The cheek of some people...

[IBBoard]

I just checked Relic Forums this morning and saw a 7 Race Mod ??? topic. Looking into it, it's a major upset in the Relic forums because some...individual, has gone and compiled seven of the race mods into one single huge download, and then gone and claimed that it's his work! Yeah, he might have done some integration to get the AI working etc, but he didn't even ask the mod teams involved

Unsuprisingly, the community got rather upset with him. Compiler is even considering legal action, because it's breech of copyright.

The guy only has one other download to his name - the Black Templar Icons pack, which if you look at the screenshot supplied in a comment are mostly just the original icons that he's splatted black over.


The things that some people will try to get away with...

[MadMaffMan]

Yeah i saw that as well on DOW Files, and all the heated posts at the bottom after the so called 'readme' file.

How does the copyright law work regarding the mods then, i mean we're using the skins and code from the game that Relic made. How does that differ from what this guy did.

Should i include some sort of legal stuff in my skins that i make.

[IBBoard]

I think it all boils down to the fact that Relic have made their game purposefully modifiable and given use the tools to modify it with, and so have given us the rights to make mods, change things and distribute it. The mod creators will own the rights to any LUA files that they made, any models and textures they made (I think they'll own the rights to the model and GW own the Intellectual Property that is the style of the model) and they didn't give any form of permission for its reuse. The comments on DoWFiles seem to keep getting cleaned out now Hopefully the download page itself will be gone soon as well, since the files aren't on Filefront or the mirrors.

Any modified skins (like the ones that I make) should probably contain disclaimers that they're based on Relic's work and that they represent figures from GWs Universe, but some skinners don't even bother with a readme at all! Mods are a bit more major and so tend to include the full set of disclaimers.

I think in future I'll include a disclaimer with all of the files. I could even go through and repackage everything if I felt like it, but that'd be a rather large job

[Fizzled]

Check out the RDN IP Guidelines post on the Relic forums for the answers to most of these questions.

[IBBoard]

Which is exactly the stuff that this Alexios ignored (the IP Flowchart part anyway). The Dawn of War/Games Workshop IP stuff is the whole reason why I won't host everything on Skins@HWT - GW have strict limitations, and I don't want GW Legal after me because I've got something stupid like XBox logo badges on the site!

[IBBoard]

It gets better - some annoying little **** has gone and stolen some of my work and hosted it on DoWFiles.com. After I specifically removed all of my work from there and made it exclusive to Skins@HWT as well!

The Checkered Orks have been mirrored at http://dawnofwar.filefront.com/file/Che ... Orks;56228, and although DemonicBadger and someone else spotted the theft, two people had the cheek to say that it wasn't stealing and that they were just offering another download.

I hate to break it to them, but it's still theft if they didn't ask first!

I've informed Filefront, so hopefully it should be removed soon...although after how long it took to remove my Halved Marines, you can never be too sure!

[MadMaffMan]

Filefront seem to be slipping a lot of late, thats another thing their mods have messed up.

Did the cheeky 'get' claim that it was their work as well.

[TGSC]

The file has been submitted by captincassius, but Poo says

I put this on that site and all you do is conplain no i didnt copy it its a link

I think he's referring to DoWfiles as being the site that he put it on, because he's saying he didn't copy it (so the DoW files thing isnt a copy) but that it's a link. But he didn't submit it. And he's still an idiot because its not "just another link" because the any that describes it as yours has been removed.

[IBBoard]

He didn't claim it was his directly, but it's under his name and with no mention of it being mine.

As for the captaincassius/Poo thing, DoWFiles listed all my downloads under "HiveWorldTerra", so it doesn't necessarily mean much. The DoWFiles copy is definately a copy, though. Follow the download link and it takes you to the main FileFront site where you can select from their mirrors.

Now to wait for the removal...


[edit] It gets better - I just checked, the file is still there, and then I thought about the part of the readme that he supplied. Other than the fact that it mentions the site (which could potentially have set alarm bells ringing) the submitter has gone and missed off the important part:

This pattern file for Dawn of War was created by IBBoard for distribution on Skins @ Hive World Terra and may not be distributed by anyone else, in part or in whole (including distribution of extracted TGA files from the WTP), except for approved re-distributors listed on the Skins@HWT website.

So it's not even as if he's got an excuse of "I've not seen it" or some other rubbish! He openly went out, copied the top part and then left out the bottom! I'm going to have to download it now to see if the Zip was changed...
*goes and checks*

Yep, he repackaged it and deliberately removed that part of the readme

[IBBoard]

I gave up on FileFront yesterday and emailed DoWFiles.com directly. The file has now gone, so at least the DoWFiles.com team are quick about it either that or FileFront took a while!

[Adonis]

Poo is still an idiot for thinking he was in the clear because it was "just a link". I wonder who else's work he's stolen and redistributed.

[IBBoard]

The original file was posted by captaincassius (or that's who DoWFiles had credited it to) and it was the only one. It wouldn't suprise me if Poo has stolen other people's work (in-keeping with the name, he's obviously as thick as s...something!) and submitted it under other names.

At least the Net is maturing slightly from when I first started my websites. Back then it was common for people to go "oooo, I like that story/joke/image", add it to their site and then just say "I found it somewhere". It's happening less and less now, although there are still the odd few who are new to the Net and don't understand simple netiquette.

[Adonis]

This would be a good reason to get more people to frequent the forum as well as the mods page. As you already saw, people immediately jumped on this guy when they saw him redistributing your work as his own.

[IBBoard]

DemonicBadger and another did, but a couple of others were still in support of having it on DoWFiles as his work. Unsuprisingly (to me, at least, from what I remember) the people who were supporting the site were the kind of people who can't type in real sentences, don't know that "you are" is two words, not two letters, and are generally annoying little 'AOL brats'-types. While there are still people on the Net who are like that, there'll still be people stealing work :\

Oh well, at least it was removed. My work is still all Skins@HWT exclusive

[Space marine]

It is really sad that people will go to such lengths, and to copy files and to so much as dare say that it is all their own work, sometimes. Like the guy with his "7 races mega mod". Some of the guys at Relic forums were thinking of forming a posse to track down the little b*****d
and sue him. Prob: you cannot legally sue or be sued under the age of 18, and it's almost certain that this guy is a kid.

It's odd how he got the SM veteran models at a time when only 2 people had actually got them, and they hadn't even been released public yet....