Salvas_Aren wrote: »This is a NON-Issue.
Bethesda owns every design inputted into the mods that are created for any Elder Scrolls game. The author of the mod AGREED to this when they certainly read the fine print for mod creation.
Move along.
Take into consideration that some legal systems might declare such agreements null and void per se. If the modder is not an American, this could be important.
"I rather tend to question such terms and clauses. It feels like you borrow a knife to carve a fancy spoon and the owner of the knife owns the spoon (or rather the design of it) once you're done. Therefore, it's no surprise that many legal systems would not allow such a transfer of copyright."
Interesting proposition.
Staying within your analogy, the spoon would be a new intellectual property unless it copied the design of the knife. That's a simplistic answer, but if we subject the analogy to too much analysis, it ceases to be useful.
Under American copyright law, it is very difficult to create new intellectual property derived from someone else's intellectual property, unless it is clearly within the 'fair use' doctrine. Art (such as a comedic parody sketch) and scholarly research are two common examples. Fair Use is not something that can be given a clear definition in all cases and variations; these are often decided individually in court. Bear in mind Bethesda is a U.S. subsidiary of a U.S. firm. They would most likely avail themselves of U.S. law wherever possible.
Author J.K. Rowling once won a lawsuit against an American citizen for copyright infringement. A fan had created an online encyclopedia of her Harry Potter(c) fantasy universe. Initially, the website was small, and even won praise from Rowling for it's quality as fan fiction (Fair Use doctrine as well as limited copyright use permission).
However, this fan was a touch obsessive. The simple encyclopedia grew in time to a massive work that attracted interest from an American book publisher to produce a printed version. This was outside Rowling's limited permission, so Rowling and Warner Bros. sued to prevent publication, won a small settlement, and won control over the fan-created website, which subsequently became the basis of a printed encyclopedia produced by Rowling.
The lesson is that anything created that is derived from another's intellectual property, excepting Fair Use purposes, is essentially the property of the entity from whom the work is derived. Another lesson is that although the original IP owner may give limited permission, if you annoy her, she might just take back everything you created that was derived from her IP.
The lesson for mod authors, or for any content creator working within someone else's creation, is to be damn careful, to be thorough in documenting permissions or public domain, and to expect to surrender ownership either at the time of creation or anytime the orginal IP owner cares to take possession.
"I rather tend to question such terms and clauses. It feels like you borrow a knife to carve a fancy spoon and the owner of the knife owns the spoon (or rather the design of it) once you're done. Therefore, it's no surprise that many legal systems would not allow such a transfer of copyright."
Interesting proposition.
Staying within your analogy, the spoon would be a new intellectual property unless it copied the design of the knife. That's a simplistic answer, but if we subject the analogy to too much analysis, it ceases to be useful.
Under American copyright law, it is very difficult to create new intellectual property derived from someone else's intellectual property, unless it is clearly within the 'fair use' doctrine. Art (such as a comedic parody sketch) and scholarly research are two common examples. Fair Use is not something that can be given a clear definition in all cases and variations; these are often decided individually in court. Bear in mind Bethesda is a U.S. subsidiary of a U.S. firm. They would most likely avail themselves of U.S. law wherever possible.
Author J.K. Rowling once won a lawsuit against an American citizen for copyright infringement. A fan had created an online encyclopedia of her Harry Potter(c) fantasy universe. Initially, the website was small, and even won praise from Rowling for it's quality as fan fiction (Fair Use doctrine as well as limited copyright use permission).
However, this fan was a touch obsessive. The simple encyclopedia grew in time to a massive work that attracted interest from an American book publisher to produce a printed version. This was outside Rowling's limited permission, so Rowling and Warner Bros. sued to prevent publication, won a small settlement, and won control over the fan-created website, which subsequently became the basis of a printed encyclopedia produced by Rowling.
The lesson is that anything created that is derived from another's intellectual property, excepting Fair Use purposes, is essentially the property of the entity from whom the work is derived. Another lesson is that although the original IP owner may give limited permission, if you annoy her, she might just take back everything you created that was derived from her IP.
The lesson for mod authors, or for any content creator working within someone else's creation, is to be damn careful, to be thorough in documenting permissions or public domain, and to expect to surrender ownership either at the time of creation or anytime the orginal IP owner cares to take possession.
I want to respond to the spoon analogy but am switching it to photography. I was a commercial photographer for quite a while. Early in my career I worked for other studios as a freelance photographer. Ownership of the photograph can come into question. Part of the equation for who owns the rights comes down to who owns the equipment. If I use the studios equipment I am out in the cold if I want to claim ownership of the photo unless I have an agreement signed and stating otherwise. If I use my own equipment and am not compensated for using my equipment I have a chance of claiming the photo is mine. So going back to the spoon whether the creator owns the spoon or not depends upon the agreement made with the person who owns the knife used to create it.
Not quite the same but I let an artist do paintings of some of my photographs so she could use them as displays at shows. The only rights I gave her was to use her paintings of my images as a display. Later she submitted one of her paintings to a magazine and they ran it on their cover. That broke our agreement so I sent her and the magazine a letter letting them know any future use of likenesses of my images would result in my filing against them for willful copyright infringement. The artist tried to argue as she didn't know the law but the magazine let me know they would make greater efforts to make sure any artist actually had distribution rights to the image. The short of it being even though the artist created the painting she have a right to sell it.
Salvas_Aren wrote: »"I rather tend to question such terms and clauses. It feels like you borrow a knife to carve a fancy spoon and the owner of the knife owns the spoon (or rather the design of it) once you're done. Therefore, it's no surprise that many legal systems would not allow such a transfer of copyright."
Interesting proposition.
Staying within your analogy, the spoon would be a new intellectual property unless it copied the design of the knife. That's a simplistic answer, but if we subject the analogy to too much analysis, it ceases to be useful.
Under American copyright law, it is very difficult to create new intellectual property derived from someone else's intellectual property, unless it is clearly within the 'fair use' doctrine. Art (such as a comedic parody sketch) and scholarly research are two common examples. Fair Use is not something that can be given a clear definition in all cases and variations; these are often decided individually in court. Bear in mind Bethesda is a U.S. subsidiary of a U.S. firm. They would most likely avail themselves of U.S. law wherever possible.
Author J.K. Rowling once won a lawsuit against an American citizen for copyright infringement. A fan had created an online encyclopedia of her Harry Potter(c) fantasy universe. Initially, the website was small, and even won praise from Rowling for it's quality as fan fiction (Fair Use doctrine as well as limited copyright use permission).
However, this fan was a touch obsessive. The simple encyclopedia grew in time to a massive work that attracted interest from an American book publisher to produce a printed version. This was outside Rowling's limited permission, so Rowling and Warner Bros. sued to prevent publication, won a small settlement, and won control over the fan-created website, which subsequently became the basis of a printed encyclopedia produced by Rowling.
The lesson is that anything created that is derived from another's intellectual property, excepting Fair Use purposes, is essentially the property of the entity from whom the work is derived. Another lesson is that although the original IP owner may give limited permission, if you annoy her, she might just take back everything you created that was derived from her IP.
The lesson for mod authors, or for any content creator working within someone else's creation, is to be damn careful, to be thorough in documenting permissions or public domain, and to expect to surrender ownership either at the time of creation or anytime the orginal IP owner cares to take possession.
I want to respond to the spoon analogy but am switching it to photography. I was a commercial photographer for quite a while. Early in my career I worked for other studios as a freelance photographer. Ownership of the photograph can come into question. Part of the equation for who owns the rights comes down to who owns the equipment. If I use the studios equipment I am out in the cold if I want to claim ownership of the photo unless I have an agreement signed and stating otherwise. If I use my own equipment and am not compensated for using my equipment I have a chance of claiming the photo is mine. So going back to the spoon whether the creator owns the spoon or not depends upon the agreement made with the person who owns the knife used to create it.
Not quite the same but I let an artist do paintings of some of my photographs so she could use them as displays at shows. The only rights I gave her was to use her paintings of my images as a display. Later she submitted one of her paintings to a magazine and they ran it on their cover. That broke our agreement so I sent her and the magazine a letter letting them know any future use of likenesses of my images would result in my filing against them for willful copyright infringement. The artist tried to argue as she didn't know the law but the magazine let me know they would make greater efforts to make sure any artist actually had distribution rights to the image. The short of it being even though the artist created the painting she have a right to sell it.
Your studio story would then be true for the spoon carver too if he where an employee or similar contractor of the knife owner. I supposed this not to be the case. I believe if there is some subordination in the relationship between Bethesda/Zenimax and modders, then it is probably a business-consumer one, rather than employer-employee.
Concerning your relationship to the painter: Compare your case to the relationship of Bethesda and modders: If vanilla meshes are used in mods, the parts which contain them are derived from Bethesda, like the painting is derived from your photograph. If the modder makes his own meshes, textures etc., it would be like your painter would need to ask the guy who sells her her brushes for permission.
Coming back to the particular painting: She is entitled to sell the painting? Since you are the artistic creator of the scenery (wow, that sounds odd ^^), you would have the right to bring it into first circulation. But, tbh, I never thought about the case of a painting derived from a photo. I just know, that copyright law can be quite odd, sometimes.
Salvas_Aren wrote: »"I rather tend to question such terms and clauses. It feels like you borrow a knife to carve a fancy spoon and the owner of the knife owns the spoon (or rather the design of it) once you're done. Therefore, it's no surprise that many legal systems would not allow such a transfer of copyright."
Interesting proposition.
Staying within your analogy, the spoon would be a new intellectual property unless it copied the design of the knife. That's a simplistic answer, but if we subject the analogy to too much analysis, it ceases to be useful.
Under American copyright law, it is very difficult to create new intellectual property derived from someone else's intellectual property, unless it is clearly within the 'fair use' doctrine. Art (such as a comedic parody sketch) and scholarly research are two common examples. Fair Use is not something that can be given a clear definition in all cases and variations; these are often decided individually in court. Bear in mind Bethesda is a U.S. subsidiary of a U.S. firm. They would most likely avail themselves of U.S. law wherever possible.
Author J.K. Rowling once won a lawsuit against an American citizen for copyright infringement. A fan had created an online encyclopedia of her Harry Potter(c) fantasy universe. Initially, the website was small, and even won praise from Rowling for it's quality as fan fiction (Fair Use doctrine as well as limited copyright use permission).
However, this fan was a touch obsessive. The simple encyclopedia grew in time to a massive work that attracted interest from an American book publisher to produce a printed version. This was outside Rowling's limited permission, so Rowling and Warner Bros. sued to prevent publication, won a small settlement, and won control over the fan-created website, which subsequently became the basis of a printed encyclopedia produced by Rowling.
The lesson is that anything created that is derived from another's intellectual property, excepting Fair Use purposes, is essentially the property of the entity from whom the work is derived. Another lesson is that although the original IP owner may give limited permission, if you annoy her, she might just take back everything you created that was derived from her IP.
The lesson for mod authors, or for any content creator working within someone else's creation, is to be damn careful, to be thorough in documenting permissions or public domain, and to expect to surrender ownership either at the time of creation or anytime the orginal IP owner cares to take possession.
I want to respond to the spoon analogy but am switching it to photography. I was a commercial photographer for quite a while. Early in my career I worked for other studios as a freelance photographer. Ownership of the photograph can come into question. Part of the equation for who owns the rights comes down to who owns the equipment. If I use the studios equipment I am out in the cold if I want to claim ownership of the photo unless I have an agreement signed and stating otherwise. If I use my own equipment and am not compensated for using my equipment I have a chance of claiming the photo is mine. So going back to the spoon whether the creator owns the spoon or not depends upon the agreement made with the person who owns the knife used to create it.
Not quite the same but I let an artist do paintings of some of my photographs so she could use them as displays at shows. The only rights I gave her was to use her paintings of my images as a display. Later she submitted one of her paintings to a magazine and they ran it on their cover. That broke our agreement so I sent her and the magazine a letter letting them know any future use of likenesses of my images would result in my filing against them for willful copyright infringement. The artist tried to argue as she didn't know the law but the magazine let me know they would make greater efforts to make sure any artist actually had distribution rights to the image. The short of it being even though the artist created the painting she have a right to sell it.
Your studio story would then be true for the spoon carver too if he where an employee or similar contractor of the knife owner. I supposed this not to be the case. I believe if there is some subordination in the relationship between Bethesda/Zenimax and modders, then it is probably a business-consumer one, rather than employer-employee.
Concerning your relationship to the painter: Compare your case to the relationship of Bethesda and modders: If vanilla meshes are used in mods, the parts which contain them are derived from Bethesda, like the painting is derived from your photograph. If the modder makes his own meshes, textures etc., it would be like your painter would need to ask the guy who sells her her brushes for permission.
Coming back to the particular painting: She is entitled to sell the painting? Since you are the artistic creator of the scenery (wow, that sounds odd ^^), you would have the right to bring it into first circulation. But, tbh, I never thought about the case of a painting derived from a photo. I just know, that copyright law can be quite odd, sometimes.
I wasn't clear on the selling the painting thing. She would be allowed to sell the painting itself. She would not be allowed to sell copies of the painting. Same could apply if I photograph a sculpture then try and sell images.
Salvas_Aren wrote: »The Eiffel Tower is public domain, since its architect is long dead. However, since 1990 the tower illumination at night is copyrighted, therefore, only daytime pictures can be public domain.
Obviously MS claiming ownership of any word document would made it malware in cooperate or creative settings.Salvas_Aren wrote: »@therift
I didn't mean copyright protection per se as we experience it everywhere and every day.
I specifically meant a clause in the terms of a free-ish tool which grants the maker of the tool the copyright or maximum license for the created content. Since many European countries tend to live a policy where weaker parties are generally favoured by explicit protective laws, I'm quite sure there is a bunch of countries where the author of mod content will lack the legal ability to agree to such a special clause, since such non-synallagmatic clauses tend to be invalid if standardized and premade in some ToS.
Maybe I should present a more adequate analogy than knife and spoon: If Microsoft included a clause in the ToS of MS Word, that every document written within it becomes licensed to the corporation, this clause would be null and void too.
Obviously MS claiming ownership of any word document would made it malware in cooperate or creative settings.Salvas_Aren wrote: »@therift
I didn't mean copyright protection per se as we experience it everywhere and every day.
I specifically meant a clause in the terms of a free-ish tool which grants the maker of the tool the copyright or maximum license for the created content. Since many European countries tend to live a policy where weaker parties are generally favoured by explicit protective laws, I'm quite sure there is a bunch of countries where the author of mod content will lack the legal ability to agree to such a special clause, since such non-synallagmatic clauses tend to be invalid if standardized and premade in some ToS.
Maybe I should present a more adequate analogy than knife and spoon: If Microsoft included a clause in the ToS of MS Word, that every document written within it becomes licensed to the corporation, this clause would be null and void too.
And no you would not want to use 360 in any setting there security is critical.
But the creation tool TOS is pretty reasonable, you can not claim copyright on any mod touched by it nor sue Bethesda for anything they do who has been done in mods, note this does not include stuff made outside it like 3d models textures or dialogue.
Armor I want to see the link and its lots of various fantasy variants of various real armor traditions.
Weapons is even harder as its less way to do them while trying to make something a bit realistic.
BoneShatterer wrote: »for the curious .
youtube and search for immersive wepaon
immersive armor
but being ESO players die hards oyuguys must be too lame or lazy to do it yourself ehres a guide
1-www.youtube.com
2- search bar left lcik on it and write: immersive weapons skyrim
BoneShatterer wrote: »for the curious .
youtube and search for immersive wepaon
immersive armor
but being ESO players die hards oyuguys must be too lame or lazy to do it yourself ehres a guide
1-www.youtube.com
2- search bar left lcik on it and write: immersive weapons skyrim
Calls us lazy yet he is too lazy to back up his big claim with screenshot evidence and tells us to do it ourself?
BoneShatterer wrote: »for the curious .
youtube and search for immersive wepaon
immersive armor
but being ESO players die hards oyuguys must be too lame or lazy to do it yourself ehres a guide
1-www.youtube.com
2- search bar left lcik on it and write: immersive weapons skyrim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCNQOEEt5As





I made one for people that don't want to use google.
Looking at this I think Scalecaller is paying off of the Skyrim armours. Not the modders versions of dragon armour.
driosketch wrote: »
driosketch wrote: »Looking at this I think Scalecaller is paying off of the Skyrim armours. Not the modders versions of dragon armour.
Thank you all the same for the visual guide. It's very helpful. It's also the second example provided that goes against OP's claim. If they have some thing that proves the devs copied modders, let OP provide the third example.
BoneShatterer wrote: »for the curious .
youtube and search for immersive wepaon
immersive armor
but being ESO players die hards oyuguys must be too lame or lazy to do it yourself ehres a guide
1-www.youtube.com
2- search bar left lcik on it and write: immersive weapons skyrim