Bethesda Caught Copying FO:NV mod and using it in FO4 Far Harbor dlc

[goodtofufriday]

Source: http://www.moddb.com/mods/autumn-leaves/news/big-publishers-and-a-small-mod

 

Its important to first note that the creator of the mod, Moddb, is fine with this and that techincally bethesda owns any mod made for their games under their TOS.

That being said, they could at least credit the man! They copied the setting, atmospheric theme, and story. It's so blatant that they copied it all, down to the interactions with different characters. Just read through the source. 

 

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A few weeks before Fallout 4’s release, Autumn Leaves, a Fallout : New Vegas Mod was published on Moddb and the Nexus. It featured a colorful cast of excentric robots, in charge of a forgotten Vault where a strange murder happened. Sounds familiar ?

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First off, both quests begins with a discussion through an interphone with the caretaker of the Vault, a headwaiter robot with a rather distinguished persona. The big mandatory Vault Door opens, leaving the player up for the exploration of said vault.

 

The main quest itself, which consists in investigating the murder by checking the crime scene, and speaking to every robot in the Vault :

 

The mysterious death of the prime financier of the Vault, who - in both cases - worked alongside Vault-Tec to build the special place.

 

The importance of voice modulators in the plot, to distinguish the robots between themselves.

 

The sexytime moment.

 

And of course, the mandatory “Let’s discuss paintings with a robot.”

 

Then, there’s the Neural Interface Matrix in BD versus the Neuro Comp Matrix in AL, the presence (and relevance to the plot) of a robotic expert in the Vault, the feel of the central atrium, the quasi-exclusive robotic cast confronted to a murder, the misleading piece of evidence (Keith/Rolland), among others.

 

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Of course, it raises some questions : should modders get some recognition from the industry, compensation? How could those two dynamics - paid content and free creation - should be managed? What kind of acknowledgement should a big publisher give to small creators? What is the kind of acknowledgement they can afford?

 

[ThinkWithPortals]

*grabs popcorn and waits for response from Bethesda*

[Maslofski]

i'd be fucking honored if they thought my creation was worthy to be canon

[nosirrah123]

I feel like the title is inaccurate. Like you said, Bethesda isn't stealing this content since they technically own it.

[GarnetDevil]

Did Bethesda at least paid the modder money to put his content into the game?

 

[GarnetDevil]

Did Bethesda at least give the modder money before putting his content into the game?

 

[goodtofufriday]

3 minutes ago, nosirrah123 said:

I feel like the title is inaccurate. Like you said, Bethesda isn't stealing this content since they technically own it.

Edited to better reflect.

[SSL]

2 minutes ago, goodtofufriday said:

Edited to better reflect.

 

Still not accurate. Bethesda wasn't "caught" because they own the mod. "Fails to credit" seems more to the point.

[Unhelpful]

6 minutes ago, GarnetDevil said:

Did Bethesda at least paid the modder money to put his content into the game?

 

Why would they? They already own the mod. At least, he should get a notable mention in the credits. He should only get paid if they were feeling really nice.

[LabRat]

helluva lot of add-ware in that link.

[goodtofufriday]

4 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

Still not accurate. Bethesda wasn't "caught" because they own the mod. "Fails to credit" seems more to the point.

I feel its accurate since they did copy his word almost verbatim.  

[SSL]

1 minute ago, goodtofufriday said:

I feel its accurate since they did copy his word almost verbatim.  

 

Not really. Because they own it. "Caught" implies that they had something to hide, which they don't.

 

Failing to even credit the guy is bad form, but technically no wrongdoing occurred. He gave up the rights to his work by doing it in the first place.

[Misanthrope]

Hey they were caught earlier a few weeks with Skyrim HD edition which is basically Texture and ENB mods, perhaps even lifted too

[Unhelpful]

8 minutes ago, goodtofufriday said:

I feel its accurate since they did copy his word almost verbatim.  

They didn't copy his work at all. They literally already owned it. All mods made are property of Bethesda, made using their dedicated tool that they release. Mods that are 100% custom scripts with no interaction with creation kit become a weird gray area, but are still (arguably) Bethesdas property.

 

He should be in the credits though, imo.

[AresKrieger]

This makes me feel like the paid mods thing is actually a thing again except the creator now gets no credit, solution make your mods not work on console so bethesda feels sad.

[DildorTheDecent]

17 minutes ago, Maslofski said:

i'd be fucking honored if they thought my creation was worthy to be canon

indeed. 

 

Might get name in credits

[That Norwegian Guy]

8 minutes ago, JoeyDM said:

They didn't copy his work at all. They literally already owned it. All mods made are property of Bethesda, made using their dedicated tool that they release. Mods that are 100% custom scripts with no interaction with creation kit become a weird gray area, but are still (arguably) Bethesdas property.

 

He should be in the credits though, imo.

If the guy is American. In the civilized world however, ToSes are toilet paper and Bethesda owns shit of this man's work. He's SoL if he's in US though.

[Misanthrope]

I bet that now Beth will say "Well we fucking TRIED to pay modders on Steam with Skyrim but since you bitched about that we'll just fucking steal it"

 

[Unhelpful]

51 minutes ago, That Norwegian Guy said:

If the guy is American. In the civilized world however, 

#1. Want to explain that bit?

#2. I don't actually see the issue, or why he should be paid anything. Nothing sarcastic on my end. I just think that Bethesda is both legally AND morally in the right, although he absolutely deserves a spot in the credits. We make mods out of love for the game and community, I would be honored to see my creation canonized. 

[Bouzoo]

If I got it right, this sums up Bethesda atm:

1. Make incomplete games which work great with mods and need them to work as intended

2. Profit

3. Start "selling" those mods

4. Profit

5. If there is backlash, abort mission

6. Somehow still make profit

7. Use those mods for free to improve the game and sell it regardlessly full a hefty price

8. Profit

9. Repeat process under a different name

10. Profit

[JAKEBAB]

At least give the man a job.

[FreeDiver]

Lots of false info going around here. I am going to quote the Darkone from the nexus.

 

"Secondly, Bethesda don’t own mods made with the Creation Kit. By using the Creation Kit to create a mod, you grant Bethesda a license to pretty much do anything with your work, but that doesn’t mean they own it. Indeed, the license agreement specifically states “Ownership. As between You and ZeniMax, You are the owner of Your Game Mods and all intellectual property rights therein, subject to the licenses You grant to ZeniMax in this Agreement.”. It doesn’t get any clearer than that. Mod authors own their mods, but Zenimax are granted licenses within the agreement to do a number of things with it. Once again, Zenimax are granted licenses, NOT YOU.

Lastly, the Creation Kit license agreement only covers content made within the Creation Kit itself. It would not include things made with software outside of the Creation Kit including, but not limited to, models, textures, animations, sound effects and so on and so forth. Zenimax/Bethesda are not granted licenses to that content unless authors specifically upload said content to Bethesda.net.

What we take from this is that mods are owned by mod authors, irrespective of what they contain. And as a result, the work is automatically copyrighted (as is all unique work you create) and authors can protect their work like anyone else on the internet who has made unique work themselves."

 

Source: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/news/12815/?

[Misanthrope]

47 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

If I got it right, this sums up Bethesda atm:

1. Make incomplete games which work great with mods and need them to work as intended

2. Profit

3. Start "selling" those mods

4. Profit

5. If there is backlash, abort mission

6. Somehow still make profit

7. Use those mods for free to improve the game and sell it regardlessly full a hefty price

8. Profit

9. Repeat process under a different name

10. Profit

I guess the combo breaker should be CDProjekt Red: Can't wait for Cyberpunk.

[-BirdiE-]

3 hours ago, JoeyDM said:

They didn't copy his work at all. They literally already owned it. All mods made are property of Bethesda, made using their dedicated tool that they release. Mods that are 100% custom scripts with no interaction with creation kit become a weird gray area, but are still (arguably) Bethesdas property.

 

He should be in the credits though, imo.

They still copied the mod... They have every legal right to, but they still copied it by the very definition of the word copy...

 

To take from one place, and replicate in another..

[Yoinkerman]

4 hours ago, JoeyDM said:

#1. Want to explain that bit?

#2. I don't actually see the issue, or why he should be paid anything. Nothing sarcastic on my end. I just think that Bethesda is both legally AND morally in the right, although he absolutely deserves a spot in the credits. We make mods out of love for the game and community, I would be honored to see my creation canonized. 

The jist of it is that the Bethesda ToS can say whatever it wants, it doesn't mean it's legal or legally binding.  They don't necessarily own a piece of IP just because they have a piece of paper they made that says so.  In a lot of places ownership rights are inalienable, even with a contract(a ToS is nowhere near a contract)