RyushiBlade on 17/5/2006 at 20:02
It's a question I just thought up. Most of us know by now that Bethesda will stop any fan from duplicated one of their official mods (we can't, for example, create horse armor.)
But what about the other way around? What if a fan creates something--whatever that something may be--and Bethesda releases a very similar mod? Did we sign an agreement at install which gives Bethesda the right to take our ideas?
I'm not much of a modder myself, I'm just wondering what would happen if there was a conflict. :)
PeeperStorm on 18/5/2006 at 02:25
Do we know that for sure? It seems to me that all they can do is prevent us from using any of the content of their horse armor mod. As long as any mod you create is 100% your work and 0% Bethesda's work I doubt there's anything they can do to stop you. Of course then there's the problem of having to make your own textures, models, sounds, etc...
Striker on 18/5/2006 at 07:29
Bethesda own any mods you make, just like mods made for Morrowind.
dvrabel on 18/5/2006 at 08:34
Quote Posted by RyushiBlade
Did we sign an agreement at install which gives Bethesda the right to take our ideas?
No, but it's not necessary to sign a contract for Bethesda to have control over mods.
Since mods are derivative works of Oblivion they're forbidden by copyright law unless Bethesda grants you a license to do so. You indicate acceptance of Bethesda's license when you distribute mods. This license can include whatever terms Bethesda sees fit -- giving them unlimited, royalty free rights to any mods you create for example.
I believe (at least in Europe) the mod author retains a number of moral rights to the work which cannot be assigned away. e.g., Bethesda couldn't alter the mod in a way that defames you. An example would be if author A produces mod M with cute kittens which Bethesda takes, modifies in a way that results in all these kittens being brutally slaughtered during a Dark Brotherhood contract and distributes this mod with an attribution to Ms. A. Ms. A could either: stop distribution of the mod; or (more likely) prevent it being distributed with her name on it.
(I'm an engineer not a lawyer so I could be completely wrong of course.)
NeoPendragon on 18/5/2006 at 16:26
Legal or not because of the nature of the internet, there's nothing they can do to stop it. The most they can do is delete threads about them on their message boards.
RarRar on 18/5/2006 at 16:43
I think you can make horse armor. You just can't make any that look too much like the ones they made.
Are you worried they'll harvest the best mods and sell them to the XBoxers someday?
RyushiBlade on 18/5/2006 at 21:43
Nah, I was just curious. But I did read a dev quote somewhere that ran something along the lines of, "We will do our best to stop the modding community from duplicating our official mods."
Someone should make a horse armor mod and see if Bethesda sues them or not.
Komag on 18/5/2006 at 23:14
Yeah, you do it!
Aja on 20/5/2006 at 01:24
Guess which one I'd download?
