1. RESTRICTIONS ON USE The Editor is and shall remain the copyrighted property of Bethesda Softworks and/or its designee(s) and You shall take no action inconsistent with such title or ownership. You may not cause or permit the sale or other commercial distribution or commercial exploitation (e.g., by renting, licensing, sublicensing, leasing, disseminating, uploading, downloading, transmitting, whether on a pay-per-play basis or otherwise) of any New Materials without the express prior written consent of an authorized representative of Bethesda Softworks. This includes distributing New Materials as part of any compilation You and/or other Product users may create. You shall not create any New Materials that infringe upon the rights of others, or that are libelous, defamatory, harassing, or threatening, and You shall comply with all applicable laws in connection with the New Materials. You are only permitted to distribute the New Materials, without charge (i.e., on a strictly non-commercial basis), to other authorized users who have purchased the Product, solely for use with such users’ own authorized copies of such Product and in accordance with and subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement and all applicable laws. If You distribute or otherwise make available New Materials, You automatically grant to Bethesda Softworks the irrevocable, perpetual, royalty free, sublicensable right and license under all applicable copyrights and intellectual property rights laws to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, perform, display, distribute and otherwise exploit and/or dispose of the New Materials (or any part of the New Materials) in any way Bethesda Softworks, or its respective designee(s), sees fit. You also waive and agree never to assert against Bethesda Softworks or its affiliates, distributors or licensors any moral rights or similar rights, however designated, that You may have in or to any of the New Materials. If You commit any breach of this Agreement, Your right to use the Editor under this Agreement shall automatically terminate, without notice.

Do we realy want to give them these rights to the content WE make?

This is no different than past editors.

Both bolded statements seem pretty standard, I'm pretty sure similar language was in the Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Fallout New Vegas editors.

Seems pretty typical of editors for games.

So is that to say, this agreement allows Bethesda to break copywrite on our intelectual property?

This has been on all editors since the beginning.

Do you think you have a choice? Accept or don't install...quite simple.

It does not allow them to break copyright. It specifically says they become licensed to use the IP for any reason they see fit. Because of this the copyright isn't broken, they are just licensed to use it unrestricted.

You're altering their game... Pretty standard stuff.

Aye, the Morrowind CS had this kind of stuff too.

Are you suprised? Really?

By the terms of these (fairly standard) EULAs, its not your IP in the first place if its built with their editor.

However in the extraordinarily slim event a judicial disagreement arises, people have found it easy in the past to judicially contest EULAs, but Ianol. Best just accept the notion that 1. You wont make profits off Skyrim mods 2. Should Bethesda offer you a deal to make some of your mod part of an official DLC (They wouldnt just steal it even if they legally can with this), they have the big end of the stick in regards to terms.

This. Don't see what the big deal is. OP must not of ever used any past editors as those two lines have been on everyone Beth has ever released.

OP needs to take the tinfoil hat off.

Just wondering where you found this? Whatever happened to links?

by using it you are giving up all rights to enforce your copyright to them so they could use it any way they want.

It pops up when you start to download the editor from Steam.

Without this, if Bethesda releases a DLC (or TES VI) which looks similar to something a modder did, the modder could sue. Bethesda doesn't need that kind of legal headache/black eye anymore than any other for-profit entity.

An author (Anne McCaffrey, iirc) was sued by a fanfiction writer for using the fanfic writer's character. It happens.

Look at how many OB mods became standard features in Skyrim.

Ah-ha! It's up then.

*restarts steam*

Thanks!

They are not breaking copywrite laws, you sign them over when you agree to the terms. Fundemental concept in any art business, production of art that you have no ownership over. It svcks but...so does not having a CK.

Nothing new here. The gray areas come with things that have nothing to do with the CK and are generic enough for you to port to any game freely. THAT's where the questions on ownership of assets comes from Anything made with the CK or implemented with the CK (or other tools utilizing Beth's proprietary file formats like BSA, ESP and ESM) becomes theirs legally, and it makes sense. Your work would be considered derivative because its only possible use in that format is for their engine.

The only bad thing about this is that they could force you to only distribute through Steam to enforce the "legal owners of tha game" bit. Other than that I see no issue. Their game engine, their tools, their models, their textures and their scripts. I'd take it as a compliment if anything I ever made became "official". And this also ensures than mods will remain free as they should.

But like what if you are adding a ton of new content to the game that isn't modified from their original work, completely separate that you made with something like Blender or 3DS Max, like for example 650 new blades, armors, and creatures. You pour your heart and sweat into crafting it, and bring it into the game by using an esp and distribute it.

All of a sudden Bethesda now owns all 650 new blades, armors and creatures just because I put it in the game?

Really, they own NIF now?

No. They own the rights to the ESP and what's referenced. Technically they don't own the models an textures, but they have rights to them because they were developed and implemented for their game in their proprietary format (.nif and esp, in this case). You also retain rights to anything, meaning that you can redistribute your artwork for other games, etc

But in a nutshell I'm still basically selling them my models and textures for free right? And I can't make any $$$ off of them but Bethesda can? Please clarify.