Question of rights management re: TTW and RFCW

[mechatech]

Here's how I understand it. A Tale of Two Wastelands was the prototype of A Requiem for a Capital Wasteland. They basically did the same thing, allow the player in New Vegas to visit the Capital Wasteland. I think there was a version that did the reverse. The prerequisite was that the user would have to have both games in their possession.

 

Initially the mod involved a number of exe or bat files (I don't remember which) that would take the bsa files (meshes, textures etc) of each game and combine them into one super-game. Later the mod uploaded the assets of both games in encrypted exe form. This made sense given the sense of the files. The original exe or bat were a few MB in size while the later encrypted exe were GB sized, close to what the given assets from each game would be if combined.

 

Later these mods were removed because they violated EULA of the game publisher. This makes sense in the case of the latter as it would make assets available to people who did not own the games. I read somewhere that the publisher did not actually own the assets but licensed them from sub-contractors (graphic artists, 3D modelers) who own the works and sold the rights of use to the publisher.

 

The implication is that owners of games don't have the rights to take assets from one game and put it into another. Similar to cracking an exe or circumventing DRM for your own personal use; doing either of these is a copyright violation even if it's not released to the public.

 

What I want to know is if I'm correct in my reasoning. That the EULA extends to the use of exe or bat files not just assets. If I make a mod that takes FNV resources and drops them into FO3 and release it then I make FNV assets available to those who don't own FNV. Makes sense that's illegal. Now if I make a mod that sits in FO3 and points to resources in FNV or instructs the user to take FNV assets and drop them into their FO3 folder but requires the user to own both games does this violate EULA?

 

 

Edit: As usual I close the barn door after the horse has left. I found my answers here. Porting content from other games.

Edited June 30, 2012 by mechatech