Battlestar Galactica Mods Get Frakked By NBCUniversal

[Braedan]

Of course, because extra exposure and enlarging your fan-base is a TERRIBLE idea.

 

[Oroboros]

Coming Soon: The makers of the Babylon 5, Stargate, and Star Trek mods for Nexus get cease and desist orders! Get em while you can....

 

[cainx10a]

That's frakking awful, lot of hard work gone to waste. Damn them!

 

[Master Kuja]

I fucking hate it when this sort of thing happens. Countless hours gone to waste on something people wanted to release, for free no less, to people to enjoy.
It's hilariously stupid really, while I get that they have the legal grounds to do this, it's probably more detrimental to the company in question, as free mods generate advertisement and greater brand awareness for the IP in question.

It's like Games Workshop firing off C&D letters like they're going out of fashion just because

"ITS MINEZ!! IF I CANT MAKE MONYSS THEN OMGZ MAN! CEASE AND DERSIST!"

It's foolish, truly foolish, they're effectively losing nothing and stand to gain more potential fans/a wider audience/new customers. If anything, modding communities earn these companies money, rather than costing them anything.

 

[Tanis]

I thought mods were protected, like parodies of songs on youtube?

Regardless I hope the team continues to work on it and then release it via some sort of file sharing sites.

This is something I'd be interested in checking out.

Not like there's any official BSG stuff being released, or having been released, at least not worth buying.

 

[lacktheknack]

DAMMIT!!!

I guess this means I'm going to have to shut down the work on my "30 Rock vs The Office" Quake 3 MOD...

Still, at least this gives me more time to work on my indie game; I'm thinking of calling it "Scrollz Edge." Can't get sued for that, right?

For the record, I'd play the hell out of that mod.

Also for the record, you'll have better luck with "Edger Scrollz".

 

[Normandyfoxtrot]

I fucking hate it when this sort of thing happens. Countless hours gone to waste on something people wanted to release, for free no less, to people to enjoy.
It's hilariously stupid really, while I get that they have the legal grounds to do this, it's probably more detrimental to the company in question, as free mods generate advertisement and greater brand awareness for the IP in question.

It's like Games Workshop firing off C&D letters like they're going out of fashion just because

"ITS MINEZ!! IF I CANT MAKE MONYSS THEN OMGZ MAN! CEASE AND DERSIST!"

It's foolish, truly foolish, they're effectively losing nothing and stand to gain more potential fans/a wider audience/new customers. If anything, modding communities earn these companies money, rather than costing them anything.

While games workshop is pretty draconian about a whole litany of things I haven't really know them to be any more C&D obsessed than any other company, as surprising as that is.

 

[j0frenzy]

I fucking hate it when this sort of thing happens. Countless hours gone to waste on something people wanted to release, for free no less, to people to enjoy.
It's hilariously stupid really, while I get that they have the legal grounds to do this, it's probably more detrimental to the company in question, as free mods generate advertisement and greater brand awareness for the IP in question.

It's like Games Workshop firing off C&D letters like they're going out of fashion just because

"ITS MINEZ!! IF I CANT MAKE MONYSS THEN OMGZ MAN! CEASE AND DERSIST!"

It's foolish, truly foolish, they're effectively losing nothing and stand to gain more potential fans/a wider audience/new customers. If anything, modding communities earn these companies money, rather than costing them anything.

Actually they have a lot to lose for not filing this C&D, they have their whole copyright to lose, which could cost them so much more. And I really don't want to see BSG become abandoned for the sake of some mods, but those are for some self-interested reasons.
If you don't want mods to waste their time, how about they work on some non-protected IP? I know it sounds cold, but it is how the copyright system works for now.

 

[Master Kuja]

While games workshop is pretty draconian about a whole litany of things I haven't really know them to be any more C&D obsessed than any other company, as surprising as that is.

There's been a staggering number of /tg/ based 40k mods that have been hit with C&Ds, as well as a Battlefleet Gothic mod for Sins of a Solar Empire, Myth 2 and UT based 40k mods have also been afflicted with the same cease and desist orders.

Games Workshop are very, VERY defensive with the 40k IP, it seems like the second they catch wind of a 40k mod in the works, the legal letters go flying pretty sharpish.

 

[ciasteczkowyp]

Too bad for BSG, other IP's have tons of mods and this makes games REPLAYABLE a lot. I mean I know that if I ever get back to dragon age II I can find 10 mods that will make it fun and unique again.

 

[Normandyfoxtrot]

While games workshop is pretty draconian about a whole litany of things I haven't really know them to be any more C&D obsessed than any other company, as surprising as that is.

There's been a staggering number of /tg/ based 40k mods that have been hit with C&Ds, as well as a Battlefleet Gothic mod for Sins of a Solar Empire, Myth 2 and UT based 40k mods have also been afflicted with the same cease and desist orders.

Games Workshop are very, VERY defensive with the 40k IP, it seems like the second they catch wind of a 40k mod in the works, the legal letters go flying pretty sharpish.

I said no more, XD.

 

[samsonguy920]

I like the part where they aren't just crossing their arms and saying No completely, instead giving a chance for the modders to sell their case. Might be good to bring some legal marketing counsel along, as if the case is sold, NBCUni might be interested in doling out a license or two.

Why shut it down? They aren't making money off of it.

Might be because none of the game titles being modded are owned by NBCUniversal, and therefore present a profit infraction in that fashion.

 

[Master Kuja]

I said no more, XD.

I can keep going quite easily.

 

[Scars Unseen]

This is disappointing, but was probably inevitable. Given how much money video game tie-ins can involve, they're afraid that some people are going to beat them to it and they won't be able to swim in their giant pools of cash. Even beyond confusing the existing game with it, there's a strong possibility that they plan to make future games out of the franchise. And they probably wouldn't want to have to even worry about competing with these mods, which might be considerably closer to what they eventually make than the MMO is.

On the other hand, this does say something pretty remarkable about the modding community: we've reached a point where a handful of people doing something as a hobby can actually produce something that threatens to be on par with or even better than an official production. That's pretty fucking exciting.

This is nothing new. Anyone remember the attempted Dragon all Z mod for Quake? Yeah, jerkwad corps have been screwing over community homages forever.

 

[HK_01]

But, they're not even making games like that for the BSG franchise. How does this mod affect them negatively at all? All it does is provide advertisement...

 

[vrbtny]

Why shut it down? They aren't making money off of it.

Your avatar is totally awesome, and I don't even watch that pony show!

OT : What NBC, just because you couldn't make a decent BSG game to save the galaxy, don't hate people who can.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Sucks to hear this happen. Not sure why they pick now, after the mods have been up for years and are all over the internet instead of cracking down years later.

They probably did hear about it years ago but let it be because no major attention was being drawn to it, then Kotaku had to do its attention grabbing piece and suddenly NBC had to step in and do something. If they didn't, it would have been an invitation to anyone out there that using their materials is ok.

Blame Kotaku.

 

[Phishfood]

This is disappointing, but was probably inevitable. Given how much money video game tie-ins can involve, they're afraid that some people are going to beat them to it and they won't be able to swim in their giant pools of cash. Even beyond confusing the existing game with it, there's a strong possibility that they plan to make future games out of the franchise. And they probably wouldn't want to have to even worry about competing with these mods, which might be considerably closer to what they eventually make than the MMO is.

On the other hand, this does say something pretty remarkable about the modding community: we've reached a point where a handful of people doing something as a hobby can actually produce something that threatens to be on par with or even better than an official production. That's pretty fucking exciting.

I suspect you are right, they plan to make their own tie in game.

What baffles me is that if they are, they are making the same mistake as they did with stargate worlds. That is - "lets make a game about a TV series that ended years ago* when even the spinoffs are now doing badly" Rather than "We have a great TV series that is in full swing, lets make a tie in game now while people are still actively watching"

*its already 2 years. Gah.