Morrowind 2011 Mod Collection Pulled After Complaints

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D_987

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Jun 15, 2008
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Canid117 said:
You mean the point that you brought up?
Yes, on pages one and two respectively [the two places you originally quoted me from], before the laws and copyright issues had been discussed to death...you quoted me and restarted the conversation.

Arguing about this now is pointless, the information you seek will be on one of the other 10 pages within the thread, and indeed is on this page too. As stated, the evidence suggests you're incorrect.
 

Caiti Voltaire

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Feb 10, 2010
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Canid117 said:
None of those files are copyrighted by the modders so they cant sue. Should they sue? I would have tried to compromise which I said in my first post. You would still be able to read it if you hadn't cut it off in your quote.
Copyright exists in the United States - which is the jurisdiction for any legal action for Bethesda-related things - from the inception of a creative work.

Whether or not textures and models can be considered creative works, and thus copyrighted from inception, as well as whether or not these textures and models can be considered derivative works of Bethesda Softworks IP, is something for the lawyers to figure out in a court of law. No manner of speculation is going to really reconcile whether or not this would be the case otherwise, as precedents have been set on both sides of this issue.
 

Mercsenary

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Oct 19, 2008
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Popido said:
What. The. Fuck?

What the hell happened here? Was someone making money from this?

...
Now I just wanna take the internet down as a whole and cure it from this sickening cancer.
Nope just the coders and programmers of various mods felt they were snubbed by not being asked for permission to be included in the package.

I mean its not like this guy put the package up and said "LOOK WHAT I MADE." No it was more of "Look! I took all these mods and managed to make them not explode with each other."


Hell I think right now the greatest thing he can do right now to give a giant F U to those butthurt folks is post how he altered the mods to make them not explode.


I mean its not like this guy even made money off it.

complainants weren't interested in "reaching a middle ground."
Now you guys(mod authors) are being dicks.
 

Denamic

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Aug 19, 2009
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Son, I am disappoint.
Yeah, sure, the authors should have been asked for permission.
But this kind of reaction is just way, way, overboard.
 

Cyberjester

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Oct 10, 2009
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You know.. For years I've ranted against companies like Microsoft, Bungie, etc for sending lawyers against anyone who violates their copyright and releases a game they have no plans on doing so. Bungie when some modders created a Halo RTS in C&C: Generals.

Which Bungie then totally ruined with their... Thing.

But this.. Hell with modders if they're going to be this up themselves, burn the servers holding the mods. They messed with someone else's IP and Bethseda was ok with that. Then someone compiles mods so people are more likely do download them, and they crack it.. 'Tards. The only way I'll now play a MW mod is to pull out every single error and blast them for it.
 

maturin

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Jul 20, 2010
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Why is this 400 goddamn pages long? I know it's all digital and hence ephemeral, but in the ES modding community you don't download, modify re-release other people's work without their express permission. In fact, you could probably get rid of the first part of this sentence and call it good.

It would have killed him to use email? He obviously has enough talent to recreate the work of the few people that would have denied him.
 

kingmob

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Jan 20, 2010
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LastDarkness said:
I love these little quandries. No one is the right here and both parties have full justification. Defend or deny it all you want the fact remains that the players and people who would apprciete the mod and experince Morrowind anew are screwed.
This exactly. And for that reason I am on the side of the author. I can really see no downside to his mod for the original authors. It is played more (because it actually bloody works without 2 days work), it was always free and they are getting the credit.
But now that they've all started crying so hard like little children, overreacting in such a spectacular way, they will also never back down. Way to kick someone who actually took the effort to make it all better.

In the end this is the kind of weirdness why there will never be world peace I guess...
 

agnosticOCD

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Oct 7, 2010
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There's no profit here, nor is there a profit incentive at all, and the mods were available first for free even before this compilation came out. This just killed me inside man. That was just a real shame. Whether or not there was permission, legal action is just too harsh, and it certainly ruined a great opportunity, and it is UNJUSTIFIED UNLESS HE HAD PROFIT IN HIS MIND, which there isn't... Well, nevertheless, at least I'll still get to play Morrowind in its original state, unaltered and still wonderful.
 

WittyInfidel

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Aug 30, 2010
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I had checked it out, but couldn't ever get it to run. I had various problem trying to get it to mesh together, the loaders didn't want to load, ect.

Really broke my heart, too. I had so wanted to play it. Hopefully it'll reach 100% playability one day.
 

Plurralbles

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Jan 12, 2010
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wait... the mods are fucking hypocrites. The game itself could have been completely unmoddable, but it is and incredibly so. To not allow this and threaten legal action is the worst kind of failure of the spirit of what makes modding communities great. Fuck morrowwind modders.
 

Sporky111

Digital Wizard
Dec 17, 2008
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So they made mods and released them for free.

He compiled them and credited them and showed how to make them all work together. For free.

And they filed copyright infringement against him?

Sounds like free publicity and distribution to me, but I guess I just don't know anything about the mod community. He should have asked first obviously, but the response is pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
 

Ewoc

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Mar 20, 2009
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That possibly had to be the most depressing news that I will hear this year. Morrowind is my number one game of all time. Maybe there will be some sort of agreement with all the mod owners so we can get this back into the hands of the people!!!!
 

RogueDarkJedi

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Dec 28, 2008
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I don't play Morrowind, but I feel like I should throw in my two cents.

Although it doesn't sound like it from the article, but did our friend here email any of the creators in the first place before he made a compilation?

Second, did these mods have licenses or any sort of terms listed on their respective download sites? No? Then they obviously didn't think ahead (I also wonder how strong their legal ground would be here. Both sides are rather weak). I thought it was practically required to include license files with mods. Seriously, this is the internet. If you are worried about someone distributing/modifying your work, you should include a license (please note: I know someone will attempt to point out that this will never work out and people will ignore it [and then most likely give an example like the internet and pirating music or something]. I would like to state that the guy who made this package had GOOD intentions [at least from the facts we know], and would most likely respect those licenses before creating a package. If the mods he included DID have a license and it FORBID "remixing" then the fault is with him).

My other points:
* Really mod authors, really? I mean come on. This guy is helping you get more views out there. You provided these mods for the community. Get over yourselves. If you didn't want someone to bundle your mod, you better have made it clear in the first place.
* Putting a file in the zip as credits is a nice gesture but you should also put the credits on the website as well.
* Why exactly is he banned from the Bethesda forums? That makes no sense.

As a software developer myself, I feel like this issue is blown out of proportion. Given only the information posted here, it seems like the guy who bundled this was well within the DMCA fair use. I can understand the mod developers being angry because he hadn't contacted them. I would be angry too. I would probably contact him demanding an explanation of what he was thinking. But then again, I probably wouldn't have been affected because I would most probably include a license/terms that would forbid redistributing.

There is not enough information given to really choose a side completely. But tl;dr, I believe that given only the information here, it seems like mod developers are going a bit too far.

UPDATE:

So doing a bit more research this is what I found.

1. Tyler was banned from the Bethesda forums for flaming (from what I can tell, flaming was not used as an excuse to ban him, he was legitimately doing it), of which he posted emails of people trying to stop distribution of their mods.
2. The major player against him is a guy named Sean, who claims that by bundling, Tyler is plagiarizing. From my understanding, plagiarism is when you take part or all of a work and claim it as your own and/or without credit.
3. Rumor has it that the original package contained no credits document (bum bum bum). I cannot confirm this completely, but the original reddit posting has a link to a credits list (a rather long one).

As I stated before, there really isn't enough information on the subject, and because of this, it is difficult to draw a conclusion.
 

Manchubot

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Sep 9, 2010
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well, on a plus side the guy who made this mod compilation has the coolest Morrowind game ever to play now, so it's not all time wasted.
 

Danpascooch

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Apr 16, 2009
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What the FUCK modders!?

You were supposed to be different from the fucking corporations, what happened to caring about the GAME and not about the red tape?

I am disappointed.
 

Danpascooch

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Apr 16, 2009
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Jezzeh said:
There are a number of sites were this is still available... I've found several of them. Hopefully it won't die and third parties will continue to upload it despite the "risk."

If anyone is interested in download and hasn't had much luck finding it, try here:

http://www.filefront.com/17749072/The-Elder-Scrolls-III-Morrowind---Morrowind-2011-Mod-Compedium-1.0/
That's only 1.1gb, is that the right size?

HOLY SHIT! IT DOWNLOADED AT 11MEGABYTES PER SECOND!

What is that site? Most download sites let you get like 10kb/s after 10 captchas
 

Danpascooch

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Apr 16, 2009
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D_987 said:
Eri said:
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.
I'm not so sure it is illegal if he wasn't making money off of it.

Modding is supposed to be something that is done for the good of the community, but forcing him to take down is package, these modders are showing they obviously don't give a shit about the good of the community.
 

mr_rubino

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Sep 19, 2010
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ITT: Gamer entitlement complex and misunderstanding/dismissal of intellectual property rights.
In other news, the sky is blue and the sun rises in the east.