Mods using others' intellectual property (without permission)

SHOULD NEVER BE DONE.. i learnt the hard way and almost got torn a new one... as good as it may sound to do... most of the time you will get caught out... like i did

Simply illegal. One should NOT steal, And using other's property without permission is stealing.

Illegal and down right dumb. With all the free tutorials over the internet and thousands of sites and forums filled with people who dedicate their time on the internet to teaching people how to make things like models, textures, sounds, and everything else a mod needs, it's not really all that difficult to make something of your own. Combine that with the fact that the majority of modders will allow you to use their content without charge and ask for nothing more than a single line in your credit role, I think it's safe to say that stealing content isn't only a dumb move, it's utterly unnecessary.

I think it should be fine as long as you credit the person/company/etc. who made it in the first place. Although, I don't know how real that thought is or will be.

Should be legally licensed or get a permission to continue, so its fifth one for me :)

It's not necessarely a bad thing. I think it's allowed to a certain extent. But not when the whole mod is made up only from ripped content ( Vora bat ) And the whole community are doing this aswell and don't see a bad thing ( most of mow community ).

If it's a mod based upon an IP (like the Metroid mod for Halo CE), then that should be fine provided 100% of the material used in it is custom made and there's credit given. And the mod could have possibly gotten a few people into buying Metroid games (or Halo) themselves.

After all, sometimes it's difficult trying to get into contact with a company representative, especially if it's one of the big names. Take Mario Kart Source for instance, they just went ahead since they didn't get a response from Nintendo after a while.

Although people who just take another's content as their own without warning do deserve some kind of punishment, and that folks should try to reach the original company at least once, if anything.

I voted (2), can popularize the franchise.

No company will license their precious IP to modders. I get that, I understand why: there's a lot of money involved, and like it or not, they came with the idea behind the IP before you figured out that it needs improvements.

Having said that, it is preferable to have companies realize that mods using their IP are actually a good way to advertise that IP, rather than send cease and desist letters.

The options available for these polls are always somewhat related to eachother, and you cant choose multiples. In this case especially I would agree to all of them, since neither really contradict each other. except option 2 and 3 (which isnt really a contradiction), which is a 50/50 deal, either it popularises the franchise or damages it. but I can agree to all of them, and 6.

Anyhow, the one that stands out most for modding really is popularise the franchise, if its a mod, I would say stick to the IP your provided, If you use HL2, then make a HL2 mod, that would popularise the HL2 game, Dont go making a mod for another game fanchise like Resident evil using HL2... Thats just looking for trouble, either you will make the IP owners look bad if you do too good of a job, or you would make the franchise look bad if you do a crappy job. Either stick with the theme, or if you want to do a total conversion, then comeup with your own IP.

As for Indie games, (abit off topic) ceate your own IP strictly. Unless you get confirmation from original franchise IP owners.

Property is theft.

I personally think if your using someone elses assets that are included etc such as Source SDK it's fine. If your stealing other peoples content and saying it's yours then you should get seriously wrong.

I think people should stop copying games though and make new interesting games.

shhh! dont tell anyone!

i should say it comes under the fair use act

Meh i already used another Mod's content in my own xD
Tho that's what got it down from Planetphillips site. I have no idea what i should vote. Maybe: Should be legally licensed or officially permitted to continue?
I have no idea, i stopped modding ages ago. Now i just change a games file setup here and there if im not happy with the way the game is.

The most basic version of a mod (which means no total conversion) always uses other people's IP, namely the IP of the game that the mod was made for. They extend the storyline through campaigns or explore the game's world further.
The whole idea behind why developers provide mod support is to popularize the franchise and extend the lifespan of their own IP. Thus, my vote obviously goes to "Can popularise franchise".

The option "illegal" seems pretty pointless to me. That would neglect the very heart of where mods came from. That aside, it's simply not illegal in most states I know.

About the permission - several companies (like LucasArts) for instance take it for granted that people can create derivatives as long as they stay somewhat respectful to the franchise and do not monetize it. On the other hand, they don't respond to anyone proactively asking for permission, since they don't officially provide mod support (for workload reasons).
In most cases, there is no such thing as an explicit permission, so the question becomes kinda redundant in practise.

Re-animating and compiling weapons from games like MW2 doesn't annoy me that much. They're not making any money off of doing that and they paid for the game.

HOWEVER, stealing content from FREE community mods WITHOUT PERMISSION is not OK at all. They did it for no money, and on their spare time. I am a developer for a BF2 mod, and I can tell you, making content is not easy AT ALL.

This poll is slightly ambiguous. On one side there is using actual properties(models,sounds,etc), and using intellectual properties(Ideas, concept).
People here seem to argue, because of the 2 meanings...

Using properties from others in your mod is just not professional and is really not cool.

But I think using an IP or concept is different. The concept of intellectual property is very abstract and awkward. Once you share an idea its in our nature to try to improve on it, that's how we all get better at doing something.
Besides if an idea is kept alive by its fans, and entrenched in culture(video,art,fiction,fan games) it just becomes harder to forget, which is good when you try to sell something.
IP should be replaced by a license to sell product based on an idea, not owning an idea.

But yeah, better fix this poll, because the results are probably messed up because of the ambiguity...

This question led me to a 50/50 split. It's half illegal but the other half can be legally licensed or officially permitted to continue.

Mods ripping off other mods is pointless and makes the guys doing the ripping off even less skilled.

Make your own damn content, especially you Men of War guys.

I think it's stupid poll. Today, all just obsessed with intellectual property. Can't see nothing illegal, it did not selling anyway.

It depends whose IP it uses. If a modder steals an other modder's work, then it's definitely some bad rape.
But if it's using a very popular franchise such as starwars or warhammer. I say, amen.

I don't think this is a as simple as either one poll option or another. I'd like to rate each of the options on a scale of 1 to 10

I am confused. Whats this poll asking really? Someone please define?

If I get this right though: If you steal a mod idea from someone else who worked hard for it, then NO, that should be stopped.
Someone making a mod of a popular franchise, made by multi-million companies, then that can be considered alright, as long as it isnt there to just make fun of it.

It's unethical to use it without permission and sometimes the worst thing happened I remembered that the mod shut down, ended distribution and cleared everything by a large developer group.

Get permission. Simple enough.

This poll is just a little bit confusing. The Third Age, for example, uses video and imagery from LOTR films, which in my opinion is great and absolutely harmless.

However, if you downright copy models from another game without permission, that is unacceptable.

Nobody seems to understand the poll. It's not asking about ripping assets. It's a question of using intellectual property, like making a mod BASED ON an existing universe, such as Star Wars, Warhammer, Lord of the Rings, etc.

It basically is free advertising for an IP, but I think companies are legally obligated to shut them down in order to protect their copyright (I'm pretty sure that's why Games Workshop shuts down so many fan projects, not because they're evil or think they're losing profits).

I dont see the big deal, if your going to be greedy and deny use of your content dont release it. Otherwise as long as credit is given who cares? Frankly people are just too damn proud and greedy these days, if your gonna make something for the community why limit its use?

When I make, head, or work on a mod I dont care if permission was given or not but I do make sure to give proper credit to the maker(s).

Define OTHERS, then define PROPERTY.
I think it comes down to what you are doing.
If you are making a pokemon mod for (an example) half life, you should be alowed to.
If you are making are taking music from artists without permission (as the title states) then its a no go.

If you are copying from other mods (I mean like taking their models without their premission), I think that is the real question.