Almateria, I am not attacking you, and I don't want to come off like a jerk, but you hit a sore spot I can't stop yelling about in my head, so I am going to rant a bit. Because that always helps things, you know, when an idiot like me comes along and just splashes walls of text in a vain attempt to pursuade the wind to change it's course...
[RANT BEGINS]
While I disagree that
BG:
EE is really "monetizing mods", I will bite on the "Monetizing free mods" comment -
So far, no one has monetized any mods. They are all still available for free on the original engines they were designed for. So on that front, everyone should be happy. In fact, they *have not included mods without getting permission from all stakeholders*, which is actually darned nice of them, since modding a copyrighted game is technically ILLEGAL. Fanfic, mod, etc., we all forget that while modern games have different licenses and allow mods to go ahead and play about without regard to copyright issues. When
BG was written, it was buttoned up under copyright. So hacking the .exe was a copyright violation. The
IESDP, a true illegal hacker reference manual. All mods that use or touch existing game resources and change them in any way are violations of WotSC, Atari, Black Isle, BioWare, and now BeamDog/Overhaul as well. Even completely original ones - if they use the source assets, just *putting them into the game* is an unauthorized (get that - un - author - ized = using without permission = stealing) use and a copyright infringement.
Try pubishing a version of Harry Potter, where muggles double as psionicists, and see how fast J.K Rowling sues you into oblivion. Jane Austen can have vampires, because the books are out of copyright - or because the owner of the copyright has given permission and probably has gotten cash.
We as a community have always pushed hard to make sure people get the original games and we are careful not to get paid for work so that no one who actually owns the copyright has any cause to start sending out the "remove this content from the internet or we will sue you for copyright infringement". (Unlike the thousands of YouTube videos that get slammed out of existence every day because someone has put a ripped soundtrack behind them). We stomp on folks who talk about torrents, as that means the game has not been purchased. We build mods that *must* have original game resources installed to work, instead of just shipping an .exe - even when what is happening is Ascension64's ToBEX is actually rebuilding the .exe in memory. Basically, when it comes right down to it, we are squatters. We moved into the abandoned property, fixed it up a bit, added or touches, all while making sure it was in the actual *owners* interests to ignore the fact that we were breaking the terms of the "lease" just by walking in the front door - let alone fixing it and adding a third story and cutting in a new side door or two. We have not paid the owners, ever, any cash, and we hold no legal rights to stay here.
So, I'll step up and say monetizing mods is evil, twisted, narcissitic, stupid, and horrible theft of intellectual property when done by a modder.
But now we have a new landlord. Really, a management company, since the property is owned by the original owners, and BeamDog/Overhaul got the rights to manage the property, but not full ownership. They still have to approve almost everything with the original owners.
And it is good, solid, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent when a company offers to play nicely with the folks who love the game enough to add content, allowing us to continue to mod without fear of lawyers. They *purchased* limited rights to the game. They *have to make money* to feed themselves. All the talk about what they can't do because of contracts is because the content is under copyright, and to use it, someone has to
1. approve it's use within the intellectual property rules
2. agree to it's distribution
3 get money for said uses and distribution
So, instead of saying "ok, modders, time to close up your squatters tents on our property and move along, and if we see anything even resembling a mod coming along we will sue you and block the content. Oh, by the way, we like what you have done for the place. Now, all of it belongs to us. Drop what you are holding while the local sherrif kindly escorts you off of my property."
They said
"Hey. We respect your work. We want you to stick around and help fix up the property, and we will help you make it better. We won't use your stuff unless we can figure out who did the work and get their permission, and we will even let you keep modding the other platforms - we are not going to restrict your code usage to our property, you get to keep working on the original properties just like you are now. Keep doing what you are doing, and wth the new management, these new condos are going to let you do it better. We see this as a win-win partnership instead of a winner-takes-all deal."
So, to boil it down to a simpler statement:
modder independently demands money for illegally accessed and created content = theft.
company demands money for legally approved changes to copyrighted material = business.
(Sorry. Long rant. I know it is tough to swallow, but intellectual property rights and copyright issues see to escape modern thinking. It drives me nuts. This stuff is not open-sourced. Somebody actually owns it. Just adding things into the game without getting now 4 different companies to ok it is straightforward copyright infringement. I love modding, but I remain aware that it is messing with someone else's property without their permission. I justify it as volunteering to add value to the property. )
Edited by cmorgan, 02 September 2012 - 10:10 AM.
