Typically most people miss the little announcement thing at the top right of the Nexus page so I thought I would bring up and share DarkOne's very long and thorough take on the whole mod theft and console modding situation. He covers almost everything very well and I think it's worth a read.

Here's the link http://www.nexusmods.com/games/news/12815/?

Hopefully the new changes to uploading on Bethesda.net will fix the mod theft issues.

Long read, but he is very right. Wishing ill on others isn't going to fix anything, however if someone does not want their files uploaded on bethesda net, that is their discretion. I did hear about having to link it to steam, I think thats a step in the right direction and I hope it puts an end to all the theft.

That was a good read. I really hope these problems with the communities don't linger for much longer, cause it's getting ridiculous. If pc users stop treating consoles users like second class citizens and console users stop acting entitled to a mod someone doesn't want or can't upload, maybe it'll get better.

Its quite the situation right now. The minorities on each side are causing increased tension all around. Hope bethesda can sort this whole thing out.

We'll see how things go. The whole PS4 mods situation kind of got turned on it's head now, so plenty of drama will come out of that. I really do agree with him that they were forced to release earlier then expected and ended up with a half baked cake. But at the same time it really should have been better planned out. I believe and hope that cooler heads will prevail and things will settle down.

once i like what i see coming from this talk, this whole thing is not black and white. We can only hope things get better,but knowing the toxic nature of the gaming community it will get worse before it does i look forward to the time when it more unified.

Spoiler:

I hear that line more than anything else. Like, you don't own it, Bethesda does, so I'm totally justified in distributing it myself. More people need to be aware of his explanation here.

Dang, after reading this it boggles my mind as to how far the mod thieves or even just the users will go to justify taking the hard work of someone else and uploading it as their own.

I mean, c'mon, really? When I was 12 years old I understood that stealing something and saying that it's your own is bad. But then I'd assume that it's not 12 year olds doing the stealing and uploading stuff. These people really need to have more common sense and start to think about the impact of their actions to the gaming community (PC and console gamers).

It was already bad enough between all the "PC Master race and console peasants" nonsense and now all this about mod thefts. It's just creating a larger rift between the two communities. And I really liked what DarkOne said about the whole PC Master race thing because in the end we are all GAMERS, regardless of the platform we play on.

I agree that it's bull for mod authors to go through a legal process just to have their wrongfully uploaded mods that they have worked so hard to make. No one wants to go through that hassle. -_- Bethesda better have an alternative worked on soon.

Lastly, I just wanted to say that it really saddens me with the fact that people always find a way to mess up what's meant to be good in the first place. I even read somewhere that a certain user has uploaded mods that supposedly "bricks" the XBOne that it's downloaded on. Now, I'm not certain that it's true but if it is... I don't even have words for that, I mean... just why.  

I just really hope that this mess gets sorted out so that we can all enjoy gaming and modding in both our PCs and consoles in peace.

P.S. Not really 12 years old, but even when I was younger, just couldn't remember. Just pointing out that those doing the stealing and uploading really need to mature more.

Been waiting for Darkone's thoughts on this issue, thanks for sharing this

This statement summarizes my mindset towards mod authors:

Quote :

Mod authors can do whatever the fuck they want with their own mods (within the licenses mentioned above), and that’s their prerogative, not yours. They do not need to justify why they will or will not upload their mods to another service or port them for use on consoles.

Mod authors are not obligated in any way to upload, update, or continue development of their work. It is their property and they can do whatever they damn well please. Many of the vocal "Robin Hoods" in the community opted to violate a creator's intentions by uploading their work without any given permission.  

I am also glad that he covered how the Creation Kit licensing functions as well as foils many of the arguments that these thieves come up with.

Quote :

Secondly, Bethesda don’t own mods made with the Creation Kit. By using the Creation Kit to create a mod, you grant Bethesda a license to pretty much do anything with your work, but that doesn’t mean they own it. Indeed, the license agreement specifically states “Ownership. As between You and ZeniMax, You are the owner of Your Game Mods and all intellectual property rights therein, subject to the licenses You grant to ZeniMax in this Agreement.”. It doesn’t get any clearer than that. Mod authors own their mods, but Zenimax are granted licenses within the agreement to do a number of things with it. Once again, Zenimax are granted licenses, NOT YOU.

Lastly, the Creation Kit license agreement only covers content made within the Creation Kit itself. It would not include things made with software outside of the Creation Kit including, but not limited to, models, textures, animations, sound effects and so on and so forth. Zenimax/Bethesda are not granted licenses to that content unless authors specifically upload said content to Bethesda.net.

I am grateful that Bethesda took a step forward by offering mods for consoles. This is truly a great jump for the modding community. This does not make up for the fact that Bethesda.net was not ready for the public. Bethesda's lack of proactive and preventative action is deplorable. Modding has been around for a long time and releasing such a mess is inexcusable. Bureaucracy and ignorance is not an excuse.

This reminds me of the legal phrase "ignorantia legis neminem excusat" (ignorance of law excuses no one). In this case remaining ignorant of an established modding network and its methods for combating piracy is not an excuse to release this disaster.

I think Gopher covered this well in his video too:

FALLOUT 4 XBOX: Stealing Mods:

Overall I hope that Bethesda assumes a more proactive approach to moderating uploaded files as upholding their community guidelines.

Mod authors are more than free to do whatever they want, but they're not free from consequences when they purposely anger a big community. Of course, not all mod authors do that (not even close), but quite a few big name mod authors have purposely played up the PC master race debate and played victim afterwards. If you want to minimise exposure, don't draw attention to yourself.

Unfortunately, this is a sentiment some don't have and are surprised when people antagonise them.

Yeah I can think of a couple, but one in particular that is still trying to stoke the fires. I think we all know who that is.

gabet347 wrote:

Spoiler:

I hear that line more than anything else. Like, you don't own it, Bethesda does, so I'm totally justified in distributing it myself. More people need to be aware of his explanation here.

i was going to delete my mods and quit modding because of that.

Loki090 wrote:

Lastly, I just wanted to say that it really saddens me with the fact that people always find a way to mess up what's meant to be good in the first place. I even read somewhere that a certain user has uploaded mods that supposedly "bricks" the XBOne that it's downloaded on. Now, I'm not certain that it's true but if it is... I don't even have words for that, I mean... just why. BrickWall Headbutt

I really hope that isnt true, i did see a vid about it even sent out a tweet to some of my console peeps,but i thought it had to be fake. I honestly don't know what to say about the community if this is the type of childish reaction they have. I think this is gonna get alot worse going forward and we my lose a lot because of the actions of a few.

Takashiro wrote:

Loki090 wrote:

Lastly, I just wanted to say that it really saddens me with the fact that people always find a way to mess up what's meant to be good in the first place. I even read somewhere that a certain user has uploaded mods that supposedly "bricks" the XBOne that it's downloaded on. Now, I'm not certain that it's true but if it is... I don't even have words for that, I mean... just why.  BrickWall Headbutt

I really hope that isnt true, i did see a vid about it even sent out a tweet to some of my console peeps,but i thought it had to be fake. I honestly don't know what to say about the community if this is the type of childish reaction they have. I think this is gonna get alot worse going forward and we my lose a lot because of the actions of a few.

DDProductions from what I have seen is fairly solid in his posts(I havent seen everyone), and I have heard of mods shutting down Xbox, though im not sure if its permanent.

but yeah..

Posting someone elses' mod and then insulting them/ taunting them about it, is bad and I have seen it alot now, number 1 reason why I dont care to make mods anymore.

making a mod that physically disables hardware permanently is extreme... because the simple downloader may not even be aware its stolen or reuploaded and that action wont win any friends to the cause...

Theft is wrong
Destruction of personal property is wrong.

Bethesda fault for putting mods into consoles even if its not a bad idea but ended up mods getting stolen and making modders stopping from makings amazing mods.

MAKE MODS NOT WAR.

Update here.

I just read that the whole Xbox bricking mod made by DDProductions was actually a hoax. He did it himself as an opportunity to badmouth console gamers. The dude seriously has got some growing up to do and some personal issues to fix.

He has a YouTube channel where he posted a video where he further displayed his hate against console gamers. He's apparently a PC gamer "elitist" as said by the guy whom I read this information from.

This is just sad, sad new. He's misrepresenting the PC gaming community as these PC masterrace douchebags, which is entirely false as not every PC gamer is like that. This is just further dividing the gaming community as a whole.

I really hope that no further oxygen is added to this already raging fire. Seriously, people need to find something better to do than stuff like this, you know- stuff like actually enjoying playing video games because that's what it's all about.