hi, name is zack and after hearing about the "gun network" in a few videos and other forum posts I decided to check out the site, this site seems to be pretty infamous across the internet but after reading some of the posts the community here doesn't seem to be that bad, I guess I just had one question about your guys philosophy on mods, stealing mods and taking credit for them is really shitty but it seems like a lot of the mods on here are just assets ripped from other games so I was wondering how stolen assets from other games [that you don't have permission from the companies that own the assets to use] are in any way different from stealing someones mod and say for example using it in a mod your creating and not asking permission to use it? also I don't mean to come off as passive aggressive but its a genuine question I had after reading a lot of posts that were defending and attacking this website.

No modder that ports stuff is taking credit for the design or asset creation of the initial outfit or weapon, rather for the process itself (reformatting-models, making an esp, tweaking textures, a unique integration in the game etc.) Calling it ripping from other games just sounds like copy pasting and really dumbs it down, especially between games that don't run on the same engine that process is a lot more complicated.

I also don't see how porting something is comparable to straight up stealing a mod that was made from scratch by a modder.

I wont pretend to understand anything about how creating mods works other than the fact that its really cool that people release free content that offers unlimited possibilities in the game but even if mod authors don't take credit for the mods they still don't have permission from the companies to port them into other games so I guess I just have trouble seeing how that's different from someone who takes someone elses mod and uses it in a mod they're creating AND gives credit to the mod author who made it but never asks permission to use the mod or even does ask permission and gets told no but goes ahead and uses it anyways, personally I don't see a problem with taking stuff from other games and porting it into fallout but if a mod author doesn't have permission from the company I just fail to see how its different unless you guys don't care if someone uses your work in one of there own mods and does give credit to you for it but never asks for your permission even though they are still giving credit. In the description of tons of mods I've seen mod authors say that anyone is allowed to use there mod as long as they ask for permission first and give credit which makes a lot of sense but wouldn't a weapon mod thats adds guns from MW2 into new vegas without the companies permission but still gives credit to the company for creating it be the same thing as say for example  the developers of the frontier mod taking dragbodys npc overhauls and adding them into there mod in a new update and adding a pop up when you start the game that credits dragbody for the new npc textures and makes sure that people know that dragbody created the npc retextures but never actually asks dragbody for permission to use his work in their project? even if someone doesn't take credit for a mod that ports assets from one game to another and even gives credit to the original developers your still taking someone elses work without there permission and than using that persons work in a way that they haven't given you permission to regardless of whether or not credit is taken for it. I'm guessing this community would not be okay with someone taking a mod authors work without there permission and using it in one of there mods even if the person gives the original mod author credit for the work its still being done without permission from the original owner, it seems that the only difference between these two situation is that a mod author is a single person doing it for free and the other is a company made up of dozens of people who get paid money.