Question concerning legality of altering mods:

[Anonoriginal]

I JUST got into modding Civ IV, however in the future if i wish to release my work, is it ok to release the updated mod without the original author being aware? (I will give it an original name and give credit!)

I have seen it done with FFH and ROM as well as Thomas's war.


The mod in Question i am "updating" is Realism Invictus.

The last update was Jan of 2018, so i figured i would add a ton of new leaders to spruce it up. maybe new civs eventually, and with the blessing and good grace of the community, release it someday.

So if i release it as "Realism Invictus 2.0" or "Realism Invictus: History edition" or something, do i need the original author's consent beforehand or can i just upload it to ModDb/CivFanatics?

(Again i will specify it is a mod for RI, and i did not make realism invictus!)

I am just not sure because i have never done this before.

If anybody knows if it is legal or not, please let me know. If i need to contact the original author as well, let me know.

 

[s.bernbaum]

You should add something to the title (not a new version number) that will make it apparent that it is a modmod, a mod of someone else's mod. You should also at least send a message to the author thanking him/her/them for their work and notifying them that you are working on a modmod of it. Also include credits in your mod for the original. Is this "legally" necessary - no, but it is polite and civilized and will prevent people who are offended that you did not do it from attacking your work for that reason. When that happens it is usually not the author that does the attacking. So, just be nice about it and no one will object.