I don't want to resurrect the late unpleasantness about intellectual property, but is there a consensus on when an author has been deemed to have abandoned a project?
And what are the "rules" on passing the baton to yourself.

I assume that contact has been attempted with the author - and there is no resonse after a reasonable period (2 weeks?)
>> I assume the author left no use instructions at all.
I assume full credit for the original work would be given in any new published material based on the abandoned mod.

Obviously, moding for private use and not publishing it is not prohibited.


Case in point - a mod last touched by author over 5 months ago. Nice basic concept, but many of the component pieces are not appearing due to work arounds to beth bugs that are now fixed.
It would be a shame not to fix the mod if people want to still use it.


Let's keep this civil, I am not contemplating anarchy, theft, or violation of intellectual property created by another modder.

Thanks!

If the readme says not to touch any of their mods, of course you don't.
If it says you can without permission, then do so and just credit them.
If it says you must contact them first, or there isn't any information regarding it, then contact them in as many ways as you can. Different forum accounts, email if you can find one, look through their contact details and such. I'd wait at least a month. If you get no reply after that length of time, I feel it's your decision on whether you take that mod.

Personally, I would and then credit them, linking back to the original mod. Also adding a note that if the author wants it removed, then you'll agree to their wishes without fuss. As long as you don't claim it as your mod, no matter how much work you put into it, I feel it's okay.

Two things:

1) For Nexus mods at least, the author had to specify permissions when they uploaded the mod. Those are held to persist even after the author has "abandoned" the mod, unless stated otherwise in the description or readme.

2) Two weeks is way too short a time to consider an author to be out of contact...people go on vacations for longer than that; some jobs can take people out of contact for longer than that; some countries have required military service terms; and especially at this time of year, modders who are students may be settling back into school or spending a semester abroad and so have uncertain connectivity. I say in my readme file that if I'm unreachable for more than six months, the mod reverts to the community. But I say that explicitly because my understanding is that #1 is the rule of thumb.