Wait... this is news for you guys? AFAIK they've always done this lol.

And always got away with it. Time to stop this.

I completely agree with you Meek.

It isnt right what they do; they are not a very nice company with a crappy site. Thats why they resort to this sort of bullcrap cos their site aint good enough to attract traffic on its own; they gotta steal other peoples hard work.

It's positively foul.


EDIT:
svcky spelling lol.

How to Send a DMCA Takedown Notice http://rising.blackstar.com/how-to-send-a-dmca-takedown-notice.html

Edit:

I have been informed that while many issues were raised in the first post in this thread, none of them were the topic of this thread. The topic of this thread, apparently, is: "How can we contact someone at FilePlanet that has authority to administer their mod archives".

If that is why you are here, here is the relevant answer: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1320924-fileplanet-just-taking-mods-and-ignoring-modders/page__view__findpost__p__19873115

That said, other topics have been raised, and no one else seems interested in removing that content from this thread, so I am leaving my originally posted content here.

---------------------------------------
-- My original post follows:

Personally...

I sort of like what File Planet is doing. I say this because when I went on a morrowind spree, prior to skyrim's release, I would often find mods on File Planet which had been abandoned by other sites.

All of this "you need my permission" stuff is great when you're being active -- it's nice to have some control so that you can make things right -- but years after you have gone on to other things? That turns into a total pain, at that point, for anyone trying to find the "locked down" stuff that other stuff depends on.

Meanwhile, keep in mind that all of this material is ultimately Bethesda's -- its stuff they sell for money, and the mods are primarily modifications of Bethesda's game. And, ok, sure, you *did* put creative work into it, and sometimes the files are structured in such a way that the file itself was something you pretty much built by yourself. But, honestly, no one plays your file -- they play the game with your mod included. And the way Bethesda treats this issue is that anyone with a legit copy of the game has a right to play mods of that game.

Anyways, personally, I try and avoid ever using anyone's content if they have a "do not distribute" label on it, and they are active, and if I have any vague plans for making my own mods for that game. I do not want to ever be put in a situation where I cannot distribute my own mods. I think people that try to enforce restrictions on their mods being redistributed are being childish, but I also want to respect their wishes and I think the best way to achieve that involves never using their stuff.

And, honestly, I would prefer that people that do not want their stuff redistributed would never upload it. If it's a needed mod, someone else will fill probably eventually the need, but when someone puts a "do not redistribute" mod that mostly covers that need, that makes it less likely that someone else will make that kind of mod with reasonable distribution terms.

But that's just my opinion.

From a legal point of view: We are talking about derivative works based on Bethesda's copyrighted material. And as one of the copyright holders on a derivative work of Bethesda's material you do not have a lot of ability to have your work distributed on different terms from Bethesda's original terms. You can of course lock it down entirely, but the issues involving legal control of limited redistribution of a derivative of material that someone else charges for and that you are not charging for are probably not anything anyone here wants to get into. (You are probably going to have to show violation of contract in a context where no contract exists, since you have already allowed free-redistribution of your work, to anyone that wants a copy. If they were not giving you credit, however, you probably have an issue that could be taken to court.)

---------------------------------------
-- Final note:

Since this thread has reached the 200 post limit and will probably be locked soon, I wanted to point out that the accusations of stealing, which currently appear in the original post in this thread, appear to be false. Here are a couple posts in this thread which touches on what I think are the actual facts that lead to the narrative here:

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1320924-fileplanet-just-taking-mods-and-ignoring-modders/page__view__findpost__p__19861774

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1320924-fileplanet-just-taking-mods-and-ignoring-modders/page__view__findpost__p__19863930

And here is someone's expression of an ideal (and this matches my experience with modding communities):

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1320924-fileplanet-just-taking-mods-and-ignoring-modders/page__view__findpost__p__19861591

(It's my impression that the problem here was that some people were using the wrong email address to contact FilePlanet. I think we can blame spammers for that, and the posting of an email address in clear text in this thread might mean that that particular email address will not be valid at some point in the future. Though it may also be that spam filters will be an adequate solution to this problem.)

The issue is that File Planet is a business while TES nexus is not. File Planet makes money off of adds and tries to get premium subscribers. In order to do this they would obviously want a greater inventory of files to download, and thus they rip off the files from nexus to improve their chances of a paid customer. In a very small way they are actually making money off your work.

Well punch me in the face and call me a platypus! My mod, Deimos, is there too!!! Those bastards.

What we need is to get BGS on our side, and have them shove a lawsuit down FilePlanets throat....

Of dope? Cause that's what it would take for them to do something.


Seriously though, I wonder if it's possible..to like block a whole site from viewing/accessing another.

Given Bethesda's EULA, Beth has every right to send a C&D to FilePlanet...

The trick is getting them to actually do it.

As the OP is gathering support from Mod Authors, set a target number for Authors/Mods that FP has illegally taken... say 50 Authors, 100 mods... Once that target is reached, send Beth Legal a nice letter explaining the situation, provide the list of Authors/Mods and ask them if they'll send a C&D. Explain that by FP taking these mods without permission they make Beth look bad because version get out of date, mod authors don't/won't/can't support the mod downloads from FP, and the end user will have a poorer image of Beth... While mods themselves are not Beth's doing, it's obviously tied to the product(s) Beth has put out.

Sending a C&D (and/or DCMA) doesn't cost them much in the way of time or effort.... You just have to make the case that's it is in Beth's Best Interests to help out here.

The other option; get nasty. Report them to every gaming/tech news/blogger site in the world... Set up a facebook page against them and their practices... Make you-tube videos with the mod authors going to file planet and showing how their mod was taken without permission... essentially give them so much bad press that they have to capitulate...

Why get nasty? Simple, they already have.

This is true of most web sites -- they cost money to run, and they have to get that money from somewhere, so as a general rule the web site is doing something to help the person paying for that site to keep it running.

It's not true of all web sites, but the exceptions often do not last very long (perhaps collapsing under the load of popularity, perhaps dying of neglect or perhaps finding a way to make money from the traffic they generate).

I think we should certainly try to get Bethesda in on this.

Whether FilePlanet is making money or not, they are stealing our work. Yes, we may not directly be copyright owners, but Bethesda is, and they can put a stop to this...

Nexus is also a business and also makes money out of adds, http://www.blacktreegaming.com/
The only difference here could be that ethics are different, besides the fact that nexus is onwed by a long term community member, while File planet is not.
This will soon be over anyway, once Steam workshop takes over next month from file distribution and the CK attached to it.

_{You never actually owned the mod content to begin with. The only party that has any right to file DNP requests would be Zenimax, and they probably don't care.}

What makes you think thats going to change anything? I, for one, will probably never put a single mod on the Workshop. And I'm going to be making some massive quest mods.

Thing is, there are plenty of ways to preserve mods by people who left the community that do not involve stealing their work. And they are NOT just re-uploading lost mods; they are uploading mods of very active modders, and, just from this thread here, uploading outdated versions of the mod, and in some cases, mods with game-breaking bugs... and that's just from what everyone has said on THIS thread about it.

This isn't just about the modders, either, it's also about those of us who use them. In most cases, it's reasonable for most of us to assume, if we're downloading a mod, we're downloading it from a source the author intended it to be downloaded from, and we're getting the version we expect to get. If the author doesn't specifically name the "supported" sites in the readme, we have no way to know, short of threads like these, that we're getting a mod that may be out of date and not supported by the author. A lot of modders refuse to support a mod if it's not the most current version or downloaded from a site they support.

Over on the Morrowind side of things, there's Morrowind Modding History; a site run without ads by the community, hosted by a long-time community member, and while they store and upload old mods, they bend over backwards to make sure that permissions are respected, the mods are checked to make sure they are clearly labeled by version, the author is correct, any bugs are warned about, etc. If you are just worried about preserving mods that are abandoned by the community, that's the way to do it, not having them randomly stolen by File Planet.

I'm not a lawyer, but getting Bethesda involved strikes me as setting a horrible legal precedent. Right now their EULA is of questionable legal enforceability--like most such things, it is basically half there as a deterrent and half as a starting point for negotiation of settlements. In court, I suspect they'd have a lot of trouble enforcing their terms as legal in many countries, certainly for all sorts of mods that were not made with tools they supplied, or that incorporate other licensed or copyrightable content (e.g., if Meek writes and sings a song, and includes it in her Unique Taverns mod). But if people get Bethesda involved in the manner being suggested, they are 1) signifying that they agree wholesale to Bethesda's EULA and that Bethesda owns and can control distribution of mods, and thus 2) setting a precedent that could equally lead Bethesda to taking similar action against the Nexus, TES Alliance, even individual people hosting their own mods.

I'd suggest letting Meek try it her way, and meanwhile, modders might want to 1) add explicit copyright notices to their mod readmes and descriptions, rather than just legally-murky permissions, if only to give the threat of subsequent action more teeth, and/or 2) add something to their readme files suggesting that if a user acquired the mod at FilePlanet, or some site other than X, Y, or Z authorized sites, that they look to one of those authorized sites for the latest updated version.

Has anyone ever told you that your screen name doesn't really apply very well?

True, I should be more specific. Nexus is what one would call a "not-for-profit" business, much like the museum where I work is. They try to make money to support their mission (ads paying for servers, etc). It is my understanding that DarkOne runs Nexus out of the kindness of his heart and not to make a living (though honestly I wouldn't care if he specifically did make a living, he is doing us a great service). File Planet, on the other hand, is for profit like most businesses.

I wasn't implying nexus makes no money at all, just that the assets it does get are to sustain the site.

MANY years ago I had a fileplanet paid account. When IGN took over they started to charge my credit card for some IGN premium account or some such and I found no way to cancel it. I called my credit card company's fraud line and they reversed the charges.

I don't think so. Gstaff has already confirmed that the Workshop is not mandatory and that mods can continue to be distributed to other sites.

You have your opinion and are entitled to it. I am entitled to ignore it and the point at which you called the people who dedicate thousands of hours of their free time to give to others freely....childish....was the point that I decided to ignore it.


I think you might be right.

To anyone that is stating that Bethesda owns all mods. That is NOT the case and quite frankly could only be settled in a court of law, something that I hope will never come to be. You cannot simply claim that things such as new meshes, textures, music, voice files (as was stated above) are owned by Bethesda, any more then you can claim that 3dsMax owns all meshes created with it or audacity owns the right to the users voice. It is not that simple.

And if you think for an instant that Bethesda owns such utilities as OBSE and SKSE etc....I am sorry, but no.


This is very true and an extremely important post that everyone should take much note of.

My own file on Tes Nexus says...


Lets make no mistake, this is not to hog my mod to myself and not let others have it, if I had wanted to do that then I would not have uploaded it in the first place. The fact is that I want people to download and enjoy my work. Come to me and I will make every effort to help you install it and try to solve any problems and take your suggestions on board. Download it from some misc company that stole it and you will not get the correct version, links to any patches required to make it run nice with other popular mods, any help whatsoever installing it, any help solving any quests or issues at all with it, any interaction with me the author who knows the mod inside and out, who can actually fix any issues you may find with the mod.

You will bypass me altogether and I will not be encouraged and motivated by the nice comment you would have left for me that lets me know that you appreciate my work and have enjoyed it. You will miss out on the awesome conversation we may have had in pm about that book you found in the abandoned asylum that links to a character in the gallery...(a recent conversation I had with a user). I am just a name that you casually read as you download the thousands of hours of work I put into creating something nice for you and others...

Maybe to you it is just a mod, to me it is thousands of hours of my life that I poured into making something special that I would like to share with others without being ripped off. I get nothing out of my hard work being ripped off on some misc site, whereas I get the satisfaction of seeing and hearing about my mod being enjoyed, interacting with users and learning from other modders when my mod is downloaded from the community site I put it on. Yes it is freely distributed, but it is actually a controlled distribution and these large corporations would do well to remember that.

Anyway, that is just how I feel.

There's another way to try and combat this from the modding side.

Tie your mod to something like a specific version of SKSE (in the case of Skyrim). If the user attempts to install it with something much earlier, or much later, it deactivates itself or simply refuses to run. Might require a bit of work in the scripting department, but it would effectively timeout distribution packages. The point at which you decide to retire from modding, or declare the mod package an "utterly final piece", you can remove any timeout protection.

If FilePlanet goes and tosses up a package with a timeout on it, it becomes useless within weeks once new versions of SKSE are made available. Downloaders at FilePlanet get disgusted with FP, and stop trying to download mods from them.

It isn't perfect, but it would help combat unauthorized mod distribution, and make their work a *lot* harder.

But Bethesda does claim that. And, unless I'm missing something, until one of us decides to challenge them in court this claim is more powerful than our opinions on the matter.

I'm not saying this is right or wrong. But you or I saying something isn't legal doesn't hold a lot of weight unless and until it is proven to be illegal in a court of law.

Bethesda claims right to mods produced (like a script that does something in-game), not to original assets packaged along with that mod. If you produce an original mesh or texture, that is artwork (unlike code), and was considered outside Beth's claim for as long as I could remember.

Perhaps we're splitting hairs and no one really knows, since it has never come up legally. I just remember it being this way since Morrowind. /shrug

Yeah like Jaga said, they claim copyright to everything that you use that is theirs. Pretty much the esm/esp file you make, and any repackaged or altered files that came with the game.

Anything you make yourself, like custom sounds, textures, meshes, or dialog still belong to you.

Your very readme belongs to you. You have grounds for copywrite in that alone. Seriously.

But yes, all files created outside the CS are a very grey area and certainly cannot be claimed under the CS EULA. But that is a debate that has raged on ever since the first CS was released and the only way a conclusion could ever be reached is if the EULA was challenged in court.

Anyway we are getting a wee bit off topic here, one thing for absolutely certain is that FilePlanet has no rights too any mods period.