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Incline Nexus Now Disallowing Creators To Delete Their Mods (Aug 5 Cutoff Date Passed)

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Codex Year of the Donut
^ With original creative elements which are transformative, creating new layers of creative ownership.

(Can't believe this has to be pointed out on the Codex for fuck's sake.)
The ownership you signed away.
Goodluck convincing a judge that you were right to willingly violate a contract for a video game.
 

JarlFrank

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Brb gonna call all the small press publishers who printed short stories of mine and demand they burn all the books left in their stock. I'm sure they'll comply!

And no, it's not a different thing just because I was paid by those publishers. It's pretty much the same: I signed a contract granting these publishers the right to print my stories.
When you sign up to the Nexus you agree to the terms and conditions which grant the Nexus the right to distribute your mod.

It's basically a publishing agreement, except you don't get paid for it cause it's a mod.
 

Burning Bridges

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And boy, do you have reason to get those stories burnt! I have read a bit in "Die Kleine Gelbe Kröte" and required psychotherapy afterwards.
 

Ravielsk

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When was ownership ever signed away?

(Legally, not ToS bullshit.)
"Your honor, I signed the contracted but in my defense I thought it was a bullshit contract"

Thing is you did not sign anything. ToS is not a contract and as far as I am aware if a contract is presented to you after purchase or functions on the basis of "to use this thing you already bought/we present as being free" its mute all the same. The judge would realistically not even look at it.

That being said modders do not really want to have that kind of intelectual property in their hands. Because the second it becomes theirs it also becomes their responsibility. So if you "sponsor" your shit through patreon only to then delete it because someone used the wrong pronouns you are opening yourself up to a lawsuit(that you would lose). Or alternatively if you make a "star wars inspired" mod and Disney takes issues with that they can sue you to hell and back. Worse yet can you imagine the legal shitstorm if the IP holders for script extenders or framework mods started to try and use "their intellectual property rights" to boss around who can and cannot work with their shit. Not only would it be the death of the modding scene in general but I am certain it would bankrupt most involved in the whole affair.

For mods to remain viable they have to be in this nebulous legal limbo where technically no one can really claim ownership of them. The second you start doing that its only a question of time before all mods go the way of the dodo.
 

NJClaw

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Stating "your usage of this service grants the owners of this service the right to rape your mother", does not in fact, make the rape legal.
Dude, what the fuck.

That wouldn't make rape legal because rape isn't legal. That contract would be void because it is illegal in itself.

On the other hand, giving to a publisher the right to publish your product is perfectly legal.

The fact that you can't agree to something illegal doesn't mean that you can't agree to something legal.
 

Burning Bridges

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Stokowski is from East Europe, their understanding of modern law is still in the 1980s.

And yes, preventing someone from deleting a file on your server is not illegal. The rape comparison is Kindergarten level.

On the other hand, you could legally sell somebody the pyramids in Egypt. That means he can claim them from you, and if you cannot provide him with the pyramids, you would have to compensate him.

That means you could do almost impossible things in a contract, what matters is the intent of the parties. And if the intent is to publish a mod, it does not work so good for deleting it, without asking the other party.

The difference is only that in the past Nexus provided a service for modders to host, alter and delete their files to their hearts content and now they ask them to sign a contract, which no one is forced to do.
 

Immortal

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When was ownership ever signed away?

(Legally, not ToS bullshit.)

You know what really gets the Noggin Jogging ?
Nexus terms of use for hosting mods is almost identical to Bethesda's..

If You distribute or otherwise make available New Materials [Mods], You automatically grant to Bethesda Softworks {Zenimax} the irrevocable, perpetual, royalty free, sublicensable right and license under all applicable copyrights and intellectual property rights laws to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, perform, display, distribute and otherwise exploit and/or dispose of the New Materials (or any part of the New Materials) in any way Bethesda Softworks, or its respective designee(s), sees fit.

Isn't it weird.. I wonder why all these pointless Terms of Service and EULA's exist..
What a dumb legal team that Bethesda hired to draft this.. Huh?


Let's look at ModDB
https://www.moddb.com/terms-of-use
By posting Content to the Service, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed). This license authorizes us to make your Content available worldwide. You agree that this license includes the right for DBolical Pty Ltd to provide, promote, and improve the Services and to make Content submitted to or through the Service available to other companies, organizations or individuals for the syndication, broadcast, distribution, promotion or publication of such Content on other media and services, subject to our terms and conditions for such Content use.

Wow Weird..


But I guess... we should all listen to the random retard lolyer on an rpg forum.. cause he knows best.
I look forward to you filing that lawsuit against Nexus.

I can already picture your opening statement:
"Your honour, allow me to explain with an analogy.. let's say I'm raping your mother.."



lol at anyone applauding nexus for doing this, you morons just don't get it

Oh great explanation, that clears it up. How wrong I've been!
Thanks for the in-depth analysis. :lol:
 
Last edited:

Stokowski

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On the other hand, giving to a publisher the right to publish your product is perfectly legal.

Granting the legal right of publication does not transfer ownership of the original work.

I don't know how people can be so stupid as to miss this fundamental point.

The rape comparison is Kindergarten level.

Of course it is. I'm writing for numbskulls like you.

"Your honor, I signed the contracted but in my defense I thought it was a bullshit contract"
Your honour, allow me to explain with an analogy.. let's say I'm raping your mother.."

More like:
"Your honour, in my defense, I naively believed the right-to-rape clause could never be enforced. But apparently those legal geniuses on an internet forum were correct."
 

Stokowski

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Brb gonna call all the small press publishers who printed short stories of mine and demand they burn all the books left in their stock. I'm sure they'll comply!

Did your contract give them the right to publish an imaginary number of copies in perpetuity? That's the difference, not payment.
 

NJClaw

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On the other hand, giving to a publisher the right to publish your product is perfectly legal.

Granting the legal right of publication does not transfer ownership of the original work.

I don't know how people can be so stupid as to miss this fundamental point.
Brb gonna call all the small press publishers who printed short stories of mine and demand they burn all the books left in their stock. I'm sure they'll comply!

Did your contract give them the right to publish an imaginary number of copies in perpetuity? That's the difference, not payment.
Dude, are you dumb or what? Publishing contracts can easily give to the publisher the right to the author's work for the entire author's lifetime and more.

Why are you talking so arrogantly about something you clearly know nothing about?
 

Parabalus

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Enthusiastically hailing the coming of Big Mod.


Stop jerking yourself off. Make an actual point here if you have one.
Nexus provides the best service for the cheapest price (free)

Am I supposed to purposefully force myself to download mods somewhere else because "muh modopoly"

How about not celebrating a blatant cash grab?

It's always the same with these 'free' services, everything is fine until they have a monopoly on the userbase, then the shit starts pouring in.

Nexus used to allow DLs without an account, but that wasn't enough tracking money for them.
 

Immortal

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Enthusiastically hailing the coming of Big Mod.


Stop jerking yourself off. Make an actual point here if you have one.
Nexus provides the best service for the cheapest price (free)

Am I supposed to purposefully force myself to download mods somewhere else because "muh modopoly"

How about not celebrating a blatant cash grab?

It's always the same with these 'free' services, everything is fine until they have a monopoly on the userbase, then the shit starts pouring in.

Nexus used to allow DLs without an account, but that wasn't enough tracking money for them.

Oh I see, you are just ass blasted cause Nexus made you create an account.
(Which you decided to bitch about on your RPGCodex Account of all things)

FYI - It's not all just about "$$$Muh Tracking Data$$$ For Marketers$$" - Account creation is a great way to stop scrapers and botnets from trashing your bandwidth by initializing fake-download requests repeatedly for a denial of service..

Would you rather have an account or solve a captcha on every download page?

All that aside though, this whole "Nexus should provide me endless bandwidth / downloads of content all the time for free with no ads or account required - I deserve this!" Makes You just sound like an entitled whiny bitch.

Like I'm supposed to go download my mods from some google drive posted on a random Korean forum because Nexus made me spend 5 seconds to create a burner account. Get Real.
I'm also calling bullshit that you boycott Nexus in protest of this non-issue - you can't have that huge of a victim complex.
 

Immortal

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On the other hand, giving to a publisher the right to publish your product is perfectly legal.

Granting the legal right of publication does not transfer ownership of the original work.

I don't know how people can be so stupid as to miss this fundamental point.
Brb gonna call all the small press publishers who printed short stories of mine and demand they burn all the books left in their stock. I'm sure they'll comply!

Did your contract give them the right to publish an imaginary number of copies in perpetuity? That's the difference, not payment.
Dude, are you dumb or what? Publishing contracts can easily give to the publisher the right to the author's work for the entire author's lifetime and more.

Why are you talking so arrogantly about something you clearly know nothing about?

He's obviously an expert.. What part of his "Why can't a ToS let me rape, maim and murder people then??" argument did you not understand?
 
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Codex Year of the Donut
nexus accounts are worth it solely for tracking which mods you downloaded
if I'm replaying a game I always go and check which mods I used before through that
 

Ismaul

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"Modders are scum. Please makes rules to fuck them over even more than the EULA so I can enjoy their work more conveniently plz plz."

Bunch of modder hating mod lovers!
 

copebot

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Mods are in a nebulous state as it relates to copyright, and the rights of modders are usually further suppressed by the EULA contracts of modding tools like Bethesda creation kits. Your best bet if you wanted to protect your IP as a modder would be to only use third party tools and to separately copyright art assets. Anything that relies on the parent game to function is in a questionable state as it relates to US copyright law. On the other hand, it is really easy to copyright entire databases, any art asset you can think of, and any text string that you can type. See this William & Mary Business Law Review article for more on the current legal status of mods: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1198&context=wmblr

Obviously if you are an indie developer looking to encourage modding, you could write whatever you wanted into your EULA. This Is Not Legal Advice, but if you are a modder and you are concerned about other modders or companies copying your work, you can copyright any work that is not derivative of the game in question: so any textures, character dialogue, item descriptions, 3D models, 2D sprites, databases of item attributes, and so on and so forth, all of this can be formally protected in return for a small fee paid to Copyright.gov. What cannot be copyrighted would be, for example, maps you made with a Bethesda Creation Kit or items that you created using said kit. Digital things that only exist when they are created by one of these corporate game kits entangled with a creator-unfriendly EULA may not be copyrightable. Digital things that you create using toolkits that are NOT encumbered by such a EULA can be copyrighted by you and you could enforce your rights in federal court if it came to that.

An interesting question that I have about this that I have not researched enough to answer with any certainty is whether or not an asset created outside a EULA-encumbered toolkit that is then imported into a mod that only works with the game could be considered a derivative work of the game encumbered by said EULA, and if the EULA would override my copyrighted art assets. Say I have a mod with 100 unique swords that I created and textured using external tools that I imported into the mod. I copyright my swords, my textures, and the dataset that includes the item descriptions and attributes. The mod itself as a complete package would not be copyrightable, but many of the art assets and text contained in that mod would be my IP which I could register no problem. Then this also raises the question about NexusMods' liability for hosting copyright infringing content. They have one page describing the File Submission Guidelines, but it's missing sections that are present on other online platforms like the Amazon.com marketplace: https://help.nexusmods.com/article/28-file-submission-guidelines

For example, if you create a product listing on Amazon, you grant Amazon a perpetual license to use any copyrighted content you upload to them. The same goes for Facebook and other similar platforms. This gives Amazon et al double protection against potential allegations of copyright infringement. Amazon's defense is not just the Section 230 safe harbor or the DMCA provisions concerning how a host can protect itself from liability: it explicitly makes it so that the uploader declares under penalty of perjury that they have the right to upload that content. Nexus, I'm assuming, just tries to maintain its DMCA safe harbor without saying anything about whether or not the uploader is granting them any license. The uploader is just pinkie swearing that they haven't infringed on anyone's rights without extending any license to NexusMods. In practical terms it probably doesn't matter much for most of what NexusMods does: if they get a DMCA claim they probably just comply, and they probably don't have much money so they are not that attractive of a target for litigation.
 

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