First off, let it be clear that HHF had nothing to do with the insulting and mod bashing that SSC has dealt with. We are deeply sorry to hear that SSC has been ridiculed the way it has and is very unbecoming of the entire mod community to condone such actions.
After accusations were made that HHF allegedly had stolen a background from the SSC team without asking, and due to a difficult language barrier that has made for even more difficult communication on the subject, and due to the lack of communication in general on the subject at hand (ex: saying you contacted us in the first place about the issue when you never did and calling us out publicly instead of politely sending a PM asking what was up), I have taken it upon myself to reveal the facts of the matter. These facts will be written here.
After downloading SSC's Alpha 1.4 for the first time, I made sure to extract the .big file so I could look at its core files and compare the two maps. What I found was indeed startling as both the map backgrounds were identical, save for the background sprites SSC uses for planets in their map. Yes, you read correctly, the two map backgrounds are the same.
This is the hard part as I'm not quite sure what has happened here. I have contacted EvilleJedi since he is the alleged creator of the background, but have heard no reply back. Furthermore, Aliah, our coder, was in charge of creating maps as well as writing code for weapons and effects where Velo was concept and modeller and I was texture and HODer. She has claimed to have gotten permission from SSC to use certain scripts, and claims she has forgotten where she got the map. Since the two map backgrounds are essentially the same, and Aliah both co-opted some agreement with SSC in the past and made all our maps, I am inclined to assume that Aliah has put the background into our mod. Both backgrounds also share the same name, have the same ambient lighting and star positions, the only difference being our planets are actual models.
I cannot stress enough how both confusing and hard to believe this is, and am still pending judgement until I hear from EvilleJedi in the near future. However, with the given circumstances, I have to weigh in the facts that the backgrounds are identical. Since HHF's beginnings, we have asked permission to use scripts, graphics, etc. We take this matter very seriously.
Currently, the maps have been changed. This change was made before the allegations were made against our mod and we implore that the background is not being used at this time, nor do we have plans to ever use it again.
Again, HHF is very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused for both mods, especially SSC for having to endure the insults they have gained these last couple of days. HHF will work harder in the future to make sure all our members have been given permission to use another mod's objects from now on.
We also stress that next time an issue like this comes up, please PM us or contact us on our forums to handle the matter discretely. Posting a public service announcement stating one mod stole another is unprofessional and has clearly led to more problems than what it was worth.
-880Zero, lead Texture artist, HHF.
you tell'em 880zero
This is the first I've heard of this issue but it sounds bad.
Not to sound too insulting but the SSC team doesn't too professional anyway. I went on the mod page and many people's comments have just been deleted, not only insults as well. If they go around censoring everything but praise and cause this much of an uproar in the community I'm not quite sure what to think of them.
Good to see there are some sensible people left in the world, I applaud you for your calm and reasonable response to a difficult situation. Good on you
Crap... But Aliah was your coder D: I know Zero can code but, he have to texture first...
Personally, I think it's rather dumb that everyone's freaking out about a simple background.
People need to calm their ****.
We've never really endorsed the freaking out, we never even got to see most of it.
However i have to ask that people stop sending abuse to the SSC team, we really don't condone it and you're just making us look even worse given that we were in the wrong.
Continuing the feud when both mod teams have apologised and especially sending hate messages is simply going to end up getting you banned from the site, we hope our fans are smart enough to stop.
SSC also claims that they copyrighted everything in their mod. Which is impossible because Stargate is already copyrighted. Seems kind of silly to me.
They can copyright their models and such because it is their creation they are not copyrighting stargate just their creations.
The likeness of those ships are copyrighted by the producers of Stargate. So how can they copyright those models which are modeled after copyrighted intellectual property?
I guess I can draw the Silver Surfer, name it that and copyright it. Marvel can't say **** about it.
No, this is illegal. If you make models, textures, backgrounds, etc for an established universe, especially one owned by Sci-Fi, you don't own anything. They own everything you make if it has anything to do with Stargate. Take Battlestar Galactica for example, they shut down the HW2 BSG mod because Sci-Fi made a BSG game and they had every right because it was their copyright.
Well, they don't automatically own it, it's just in our case with halo they do as they've specifically said it. Normal IP law doesn't mean anything you make automatically belongs to the IP holder, unless you're working under an agreement as we are.
So I am right then saying that SSC's claim of copyright for the materials used in their mod is illegal?
Why we delete ? Because when you say that i'm a Nazi, what i'm thinking !
Yes you're French. You can't be a Nazi. The French aren't cut out for the unnecessary evil that the Nazis represent.
Ben c'est sûr que les messages de ce genre sont déplorables, mais vous auriez quand même dû parler à HHF en privé, et non publiquement. Ça a juste fait de la merde...
This all could have been avoided in the first place if you had just PMed Velo or me, instead of claiming you had falsely.
This whole thing is rather silly. But the reasoning is there. Oh well, Such is life
I've talked to Aliah and she's checked her inbox. I want to make it clear she wasn't intentionally stealing despite what zero's said, she simply mistook what Evillejedi was giving her permission for. She was asking about weapon fx and got this reply
EvilleJedi Jan 1 2012, 12:44pm says:
Feel free to use what you can.
Which she took to mean any of his stuff, which i guess we can see wasn't what he meant at all.
Just want to stress, don't treat this as a witch hunt. All this drama came about because of a break down of communication, which just stresses how important it is to properly communicate before going public with anything (which applies to us as well, Zero)
The legions of Halo fans will take any little scrap and sensationalize it. It's unfortunate; modders have to take business-like precautions to protect their reputation. If open to the public, something minor can explode out of control as underinformed people make accusations and/or perform actions on their assumptions. It goes from bad to worse, people get banned or shunned, progress is lost (sometimes permanently), and those involved are left with varying degrees of bitterness.
Glad to hear that everything was cleared up in the end by both mod teams.
glad to see everything's mostly settled.
it would've been a shame to see 2 great mod teams fighting over a background(which may seem like childish but intelectual property is important)
Looking great, keep up the good work.