If someone in the Subsim community "steal" other peoples mods

[_Seth_]

During the last days recent events, i wanted to see what you guys think about this issue. What would (in your opinion) be the correct way to deal with things such as this? BUT: Keep the discussions on a "normal" and professional level. Dont say anything you couldnt say to your mothers face. And no personal attacks, please.


Update: For a definition of stealing, see my mate Ducimus' reply below! I totally agree!

It also include "presenting work under construction, not to be revealed by any means until proper permission is given".

[Ducimus]

I think the first thing you need to do, is define what constitutes theft as to leave no ambiguity.


Personaly i would define theft as

1.Basing a work off of an existing mod authored by someone else; and presenting the orginal mod, or a rework of that mod, in such a way, as to insinuate, or outright state, that it is entirely of your own design from scratch when it was not.

2. Or, distributing a work when it was expressly forbidden for distribution, either by direct say so from the orginal author, or by implied status within a mod team working on a project with a projected release date, and prereleasing content not of your design without consent.

[Coda]

Get a rope.

[gouldjg]

I also think people need to be aware of how serious this can be as I hear the occasional "get over it" remarks popping up

Time the original authors spend on some of the work (not all works but some works is unthinkable)

As many of us know,

Some of the later mods actually need programs of sorts to be created to allow the manipulation of the files in question.

That program need will also to be constantly updated and beta tested during the modding phase and can on occasion have numerous faults to be overcome

So a programmer uses his time and skills as well as the guy whom manipulates the files.

Now its just not the manipulation and extension,

The files then have to be tested for

1. The required result
2. Compatibility with other ongoing work (which can change at any time)
3.The constant start up and test in game then exit and tweak and then start up again (we all know the time start up takes)

This would be one guy as others in team are working on other stuff,

They then present various stages of the work but always has to be ready to go back and do more changes to get into the correct overall mod direction.

Now dont forget that this person will need support which usually means someone else will put their time in to finding things out (technical researchers etc)

I am not going to go into full detail of the ammounts of time that can be spent for just one feature of a major mod but lets say, I have a good Idea that some of the members of GWX and quite possibly the same with members of NYGM have spent upto and over months on one single part of the game which may only have one small effect.

These guys probably need lawyers not women as most of them have wife, kids, and jobs and still manage to find time to work on this one part of a collection.

In the old days vast ammount of mods were produced but that was because we all looked at the obvious stuff. It aint so easy to find exploits anymore, so a lot more diversity and team effort is often required hence we have major mods.

It just aint right for people to join a team, gain access to development tools and other epople hard work and then spill the beans. Even worse to claim they did it.

There are some here that cannot release their stuff as it ruins the suprise for the future. Imagine that frustration and sacrifice but the guy still does it and does it knowing it hurts himself in a way.

Major mods are fantastic but the creation of one always has its price to pay (to some more than others).

Theft is not right and so should be treated accordingly however I also think one cannot just do a tweak and then gain ultimate rights to it and this is where permission and credit is worth its weight in gold.

Man its too early to go on waffling

[mr chris]

Well to me gouldjg and Ducimus have hit the nail on the head.
But how to deal with such a person?:hmm:
You can bar him from this comunity , but what happeneds if he just goes to another that does not know of his low ways? The needs to be major punisment for this act of theft. All sh3 forums should be made awear of this persons actions and asked to ban him from there forums so he can not give away others works, that they have worked so hard on. The is no place for such a person in the SH3 comuinty, but that is just my opinon.

[HunterICX]

Originally Posted by mr chris

Well to me gouldjg and Ducimus have hit the nail on the head.
But how to deal with such a person?:hmm:
You can bar him from this comunity , but what happeneds if he just goes to another that does not know of his low ways? The needs to be major punisment for this act of theft. All sh3 forums should be made awear of this persons actions and asked to ban him from there forums so he can not give away others works, that they have worked so hard on. The is no place for such a person in the SH3 comuinty, but that is just my opinon.

Well, Notify other Subsim Communities about this person and his acts
and let them decide what to do with him
you cant ban the fella on every community, but I think the well know communities will ban the fella for his low acts.

HunterICX

ps. RELEASE THE BERNARD ON HIM!!!!!

[mr chris]

Aye Hunter i belive Neal has already be told about this. He has posted about in another thread. We just have to wait and see what happends.

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by mr chris

Well to me gouldjg and Ducimus have hit the nail on the head.
But how to deal with such a person?:hmm:
You can bar him from this comunity , but what happeneds if he just goes to another that does not know of his low ways? The needs to be major punisment for this act of theft. All sh3 forums should be made awear of this persons actions and asked to ban him from there forums so he can not give away others works, that they have worked so hard on. The is no place for such a person in the SH3 comuinty, but that is just my opinon.

Hi All How do you ban someone? Can,t they just create another e-mail address and rejoin with another user name & password.:hmm: Just askin.

[SubConscious]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

Hi All How do you ban someone? Can,t they just create another e-mail address and rejoin with another user name & password.:hmm: Just askin.

A moderator should be able to institute an IP address ban. That would prevent any and all attempts to rejoin from that location.

[Gizzmoe]

Originally Posted by SubConscious

A moderator should be able to institute an IP address ban. That would prevent any and all attempts to rejoin from that location.

Unfortunately that doesn´t work, the vast majority of internet users don´t have a fixed IP address. Even if you do, it´s very easy to circumvent an IP ban.

[Ducimus]

Anonymous proxies and spoofers for the lose.

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by Gizzmoe

Unfortunately that doesn´t work, the vast majority of internet users don´t have a fixed IP address. Even if you do, it´s very easy to circumvent an IP ban.

Anyone that doe's something to get banned then doe's an end run to get back in is a double loser.

label him "Anti-Submedic":p

[SubConscious]

Originally Posted by Gizzmoe

Unfortunately that doesn´t work, the vast majority of internet users don´t have a fixed IP address. Even if you do, it´s very easy to circumvent an IP ban.

Thanks for that bit of information. I learned something new today.