Morrowind 2011 Mod Collection Pulled After Complaints

[Zechnophobe]

I hope he posts the usernames or emails of these assholes so they get spammed into oblivion and people know whos mods to stop supporting. I don't care who is right or wrong here, those people are fucking douchebags, plain and simple.

Spammed into... awww shit man, I see what you did there. Clever, VERY clever.

 

[The Lunatic]

So much for "Community".

Seriously, people need to stop being butthurt about something like this.

If anything, it's flattery.

 

[New York Patrick]

And thus Morrowind 2011 because the most reproduced Morrowind mod ever, spread around by countless 3rd parties who were all quoted as saying "seriously, fuck those guys."

Ok, this is probably the exact reason the modders were not happy in the first place. First and foremost it's not a mod, it's a package containing other peoples mods. The incorrect notion that he created these mods [and to be honest that's the impression some gaming sites gave] would no doubt have angered those that took the time and effort to create said mods.

It's always be called a collaboration of mods. Considering the mods were most likely made for free, the modders should just be happy that people are enjoying their content as they have made the mods selflessly. It makes no sense to offer a mod for free and then have a hissy fit when it's essentially put into a "Best of" mod compilation. Personally I think they are letting their egos go to their head and blowing it completely out of proportion.

Especially since this guy probably put a shitload of work into.. I don't know, making it so that they would all run compatibally with eachother, (which, in my morrowind modding experience is a pain in the ass to do when you have 30+ mods, rather than, ooh, let's see, one big convienient compilation.) It is probably worth noting that this is NOT the first compilation of sorts that has cropped up in the morrowind modding community, but so far, this is the only one I have heard of that has "legal action" tied to it.

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

It isn't about money, it's about being recognised for your work, and getting relevant rankings to the quality of your work on the likes of the nexus. They were fully within their rights to ask him to take it down, I do wish he'd asked permission, though I think banning him was extreme. He should release the development notes on how to implement this yourself. That way, he gets recognition for making it work, and the mod creators get their downloads, ratings and whatever else they deserve.

 

[Jake the Snake]

I don't understand how exactly they're able to sue. Mods are..free right? And they're not made by the Developer (Bethesda) they're made by regular people. It's not like they own Morrowind. It's not their IP...sigh, people want to protect their creations I suppose though.

 

[Erana]

So, people who are calling the original mod creators jerks, or something along those lines, have you ever had your work appropriated?

 

[Fumbleumble]

It isn't about money, it's about being recognised for your work, and getting relevant rankings to the quality of your work on the likes of the nexus. They were fully within their rights to ask him to take it down, I do wish he'd asked permission, though I think banning him was extreme. He should release the development notes on how to implement this yourself. That way, he gets recognition for making it work, and the mod creators get their downloads, ratings and whatever else they deserve.

His work is every bit as relevent to the mod and player 'community' (lol) as the actual mod makers' is... the mod makers TAKE bethesda's final product and release something based on it.. this guy takes the modders final product and releases something based on it (and far more useful as far as I'm concerned, he saves me work and gives me a working end product.. which strangly enough is more than the modders OR Bethesda actually did for me ).

These muppet's don't have a leg to stand on.. it's not their's, none of it is.... unless we've actually gotten to the stage where people can legalify their sweat.

 

[FinalFrog]

Actually it was released as a torrent so the collection can't exactly be "pulled" in any real sense. But you didn't hear that from me. =P

As for the reaction of the modding community, I'm disappointed but I can't say I'm surprised. Many modders are quite temperamental about people reusing or modifying their work. But I'd hoped that this would expand the number of people who experience all the wonderful things which modding can do for a game like Morrowind. The reaction of the certain modders and the things which have resulted for the creator of this compilation disappoint me. Some people never learned to share apparently...

 

[Snotnarok]

I hope he posts the usernames or emails of these assholes so they get spammed into oblivion and people know whos mods to stop supporting. I don't care who is right or wrong here, those people are fucking douchebags, plain and simple.

oh, I'm thinking about deep searching for it just to get the credits file and blast away at all, ALL of the mod creators that were in this compilation mod.

OT: I rarely make a mod for a game, and it usually ends up being made just for the hell of it, but if someone should get their hands on it I wouldn't care if they re-released it in a compilation pack as long as there is a proper credit.txt included.

all I see from this is just a bunch of idiots crying that they didn't get the downloads that this mod, that really did have an awesome install instructions [as compared to other modders who don't say shit on how to install their "awesome game changing mods"].


oh well, once something is on the internet, it never disappears.

The real shame in this is he put work into it to make it easy for people who aren't savvy with mods and got all the mods to work to make a even better game.

That's the thing that annoys me, Modders don't work together, so sometimes getting mods to work is harder than it has to be. So this guy makes all their mods work together, makes it beautiful making the damn game they're trying to make better shine...and then they get pissed.

Seriously, it's a bit screwed up.

 

[Fumbleumble]

Does no one else consider his effort a 'MOD' in it's own right?..

I certainly do.. I see absolutely no difference in principal whatsoever.

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

It isn't about money, it's about being recognised for your work, and getting relevant rankings to the quality of your work on the likes of the nexus. They were fully within their rights to ask him to take it down, I do wish he'd asked permission, though I think banning him was extreme. He should release the development notes on how to implement this yourself. That way, he gets recognition for making it work, and the mod creators get their downloads, ratings and whatever else they deserve.

His work is every bit as relevent to the mod and player 'community' (lol) as the actual mod makers' is... the mod makers TAKE bethesda's final product and release something based on it.. this guy takes the modders final product and releases something based on it (and far more useful as far as I'm concerned, he saves me work and gives me a working end product.. which strangly enough is more than the modders OR Bethesda actually did for me ).

These muppet's don't have a leg to stand on.. it's not their's, none of it is.... unless we've actually gotten to the stage where people can legalify their sweat.

I don't think he created anything, he just arranged the load order and mod settings to allow them to co-interact without crashing or lagging the game. This is all certainly relevant stuff, but it's not a mod or building on their mods. I'd be surprised if he needed the TES Contruction kit for this.

This is a very convenient package that saves users a lot of time, but it does take away from the original uploaders. No one reads credits text files, their mod uploads would become second place, and if this became popular practice people might start collecting mods everywhere and uploading swarms of compilations, making it very difficult for the mods like the ones used in this compilation to get the recognition to become worthy of compilations like this.

 

[ninjajoeman]

I hope he posts the usernames or emails of these assholes so they get spammed into oblivion and people know whos mods to stop supporting. I don't care who is right or wrong here, those people are fucking douchebags, plain and simple.

was that a pun?

 

[Manic Oppressive]

I hope he posts the usernames or emails of these assholes so they get spammed into oblivion and people know whos mods to stop supporting. I don't care who is right or wrong here, those people are fucking douchebags, plain and simple.

Yeah, those people are douchbags for not wanting someone to compile their mod [that they spent a lot of time and effort on, and then released to the community] in a package without their permission...

I think you need a reality check - the mod creators aren't in the wrong here, what the guy did was illegal, and what's more he clearly [well according to this news post anyway] didn't ask permission from the modders in the first place - and he's gaining positive publicity from their work...there's nothing wrong with them threatening action against him.

If they didn't it would only encourage similar incidents - permission is important in the mod scene, and I assume, had he asked around, he'd have received the permission he sought, instead of incorrectly assuming the modders would be satisfied with his offer.

Your ignorance of the law is painful.

Read the EULA. This issue has come up with a lot of games in the past. If you release a mod for a game into the public domain you have No. Rights. To it. If it was coded off of Morrowind, Bethesda owns it. You can pull your whiny crap about how "ARTISTS NEEDZ TO OWNZ THERR WORKZ," but if you mod a game you have to acknowledge that you are MODIFYING SOMEONE ELSE'S SHIT. If a modder whines when his mod is modded, he is a HYPOCRITE.

Frankly, I'm surprised the guy caved. They can threaten legal action all they want, there's jack shit they could actually do.

 

[AgentBJ09]

Good thing I downloaded this on Day 1.

I feel for this guy, though. Being threatened with legal action when no money was made and he gave credit to everyone involved.

Once I get a newer PC to handle the high-res stuff, I'm running this mod pack as long as I have Morrowind installed.

 

[Scars Unseen]

So a guy took several people's mods, redistributed them without permission, and got called on it? Why is this a big deal? There are several sources that provide links to game improving mods as well as guides on how to get them working. There are also several mod compilations created with the consent of the original modders. This is the (minimal) work of a guy who doesn't understand how things work.

Aside from the legality of the thing (where this guy clearly falls into the wrong, at least in the US), this guy is part of the problem that drives modders away, to the detriment of us all. The thing about creative types is that they put a lot of effort into their creations (well the better creations, anyway). Because of this, the modders feel a sense of ownership to their work. So when someone comes along and decides that something is free to redistribute just because it's free to download (which is absolutely not true), the modders are justifiably angered. Enough of this sort of disrespect can (and has) drive modders away from the scene altogether. In this case, the distributor of this compilation has pissed off a lot of modders, which is why the response seems so severe.

There is another reason that this compilation might not be a good idea. Mods get updated, even for a game as old as Morrowind. Sanctioned compilations have a hard enough time getting the latest updates integrated, so how much harder would it be for someone that has pretty much been shunned by the entire modding community to keep something as large as Morrowind 2011 updated?

As for the comment that Bethesda is the one that owns modding content... sorry. Bethesda may be able to lay claim to content created by their editor, but the same cannot be said for models, textures, sounds, and anything else created by external tools. And if you take those away, what do you have? Some scripting, dialogue, and a lot of exclamation points and error messages. Try again.

What this guy is no different than if someone posted the entirety of Penny Arcade on their own site in order attract web traffic (at the expense of the original creators). He does not deserve your sympathy.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

That jibes with an email he received from one aggrieved mod author, who said that the list of credits is largely irrelevant. "The bottom line is that your compilation violates copyright law in about a dozen countries and a vast majority of the authors whose work was included aren't happy about it," he wrote. "Fixing the credits, nice as it may be, doesn't solve the issue of the whole package being illegal."

Ah, how wonderfully ignorant those idiots are. Actually, the bit about copyright violation in a dozen countries conjures up the mental image of a fat kid screaming at the top of his lungs as tears roll down his equally fat cheeks about how unfair it all is, and how is divine creation can now enjoy even more fame, but not thanks to him. Actually, this sounds like a pretty cool meme, gotta throw something together and spam 4chan later.
Anyway, this would indeed be illegal if: 1) Our dear collector had passed off the mods as his own, or if 2) he were to charge money for previously gratuitous mods (or if he were offering the mods for free after the author had charged money - basically if money is involved in any way). Now, he did neither of those, so all the whining about legal stuff is just the bullshit that butthurt idiots spew when they don't realize that their works will now enjoy a larger audience. Ultimately the collection is like this: hey, X is great, but if you combine it with A,B,C...Y,Z, you get something truly amazing. Oh yeah, X was made by bla, and you should totally check out their other stuff.
Idiots...the whole fucking internet...

 

[Fumbleumble]

It isn't about money, it's about being recognised for your work, and getting relevant rankings to the quality of your work on the likes of the nexus. They were fully within their rights to ask him to take it down, I do wish he'd asked permission, though I think banning him was extreme. He should release the development notes on how to implement this yourself. That way, he gets recognition for making it work, and the mod creators get their downloads, ratings and whatever else they deserve.

His work is every bit as relevent to the mod and player 'community' (lol) as the actual mod makers' is... the mod makers TAKE bethesda's final product and release something based on it.. this guy takes the modders final product and releases something based on it (and far more useful as far as I'm concerned, he saves me work and gives me a working end product.. which strangly enough is more than the modders OR Bethesda actually did for me ).

These muppet's don't have a leg to stand on.. it's not their's, none of it is.... unless we've actually gotten to the stage where people can legalify their sweat.

I don't think he created anything, he just arranged the load order and mod settings to allow them to co-interact without crashing or lagging the game. This is all certainly relevant stuff, but it's not a mod or building on their mods. I'd be surprised if he needed the TES Contruction kit for this.

This is a very convenient package that saves users a lot of time, but it does take away from the original uploaders. No one reads credits text files, their mod uploads would become second place, and if this became popular practice people might start collecting mods everywhere and uploading swarms of compilations, making it very difficult for the mods like the ones used in this compilation to get the recognition to become worthy of compilations like this.

It's all a modification of original work by bethesda... his giving them credit in a txt file is exactly the same as their own justification of giving Bethesda credit in their effort.

There's no difference there... they don't have a right to moan.. free work based on someone elses work and released for all becomes public domain.... had it all been their own ORIGINAL work then yeah.. there would be a difference... but it's ALL derivative.

They mod bethesda's.. he mods their's.. same all round.

No one owns anything except Bethesda.. and they professed neutrality in this matter when they released a toolset.. as long as no one gets paid, all their bitching is irrelevent.

 

[northeast rower]

Alright, let me just point out that people make games for the gamers. You lose gamers, you lose your market. That said, the push by the modders to have their mods taken off is plainly fucking stupid. They're just losing their fanbase.

 

[geldonyetich]

I really don't get how it is that Morrowind plugin authors have any legal right to their work at all. I'm pretty sure Bethesda has it right in the terms-of-service agreement that any and all content made for the game, even by fans, is property of Bethesda. It's standard cover-your-ass legal procedure when you open up your game to be modifiable by others.

 

[Erana]

So, people who are calling the original mod creators jerks, or something along those lines, have you ever had your work appropriated?

This response would be justified if it pertained to someone's own Intellectual Property. However, Morrowind is registered under copyright by Bethesda and Zeni-Max Media (Bethesda's parent company). It is NOT in the public domain -- and it is not covered by a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Derivatives license. This means that the mod creators do not actually have any copyrights -- you can't create a derivative work of a video game, then claim it as your own. That's not how copyright law works.

He got banned from the official Bethesda forums- they're obviously siding with the modders here. Its not about copyright here, its about plain old respect. If you've appropriated other peoples' efforts and they're mad en masse, you back off and issue a formal apology.

If there's backlash after he works to mend these grievances, then there's reason to defend him.