Accepting Reimbursement for Game Modifications

[Maveritchell]

There aren't too many people left who make maps. You should emphasize the PAID portion of your first post- that got me considering coming back out of retirement!

That should perhaps be omitted rather than emphasized. Accepting reimbursement for mod work done with a commercial game is pretty much 100% of the time against the EULA and illegal.

[Jedikiller]

Ah, yeah, I forgot about that one.

[Xfire Keenmike aka cull]

If money is what you have and you are willing to give, I say, give. Give as a donation to the website you choose. Nice map ideas.

[owenbritton]

Who's gonna come after me?
Lucasarts?
Pandemic?

If they were paying attention we would have had a new patch in the last 4 years.

Fang my contact info is in the post if you wanna take this up.

[Maveritchell]

Who's gonna come after me?
Lucasarts?
Pandemic?

If they were paying attention we would have had a new patch in the last 4 years.

Fang my contact info is in the post if you wanna take this up.

I like your attitude - "It's only wrong if someone sees me doing it."

[owenbritton]

I like your attitude - "It's only wrong if someone sees me doing it."

*it's only wrong if someone cares

[Jedikiller]

Well, to be honest, I'm not too sure of the legality of this. I believe it is a gray area.

Because the creator of the work is accepting payment for the creation of the work to be released publicly, how is it any different than accepting donations for a project? The license agreement has this to say about commercial exploitation:

(10) commercially exploit the Software, specifically at any cyber café, computer gaming center or any other public site without first obtaining a separate license from LucasArts (which it may or may not issue in its sole discretion) for such use, and LucasArts may charge a fee for any such separate license.

"Commercial exploitation", in my opinion, is defined as selling a product to consumers in exchange for a sum per consumer. In this case, however, I don't believe it would be defined as such. Because in the end this would be released to the public and available for free download by any parties, I don't believe that this would be covered by that provision.

Let's use the example of the Conversion Pack. I guarantee you that somebody has sent someone connected with the pack some money due to their gratefulness or whatever. Now, granted, it may never reach the actual developers of the project. However, this is still "accepting reimbursement for a game modification", because someone is getting paid for its creation.

Now, I am not a lawyer or anything close to one. However, I believe that this is within the bounds of the law as long as the modification is released to the general public for free download. If somebody would like to bring forward a document written by LucasArts to prove me wrong, then I will gladly accept such as fact and remove this entire conversation from this site.

I am also going to split this topic into another one in order to continue the conversation away from the original point of this thread.

[Xfire Keenmike aka cull]

Any and all game mods and mod elements relating to Star Wars regardless of
their source are the property of Lucasfilm LTD and can be used freely without
permission in accordance with Lucasfilm copyright guidelines as outlined in
the game's and/or mod tools EULA.Modders hold no copyright or trademark
claims over Lucasfilm LTD properties. Permission is not required to use
or create derivative works in accordance with Lucasfilm LTD copyright
guidelines. No person or entity can prohibit or allow the use
or distribution of Lucasfilm LTD properties but Lucasfilm LTD.

Claiming rights over Lucasfilm LTD property not extended by Lucasfilm LTD
is a violation of International copyright law.Any derivative works
become property of Lucasfilm LTD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED upon
distribution or release.

As I post this I keep trying to understand what it means ALL RIGHTS RESERVED upon distribution or release.
All I can say is anything new is fun. And not to mention old stuff made played with new friends in new ways. I have ideas and just wish there were more willing friends.

Are they saying that anything new made belongs to lucasfilm LTD and is theirs even if it is not released but once it is realeased because of the above portion of the quote belongs to them also?

[vf501]

Who's gonna come after me?
Lucasarts?
Pandemic?

If they were paying attention we would have had a new patch in the last 4 years.

Fang my contact info is in the post if you wanna take this up.

Doesn't matter.  All it takes is one Legal Aid noticing and then you're screwed.  LucasArts owns the Intellectual Property and they decide who can profit from it.   You want to make cash off of it, you pay their Licensing fees.

On the gripping hand, if you setup a website to distribute your work and (key part comming up)ask not demand compensation/donations then they can't say anything as those are by the downloader's choice.

[Xfire Keenmike aka cull]

I have great ideas for swbf1. My ideas are simple settings I remember from movies that have influenced me. I like what I like. I have spent time finding the map makers. I have been in places few have been maybe many, I don't know for sure. If 40 dollars bumps my ideas then I will wait for them to come reality. Untill then I just work with what exist. The maps already made are pleanty fun. I keep on searching for players willing to have fun a little more like I like.

[Teancum]

Let's use the example of the Conversion Pack. I guarantee you that somebody has sent someone connected with the pack some money due to their gratefulness or whatever. Now, granted, it may never reach the actual developers of the project. However, this is still "accepting reimbursement for a game modification", because someone is getting paid for its creation.

FALSE - There would be only three entities which could have - Myself, Maveritchell, and Gametoast.com itself.  None of them have ever received money in regards to "gratefulness" or anything like it.  Mav and I have never received a dime, and Gametoast only gets extremely minimal donations each year from the same people who have always donated - even then that has nothing to do with the pack.  It has to do with keeping the site online, which is well within EULA rights as maintaining a site is not the same as making money on a mod.  Hosting a site that endorses paid mods would violate the EULA, however.

The reality is that it's against the EULA.  We're not MPCgamers staff, so we can't make the decision here, but Gametoast.com will not host any files found to be connected with money so we don't get into trouble, and for flat-out respect for the people who worked hard on the entire game, then on FREE mod tools for us to use.  I can't speak for sure on Maveritchell's part, but I think it's pretty safe to say SWBFFiles.com would treat this the same way.

[Snake]

None of them have ever received money in regards to "gratefulness" or anything like it.

#1 That's what she said. 

#2 I don't think it is morally or legally right to take money for mods, anyone can learn and anyone can get the tools to do it.

[Jedikiller]

Then we're done on this topic. While I'm quite certain that we could debate about this for quite some time and each side would present some valid points and counterexamples, it will be a legally gray area no matter what conclusion we arrive at and I would prefer to stay away from things that are gray areas.

So the rule is that you cannot pay a mod maker for work, accept money in direct connection with said work (because it is impossible to prove the true motivation for donations- who's to say that someone wasn't motivated by the work hosted on any site), or release a modification that requires payment of any sort to download.

Topic locked.