Will no longer be posting my mods on here (as if anyone cares)

Everyone who's into art knows about the people that just post recolors of sonic or mlp characters, the last thing I want to see is the same thing happening to mods... if that makes any sense.

 

It doesn't.

 

I honestly dont know which side i would agree with as they both have valid points (respecting the mod creator v the mod creator creating a really good mod but has something increadibly terrible like something along the lines of that Dragon dildo mod, if you want to use that mod, you have to use the horrible messy nuget aswell) but again all of this could have been handled better and everyone in this topic, once again, are a bunch of doofs.

 

There's a quote button you know, and what I mean is that just taking a mod and changing it a little and then claiming it as their work.

But what if I don't wunnuh be a doof?

 

You may want to elaborate a bit more on that, I don't think it's possible to just re-color a mod as that would be blatant plagiarism.

 

As opposed to copying the code of others? It's just as much plagiarism (aka. theft)

 

It still happens, and it's what they want to be able to happen..

 

I resent that. Best mod 2013.

 

I resent you.

 

I have no problem with the mod, I'm not into dragon dildos but I don't judge

 

There is a quote button, and it was unnecessary, as my post was immediately after your own, Furry Reindeer.

And I know what you mean. No one looks at those terrible recolors and as all, "Oh look, Sonic Team's churning out another awful character design!" If someone wants to claim something as their own, despite not having anythign to do with the creative decisions behind that thing, then that is the thing we should be making policies against. If someone wants to tidy up my awful pixel art a bit or change some settings in one of weapons to make it mesh with some weapon pack of theirs, it does not invalidate my rights as a human being who creates things if they didn't write me an essay first.

 

It is never unnecessary - Posts can be edited, deleted or moved. Quote or die.

 

Art assets can be used to create something completely different if used outside of the mod. Perhaps sections of the code of a mod are useable, but as a whole they only work with Starbound. I guess if someone wrote banking software in a mod and then decided to use it in a real life bank, they should be free to use it, but the Creators of Starbound should probably have the right to keep using the creation within the bounds of Starbound.

 

Pistols at Dawn then?

 

Yes they would only really work with Starbound, but they're still separate files that people have created, unless Starbound had its own coding language (Which it doesn't, I believe it's mostly in LUA but I could be wrong.) then I don't see that anything people code should belong to Chucklefish because they're still separate entities, coded in open source languages. It would be like saying server wrappers would belong to Chucklefish, because they're coded specifically for Starbound.

 

And that's why the new system should make every kind of modder happy: No need to take a side. Want to share? Just do it! Want to be asked? Go ahead.
There are a lot of cases where it makes sense to simply put an "open source" mod out. Especially for little post-and-forget-mods. But there are also valid points for denying permissions. For example on actively developed mods that rely on direct user feedback and are updated a lot.

And having ask/closed permissions does not mean that the mod author want's to "keep the mod to himself". A lot of modders are open for suggestions and will gladly accept help and give credit to contributors. That's the best way to improve mods.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself (Imalsokindoffangirlingbecauseiloveyourmods)

 

IMO, the new system is nearly perfect, and it's simple. It's completely up to the mod author to control how their mod is used. If they want users to require permission before using the mod for their own work, they can have it so. If they want it to be completely open-source, they can have it so. If they want it to require credit or not, they can have it so. If they want it to be absolutely undistributed by other users, they can have it so.

Choice!

 

In the general field of art, a creator gets a copyright that last's until a certain time after he dies and can no longer benefit from it (although this has gotten a little weird recently due to immortal corporations wanting to avoid losing the copyrights of long-dead authors because they're still using them). This was generally viewed as a good balance: the author controls his work throughout his lifetime and can will the rights to his descendants for some period of time, but eventually it becomes free for anyone to use (again, until issues with immortal corporations complicated matters).

Thus, if you want to release a work set in the Harry Potter universe, you need J.K. Rowling's permission to use her property. In contrast, if you want to release a work set in the world of Alice in Wonderland, you can do so freely, because the author's been dead long enough for it to fall into the public domain.

There's no reason why mods can't use something similar. In general, you need an author's permission to use his mod. However, if the author is no longer around, and has been away for a long enough period of time that he clearly no longer has an interest in the mod, it enters the public domain (the reason for using this rather than the creator's death is because mod creators don't make money off of mods and can therefore abandon their interests in their works far more easily than authors). For example, they could make it so that if you want to keep your mod protected, you need to renew that protection periodically, otherwise it enters the public domain.

Under this system, if you want to make an adaptation of a mod whose creator is still active, you need that creator's permission. However, if the creator has abandoned Starbound and isn't paying any attention to his mods anymore, you're free to use his work, because he apparently no longer has an interest in the game or his mods.