A recent influx of stolen content in mods has forced my hand to post this, im duplicating it here .
Copyright and you! ModDB as you may not be aware does have a strong copyright stance, we need to protect you the members from possibly having a legal bat hit across your head and same for ourselves. Staff are always on the lookout for people stealing others work and claiming its there own as well as other shady happenings, as a point we are asking for your help to keep the site clean of thieves.
Examples of copyright violation are:
- De-compiling/Disassembling content for use in another games engine.
- Use of another games art assets in a mod without the consent of the artist.
- Claiming work is yours when it was made by some one else.
- Taking work from a mod or game and using it in another without consent.
As a important note even if you credit the author of the content used, permission is still needed to use it. Crediting will only cover you if you have permission in the first place.
If users are found to have uploaded content with stolen assets, they will have their account suspended aswell as all their mods, addons and downloads removed, this is a minor slap on the wrist in comparison to large companies reactions that can include legal costs and fines in the hundred of thousands.
If you see a mod with stolen content, please contact us with a link to the content claimed to be stolen for investigation.
Regards
ModDB Content Management Staff
thank you very much for taking action in this moddb community. this has been long overdue. Hopefully the community will learn from this, and we can take a step to a better future with that knowledge.
Modern Pack FOREVER!!!
Shatterend Lands is "GAVNO"!!1!!
What Shattered Lands have with this? Someone was warn vora_bat to stop using arma or mw2 models and he's continue to do that. I don't support anyone here but the most people when register here on moddb never read a rules of site. Almost every MoW mod contain models from other game. Except World in War: Vietnam, Men of War : Totaler Krieg 1939-45, Enduring Freedom - War on Terror,Men of War WW1, Men of War : Russian Civil War, ]Brother of War, Shattered Land, German Soldier Mod and The beginning.
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Vora_bat are dont use MW2, Arma models! He is good man, i know him, i am he friend!
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DMS Speaking what models are created by Vora_Bat. Not from games!
Sentro-New can You point out where DigitalMindSoft backs vora_bat?
last time i remember his mods were banned off the DMS forums for using content from our games (repeatedly)
i would really like to see some backing of your statement ...
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Read DMS, i hate stupid americans.
i'm not american and like i said show me the thread...
i would like to see that so i can talk with DMS developers about it ...
vora_bat has already used content from our games several times, same from our modding community ...
duplicate ...
i think he's talking about this thread
Digitalmindsoft.eu
but i looks like there are nothing from admins written there. Though the thread was made long ago, so they find nothing unapropriate in his mod.
I know the rule but..using someone mod wait out talking is big crime
Oh, they just like to blame everything on the Shattered lands mod team because I'm a part of it, and for a while I was showing everyone he was a fraud.
I was the only person from the SL team who was even around latley. Fenresianwolf just got home about a month ago and Solistx is still in Europe. but Like I said, they just want to think that we're trying to eliminate competition so that they can make everyone sympathize with them.
Okay. whatever you say broski.
Assuming you're not Vora himself, go over to the website where he continues to leak stolen content and give him my regards.
i like the rocket, it perfectly personifys copyright issues.
look don't give me the negative karma....because I just want learn for you guy's....I just want learn wait you and don't think I using google..I just little bad english okay WOLF is right vora_bat using MW2 and arma models for just for fun...anyway I here because anyone want know vora is look like right
Ok. So you're going to close all the mods in "Men of War" section? All of us know, that only several teams make their own content from scratch. Others use stuff from other games/mods. I think you know how many mods based on PoT mod. Why are they still not closed?
I want to believe that this statement is really the beginning of "Great Purge" and not attempt to cover up the harassment of one person. But so far removed only one mod - "Modern Pack". So what is it?
It was already brought to the attention of the Moddb moderation that there were several mods utilizing content from that PoT mod. So far some people have been honorable enough to remove illegal content from their mods without reporting to moderators. an example being the United Offensive Cold war mod, or Fallout mod.
Hey Kastrenzo.
Weren't you, like, ignoring this whole issue and my team in particular, like, monts ago? Jeez. Stop spamming the thread. Nebel's question was pointed to Moddb staff, not you, you sadsack.
oi behave, i reviewed what was flagged and removed those as deemed appropriate, 8 mods were removed, so its not just one and they wernt just voras
Oh that one hurt. I think Im going to go sob my eyes out and watch soap operas on the television now.
to clarify, I stopped paying attention to all the arguing that was going on Vorabat's profile page. it seemed that everyone had stopped talking on it anyway and it was just a bunch of trolling at that point. My involvment in this article was originally to thank the moderation for finally doing something about the mass of content theft. and now as of current, it seems it's stooped down to arguing with people who want to insult or deface me, or the mod that I help out with.
To my understanding,the moderator that posted this article, and also banned Vorabat, had already recieved a few complaints about Copyright fraud and such. but there wasn't a lot done about it until recently, there were more mods coming out, and the problem was just getting worse
A message was sent to the moderation trying to inform them of the sheer level of Content theft that went unchecked in the Men of war page, Several mods were listed as examples, Many of which were leftovers from the POT Era, mods that were still using models even though the original POT Mod was banned from moddb. but it was explicitly stated that these mods should NOT Be banned, and rather be given a warning. As I said earlier, some people were honorable enough to admit the models were not their own, and remove them promptly.
Moderation made the decision to ban Vora, I have my own inclinements and opinions, yes I agree with the notion. But I havent even been paying attention to Moddb or Men of war as of late. I've been playing on another game, and I only learned about Vora getting banned about a day or two after it had happened.
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I agreed Kastrenzo . but his did using the mod to bad thing is really danger to look but look in great side If I know..I never believe vora_bat ban making. I just using his mod just to wait Shattered land and other mod by make his own maker..did know, I just want become A good mapping design check look my image profile I just using vora mod just for anti-boredom, if shattered finally here I well delete vora mod in my PC did.... don't give me the negative karma I just want be nice and help the shattered land mod and any mod made by his maker...I hope SL,Men Of The Emperor:Burning Horizon and A World in War: Vietnam mod...I want A wish..I hope this three mod never die because I love good design by made own self not A stolen for any game like vora_bat did....I hate stolen A design..before I using just say to his maker that all...This message is not a threat
@kaskrin - you're such a hypocrite. jumping to sides when it suits you. you have fun from the mods you downloaded from vora then stab him in the back. judging from your personality i am very sure that if sl comes out you would be quick to merge vora's mods with their mod.
neh I just using those mod for just for fun not really.....look why you all do that........damn..
Keep your personal disagreement to pms.
I wanna praise the Moddb Moderator Staff for taking such actions. IP theft shalt not be accepted! ;D
look I fear did say anything but any-mod make by own group is good but if make the own mod wait out know the rule..we'll is big troubles just like vora...I just pretend love his mod but I really hate those mod..easy be error I just fix those damn...if this bad message don't give me the negative karma, okay good the if anyone want know make I mod is easy or hard but If you joining the group call the beginning Modding team is good for An beginning to know make own mod wait out using other model from A game I just join this group for more open
vora_bat kind of got the short end of the stick with this one.
yeah I Agreed...what ever did this thing are helping really great full I know now thanks wait this thing
I still think its dishonest that he stole from games, but what really kills is that he stole from MODS. People will GIVE you their stuff if you just ask them and maybe include one line of credit towards them.
It just seems like a low blow.
Well, some material came straight from BIS, and, AFAIK, BIS is not giving it's MLODS to anyone. So far, only Project Reality earned the right to use them.
if i bought a game fair and square, wouldn't that game be mine? if so, hence all the contents of that game are mine since i bought it. then that means i can do anything i want with its contents like make the models and turn it into one of my mods. according to the eula i am prohibited to make copies of the game (dvd) but it does not say that i am prohibited to mod the game and to use the game contents for my own purposes. i mean, i bought it that means i bought the contents of the game too right? the game company already made a profit of $40 - $50 out of me. so why not i make out the most of my hard-earned money that i used to purchase a particular game and use its contents for a mod and i wouldn't even have a profit from it.
so then making a mod using the contents from a game i bought is stealing?
Just because you bought a game does not mean you have ANY Right to the virtual content inside it, it is still SOLEY The property of the developer of the game. Your logic is severley flawed.
Also $50 does not even BEGIN To cover the costs of making a game. Throw 50 or 60 Thousand at a developer, then you can start talking about rights to do with what you want.
then why sell it and why buy it? and it's not only me that bought it. 50,000 gamers who bought the same game for $50 have every right to do what they want to do with it.
i bought it and you cannot do anything with me doing what i want to do with the game i bought. so you say that if i bought a t-shirt with a logo, i do not own the logo on the t-shirt i bought?
oh that's right. when your mod comes out, we can do whatever we want with it. thanks for a mod that we could re-mod. :)
Except I can say that I dont allow you using content from us :)
@solistx - i know. it's for local play anyway :) we can edit it for local lan play :) don't worry about us making our mod out of it and uploading it.
@link: Do you know what means a LICENSE? Did you ever read the EULA in the softwares you buy? You don't buy a game, you buy A LICENSE TO INSTALL AND RUN IT IN YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER. Read the licenses and then come back to discuss.
@just - lol!. the license doesn't say that i can't mod it. licenses vary and most even give permission to mod the game and still no matter how you jump and down chagrin' we games can do whatever we want with a game no matter how you slice or dice it.
You are more than free to mod it, but in CoD's case, they have a line in the EULA specifically for that:
"All New Game Materials created by you shall be exclusively owned by Activision and/or its licensors as a derivative work..."
Also, this is the second line of the CoD4 EULA (similar to the MW2 one, but I don't own that game):
"Make copies of this Program or any part thereof, or make copies of the materials accompanying this Program."
So making these materials available, commercially or not, is technically illegal regardless of circumstances. Of course, you could mod it yourself and not distribute it, but then the laws do not apply since you are not violating copyright law.
You guys need to stop arguing anyway. An admin is going to come in here and clean all this up in the end. Besides, it's a battle nobody can win. Nobody will ever agree with each other.
Very true, I agree with everything you said Fenris.
@fenris - you are right. and eula licenses are different for each game and company too like ea, activision, thq etc.
@linke: The license very probably says you have no permission to decompile/reverse-engineer the software, and that all mods released for the game using game material are to be used only in that given game. I'm really sure that most commercial-games licenses say that.
Well Link, you can go ahead and make mods off of other companies game engines without a legal liscence to the engine and sell them for your own financial gain, I just hope you enjoy getting DMCA'ed and getting sued for everything you have by an army of corporate lawyers.
You seriously have NO idea what the hell you are talking about so do yourself a favor and stop arguing about it
@kastra - did i ever say that i was going to make financial gain about any mods at all?
all i said that what we do here locally is modify some mods for our enjoyment but i did not mention that we would sell them or even upload them. read my comment first before implying or falsely accusing as you have been adept at doing.
i've never seen any army of corporate lawyers suing mu**** and other pirate vendors here in my place not even in manila.
for my games i have to travel to another city to purchase them in a legal store mind you.
and no i did not start any argument i just made a statement in my main post just to hear people's opinion about it. you and just made an argument about it.
" bought a game fair and square, wouldn't that game be mine? if so, hence all the contents of that game are mine since i bought it. then that means i can do anything i want with its contents like make the models and turn it into one of my mods. "
You spoke as if you had the rights to the content *Models, textures, sounds, etc* which you do not. end of story. If you have any further comments you are free to send them to me Via PM, Stop kicking a dead horse in this article's comments. almost everyone else has stopped why Can't you. I only replied because your statement was laughably wrong.
@kastra - you replied and are implicating that i was going to sell mods for profit. you are very wrong with your comment. and fyi the game eula permits mod to be made so i have the right to do what i please with it as long as it isn't illegal. i can merge contents with other games too as long as it is for private use and not for illegal public dissemenation or for illegal profit.
mind your own business. as if you haven't mod contents from other games when you first got started modding.
we can't stopped kicking that dead horse since that dead castrated horse is surely YOU! go cry a river somewhere else.
do you like arguing on the internet? or making a fool of yourself. I was absent for quite a long time from this article and it's just been you flapping your gums in this artcile for the longest time.
You seriously need to be more clear when saying things, you said I quote "then that means i can do anything i want with its contents" Which you cannot, use them for a mod sure, but Not "whatever you want"
bye
@castra - so what? i'm not permitted to defend myself against your accusation? good to know that you said you "goodbyes"...but knowing with your trolling around moddb, a "bye" from you isn't always a goodbye. stop trolling, stop hating, stop making false accusations, keep to yourself and whew!....finally the air is clean, the dead smelly horse is now gone...i hope.
You missed my point. You said that I've been trolling you in this article when infact I wasnt even replying to it for a long time, it was you, Justicebedone and a few others arguing with each other
So long as people arent attacking me, or posting foolish things like what you said about being able to do whatever you want with game content since you paid $50. I have no reason nor desire to argue with people.
I am not trying picking a fight, So please stop trying to act like an Internet tough guy. you aren't intimidating me, and I'm sure I'm annoying you as much as you are with me.
I was actually trying to correct you before you got yourself into trouble with legal implications.
I'm offering a chance to make ammends. so if you'd like to resolve it you can PM Me.
I suggest we all leave it at that, this Article is like a month old now and has been SEVERLEY Derailed by dozens of people, I do not deny that I contributed to it. a big reason why it was derailed is the misconception that it was targetting an individual mod when TKAzA even said himself that there were like 6 mods that were deleted.
@kastra - i don't need correction as i wasn't in any trouble at all.
if you want to make amends, stop making false accusations, and if you really want to stop this crap, just to be fair to vora whom you falsely accuse with your false video about modern pack, convince the admin to bring modern pack into moddb. if you can't or won't then surely you don't have the heart to make amends.
then people reading this will know if you are really for reconciliation.
if you have any other replies or what, send it through pm.
Haha, I didn't know my reporting of that Modern pack to Dwarden would have caused such a stir! It's like I'm the plagiarist's boogieman now. I can live with that rep!
Good job!
On what basis did you report it?