License
You grant to Valve the following rights, which Valve may exercise or not in its sole discretion:

• You grant to Valve a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, assignable right and license to (a) use, copy, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, modify, and create derivative works from Your Contribution in any media, (B ) identify you as the source of the Contribution, and (c ) sublicense [sic] these rights, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

Just to give a tiny bit of background, in my day job I work as a programmer, and a photographer and printer. I work with intellectual property, copyright, and licensing all day long.

The terms that you agree to in uploading anything to workshop contain every single major red flag word I have ever seen in a licensing contract. In essence if you upload a mod to the workshop you are giving steam the right to do whatever they want with it including (1) the right to modify your work however they see fit if they so choose, (2) the right to give/sell anyone else the right to modify or use your work however they see fit, (3) they are allowed to do all of this without getting your permission and even if you tell them no, (4) if they suddenly decide to sell your mod they are not obligated to give you so much as a penny in compensation if they don't want to, and finally (5) if you tell them to remove your mod they may decide to do so or not, regardless even if you remove your mod Steam will retain all the above rights until the end of time.

Granted some or all of these might not hold up in court, but you would have to spend to money to bring suite and that gets expensive very very fast.

If you want to look it up all of this comes from one sentence in the workshop EULA.


Edit: corrected auto formatting in the quote.

Edit: But wow this is scary. What if you upload a mod somewhere else, Steam Workshop likes it and someone uploads it on the Workshop against your will, they could basically take it then couldn't they?

Then it would be a bit of a dilemma as Steam would argue that by it being uploaded the uploader agreed that it was their content and they had the correct permissions to upload it and thus their EULA allowed them to use it accordingly and that any illegal activity was committed by the uploader so you need to sue them -- which is why many modders are specifically stating in their mods that they do not allow reuploading of the assets to any other site (unfortunately this will most likely cause some split of the community as modders that normally make assets for others to use will no longer do so since it may find it's way to the Workshop and easiest way to avoid it from happening is just to not make the resources for others or allow them to be used in any other mods !! )

Ive seen multiple topics like this and my response is just... WOW.

The only reason they do this is to avoid future patches/updates/dlc from already containing content similar to something you created.

First of all it is THEIR GAME, and NOT yours. They are the ones that spent years making, you may have spent a month so far. You did not develop their engine, nor did you develop any of the models you may or may not be using.

I cannot stress this enough. It is THEIR work, and not yours. By using the workshop, you simply agree to allow Bethesda to implement your content into their game. Now lets be real. NONE of you here will develop such content that bethesda will simply take. They will, at the very least, re-implement it. So set your ego's aside and create mods for the benefit of the community. Even if you do not upload it to the workshop, you can still be legally prosecuted since the content still solely modifies their game and content, unless your content is 100% original (Whch is impossible because it will still use their engine)

Will they prosecute you? Most likely not, but they can.

Even if you do get your content added to the game, be happy that you created something that they especially wanted. I sure as hell would be honored.

The tool kit is a gift to you guys, be glad you even HAVE it, since they didn't have to give it to you in the first place.

Aside from the issues that actually prevent people from using the workshop, most modders embrace it as it is a quick tool to allow them to distribute their mod similar to a sub-version system, providing up-to-date mods at the click of a button. I for one, love it (But I still use the nexus in addition for ppl who love the mod manager).

/end of rant.

Whoah I think you missed what was said here. I'm talking about Valve owning the resources. When I upload to the Steam workshop VALVE, not BETHESDA, gains the ability to use my stuff however they like.

When you make a mod with the CK you already give Beth the ability to do whatever, that has been discussed to death. But I'm talking specifically about Valve.

The workshop is supposed to be like the Nexus: a place to upload your things if you wish to do so, not a place where I give all my assets away to a hosting company; it's different.

It's like if every time I uploaded a mod to the Nexus, Dark0ne suddenly owns and can sell all of my material...

No Obligation to Use
5 You understand and agree that Valve is not obligated to use, distribute, continue to distribute, or maximize revenues from the distribution of copies of the Contributions and reserves the right but not the obligation to restrict or remove the Contributions from Valve Game for any reason.

Ive seen multiple topics like this and my response is just... WOW.

The only reason they do this is to avoid future patches/updates/dlc from already containing content similar to something you created.

So if I made a mod where a bunch of Dwemer flew down in flying Teacups (Saucers are so old fashioned!) and kidnapped all the chickens in the land, then a similar plotline would be fair game for them to use without attribution, despite the extremely unlikelyness that they developed it independantly?

So if I made a mod where a bunch of Dwemer flew down in flying Teacups (Saucers are so old fashioned!) and kidnapped all the chickens in the land, then a similar plotline would be fair game for them to use without attribution, despite the extremely unlikelyness that they developed it independantly?

http://www.gamesas.com/user/439440-severed-skullz/ - what about all those modelers who create completely new meshes and textures? So it's not the creator's content anymore? It's ok for Valve to gain all rights? And it's not so much the fact they will probably never do this, but the fact they state so in the EULA. If a case like this ever comes to court, it's going to affect everyone that mods for the community. And I'm not seeing a whole lot of positive community in the SW right now.

No thank you, steam workshop. I've seen more childish insults and rants towards modders on many of the uploaded files there with nothing being done about it. Place is becoming a haven for disrespect and ignorance.

Then there is the whole esm and archive issue. Maybe they'll improve on this stuff...maybe not. But I wish they would have spent all that extra time on the CK instead of SW. The program is a blast, but the deeper I dig, the more issues I find.

2. License
You grant to Valve the following rights, which Valve may exercise or not in its sole discretion:

• You grant to Valve a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, assignable right and license to (a) use, copy, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, modify, and create derivative works from Your Contribution in any media, ( identify you as the source of the Contribution, and ? sublicense these rights, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

• With respect to Valve Games, You retain the right to use your original work in the Contributions as You wish, even in the context of another game. However, this Agreement does not grant You any rights to Valve materials, and You may not make any use of the Contribution that is inconsistent with the rights You have granted to Valve herein. For example, You may not license the Contribution to a third party on an exclusive basis. With respect to Third Party Games, the end user license or subscription terms for the Third Party Game may provide to You or third parties different ownership rights and responsibilities for Contributions.

5. No Obligation to Use
You understand and agree that Valve is not obligated to use, distribute, continue to distribute, or maximize revenues from the distribution of copies of the Contributions and reserves the right but not the obligation to restrict or remove the Contributions from Valve Game for any reason.

I like that story idea.

But I think the main problem is that any and everything is fair game to be taken, as long as it gets uploaded onto their servers.

It's also problematic that they can sell your assets to other companies freely, that's not something in even Bethesda's EULA iirc. I've actually seen it happen now that I think about it (with proof). Some of my friend's assets were taken and sold in a Steam affiliated game, but I don't think it's something he knows about.

That's the main thing I'm trying to say, don't push it under the rug as "It wont happen to me, and even if it did I would feel honored." I think this is a serious issue to pay attention to.

If you make a simple mod that uses only Beth's assets and they take it and run with it, its nothing you can do, but at least you didn't lose too much.

But if you make a mod for example that uses brand new models and textures you created from scratch. Valve can take it, sell it to other companies, put it in their own games, put it in Bethesda games, put it as sold DLC, etc and you have to just watch it and there's nothing you can do. All because you uploaded a file to the Workshop.

I think that's a huge problem.

Payments for Paid Distribution of Valve Games.
If Valve chooses to distribute Your Contribution for a Valve Game for a fee, then Valve may set the price for such distribution in its sole discretion, and Valve will pay You as follows, conditioned on Your compliance with the obligations contained in this Agreement. Beginning with the calendar month in which Valve first distributes a copy of the Valve Game Contribution for a fee, Valve shall pay to You twenty-five percent (25%) of the Adjusted Gross Revenue (defined below) actually received by Valve from Valve’s distribution of the copy of the Valve Game Contribution during the calendar month. To the extent that the payment calculation results in a negative amount, that negative amount will be carried forward and deducted from any future amounts otherwise payable by Valve hereunder. Valve will remit payment in accordance with Valve procedures, currently net 30 paid in full. Please note that Valve may change procedures in the future, for example requiring a minimum amount to accumulate before making a payment. You also acknowledge and agree that other users, and Valve itself, may create other works that are similar to Your Valve Game Contribution(s), and that Valve’s payment obligations under this Section 3 only apply with respect to the distribution of actual copies of Your Valve Game Contribution(s).
"Adjusted Gross Revenue" shall mean the gross revenue actually received by Valve from Valve’s distribution of a copy of the Valve Game Contribution less the Applicable Adjustments (defined below).
"Applicable Adjustments" shall mean (a) actual costs incurred by or on behalf of Valve resulting directly from returns, discounts, refunds, fraud or chargebacks for copies of the Valve Game Contribution; ( Customer Taxes, if and only to the extent that any such Customer Taxes (defined below) have been included in the calculation of gross revenue earned.
“Customer Taxes” shall mean taxes that are imposed on a customer of Valve on the distribution, sale or license of copies of the Valve Game Contribution (such as sales, use, excise, value-added and other similar taxes) that are received from such customer by Valve for payment to governmental authorities.

With respect to Valve Games, You retain the right to use your original work in the Contributions as You wish, even in the context of another game. However, this Agreement does not grant You any rights to Valve materials, and You may not make any use of the Contribution that is inconsistent with the rights You have granted to Valve herein. For example, You may not license the Contribution to a third party on an exclusive basis. With respect to Third Party Games, the end user license or subscription terms for the Third Party Game may provide to You or third parties different ownership rights and responsibilities for Contributions.

Edit: But wow this is scary. What if you upload a mod somewhere else, Steam Workshop likes it and someone uploads it on the Workshop against your will, they could basically take it then couldn't they?

Dude... did you even READ the EULA?

*snip*

"With respect to Valve Games, You retain the right to use your original work in the Contributions as You wish, even in the context of another game. However, this Agreement does not grant You any rights to Valve materials, and You may not make any use of the Contribution that is inconsistent with the rights You have granted to Valve herein. For example, You may not license the Contribution to a third party on an exclusive basis. With respect to Third Party Games, the end user license or subscription terms for the Third Party Game may provide to You or third parties different ownership rights and responsibilities for Contributions."

You also acknowledge and agree that other users, and Valve itself, may create other works that are similar to Your Valve Game Contribution(s), and that Valve’s payment obligations under this Section 3 only apply with respect to the distribution of actual copies of Your Valve Game Contribution(s).

Which would basically put the Steam Workshop in the same category as GMod and other malicious websites that were stealing mods and got pounded into the ground by almost the entire modding community. I think they will be very carefull not to follow that route, though I must admit it will be very hard to keep track if someone has uploaded any of my work there in one form or the other.