for having downloaded a couple silly mp3's or for ripping off some commercial graphics.

 

So it's not enough that your mod is nonprofit and it's not enough if you state it's not yours. It's commercial audio and copyrighted and you're probably never going to get the licence to use it, either - be aware of this if you still insist on using the tracks. Know the possible consequences on ripping off commercial material and act accordingly. You'll be the one put to responsibility for it if there's illegal content and you might land a big, ugly bill to pay for copyright infringement. You'll be best off if you compose entirely your own stuff, find some CC licenced tracks you can freely use or hire a freelance producer to create custom compositions for you. It doesn't become your own original work if you make modifications to it. Original work is something you've created from scratch, composed, arranged, produced and mixed from start to end all by yourself.

 

I repeat, there's no such thing as ripped off clips being okay if it's only a certain percentage of your track, as long as it's recognizable by anyone who has heard the original track. Sampling individual instruments, however, is practiced even on the very professional level, but if you actually want to go orchestral (as sampled things mostly work only in electro), you'll be much better off getting a proper VST instrument pack like Garritan Personal Orchestra or East-West's packs. Or even Miroslav if you have an extra €500/$650-or so to spend.

 

This from the viewpoint of an independent producer. Know your poo before diving in! Even if other people have ripped off content, it doesn't make it okay and legal, some just get away with it, some have less luck. And I personally think such hard copyright restrictions are total bull. Oh, and my fellow producer bf admins a major local indie music site and I help him weed out illegal stuff all the time so I consider myself to have some insight on the matter at hand. If you need help with more music-related issues I'll gladly assist.

[Darkarbiter]

btw sry for the flame i got really mad after spendin a week making that mod only to get it deleted by the staff

How exactly did this take a week? I'm sorry but ripping music from another very popular game and putting it in "your mod" takes no talent at all and is just copying and pasting. Finding great, rare, good music from either CC or 10+ years old stuff that is no longer being printed and informing us about it/including it in your mod however is another story :whistling:.

[Aoikani]

i made a conan music replacement which replaced every music track in the game with modded yes modded music from the movie and they say i cant upload it for everyone elses enjoyment. im not makin money off it which is what the copyright laws are for. anyways my main question was if i make original content for a mod and go get it copyrighted i cant post it on tesnexus anymore?

 

I can recommend a music site that you can find music for your mod to your tastes I believe. The Celestial Aeon Project operates under CC and has lots for you to download to use and share, you can also download this music here at TheNexus uploaded by Michikawa. I use them in my youtube videos which you can view here by searching for "The Underdark" in the forums. Additionally, if you like the music you have heard in many games like Guild Wars, Prey, IceWind Dale, Star Wars, Neverwinters Nights, Supreme Commander, Company of Heroes, Morrowind and Oblivion as well, then you'll like Celestial Aeon Project, because he mimics Jeremy Soule's style sometimes in compositions, the international game music composer of those above games.

 

Aoikani