Proposed Policy Change - the Modiquette

[Dale]

Finally, it just doesn't make sense to try and wedge the legalism of a EULA into a discussion of how a fan based community should handle its creative material. Even if Fraxis automatically owned every modification built for every game supported by this site, fairness would still demand that we, as a community that wishes to promote creativity in its members, recognize authorship rights on our own as it supports that goal of promoting creativity as well as recognizing those authors who have made contributions to the mod community.

Actually, for Thunderfall the legalism of the EULA's are the most important thing in this discussion. If a file fails to adhere to the EULA of the game it's for, then he may be personally liable for distributing copyright material.

For a fan community, I disagree with any form of content author restrictions on use. The fan community exists purely on the goodwill and the free and easy access of content from the contributors, whether it be a mod, graphic, forum thread or wiki entry.

Personally I feel CFC should have the simplest term which states "Any content linked or uploaded to CFC may be freely used by other members of the community as long as that content adheres to the software's license owner's terms and conditions as spelt out in the software EULAs."

If you don't like that, then don't upload.

 

[Jet]

I haven't read any of this thread other than the first post and the post immediately above mine, by Dale.

I just wanted to state my opinion that I am not in favor of The Modiquette from The_J's post, or any other modiquette, being made part of the site rules. I feel like it's not CFC's business to police that. And, I get that uploads are content in an analogous way to how post text is content, and so in a sense you could say that it *is* CFC's business, but it just wouldn't feel right to me.

Anyway, if posters want to influence the way mods are developed or credited, through some form of social censure (within the bounds of the CFC rules,) I would be OK with that. In effect, that is what The_J's "The Modiquette" post was doing already.

I would be in favor of something like what Dale posted just above, in post #401 - a minimal legal statement to the effect that all modding activities on CFC should be legal. (I imagine there's already something that says everything we do here must be legal, but adding a bit about modding seems like it wouldn't hurt.)

 

[Jet]

^ On reflection, I can explain that part of the reason I have that opinion is that The_J's The Modiquette post is inconsistent with the rest of the CFC rules, which are about a certain minimum of politeness and staying on topic. The The Modiquette thing is not about "a certain minimum of politeness" - it goes farther. It goes farther in a way that I think would be wrong to write into the CFC rules.

 

[Flying Pig]

The culture of C&C has always been friendlier and more co-operative than that of OT, though. Modders don't generally try to maintain the lowest possible level of civility; given the chance, they almost invariably help each other out. It seems only reasonable that the 'standing orders' of the forum should reflect how it works in practice. After all, if you want to be in the minority unwilling to share their work, you can say so. However, as it stands, it seems as if most modders are telling people that their work can be shared with proper credit, so it makes sense to make that the default.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, not sure if it is that good this was bumped (after exactly a year, too).

Afaik the decision in the end was pretty much to not have a formal decision on the matter, and continue on the general basis of ask-and-agree in regards to what creations can be used where and by whom.
The site (CFC) obviously does not own any of the creations individual posters upload here, and some threatened to not host them here anymore if this was going to change (unrealistic that it would change, at any rate).

 

[Jet]

If there was a decision, it would be helpful to put it in the first post.
Oh: except that you're saying there was a decision not to have a formal decision. But that's still a kind of decision.

 

[The_J]

Yeah, I guess this thread shouldn't be sticky anymore.
The thing was my idea, we didn't get to a conclusion at that time point, and I don't have patience or will to deal with this anymore.

 

[leif erikson]

If there was a decision, it would be helpful to put it in the first post.

Please see this post. It is what people agreed to.

 

[Takhisis]

I haven't read any of this thread other than the first post and the post immediately above mine, by Dale.

Please see this post. It is what people agreed to.

Reading never hurt anyone.

 

[Blue Monkey]

Reading never hurt anyone.

You can lead Nopey to Sherwood but you can't make him think.

 

[Jet]

Takhisis, would you like to explain what it is about my actions that you're objecting to?

You seem to be objecting to the fact that I chose to post in the thread without reading the entire thread through to post #376, which leif erikson linked to in post #408. Is that what you're saying?