The legality of modding

Kangaax · Post by **Kangaax** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 01:47

This guy sounds like an older person that is unaware of how things are done in the digital world. 90s called, they want their people back

FinWiz · Post by **FinWiz** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 01:49

I got it. He is trying to say that official 1.18 patch was partially developed by modders as it was released to beta and therefore these modders are in position of possibly installing harmful material to your computer. As a prove, he linked "functional trader" mod, propably because trading is working better now. Now I don't know if modders had anything to do with code of 1.18 patch but even if they did, he would still be wrong. Clearly it's not the modders that choose what code is in the game, even if it was provided by them it would be Egosoft choosing to put it there

mrowka · Post by **mrowka** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 01:56

So just add a warning to the mod rule book
"Write a warning that this is a mod and your save games might be eat up, chew and hack the internet, with evil code that they might or may not contain or selfaware Ai that can bring terminators from the future"

Becouse gary is on sue spree ....

snwboardn21 · Post by **snwboardn21** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:00

FinWiz wrote:I got it. He is trying to say that official 1.18 patch was partially developed by modders as it was released to beta and therefore these modders are in position of possibly installing harmful material to your computer. As a prove, he linked "functional trader" mod, propably because trading is working better now. Now I don't know if modders had anything to do with code of 1.18 patch but even if they did, he would still be wrong. Clearly it's not the modders that choose what code is in the game, even if it was provided by them it would be Egosoft choosing to put it there

No I think it is more along the lines of some kind of illegal sweat shop. Like they lured some modders in with the promise of soda and pizza; and are now forcing them into some kind of labor camp to fix Egosoft's bugs.

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:21

mrowka wrote:Because Gary is on sue spree ....

Actually, I think Gary is our Saviour. He wants to protect us. I'm not quite sure what from.

Or to sum it up: the topic

mrowka · Post by **mrowka** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:24

Common senses are not in par with any laws i know exept the laws of nature so he might be right

Lhotse5 · Post by **Lhotse5** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:24

Ok..for the record, this guy 'Gary' is a nutcase.
This guy has been trolling threads telling people that Valve can be "arrested and prosecuted" for not immediately answering his emails in regards to a refund for the game and he's going to have them arrested, although he's not very clear as to who exactly it is, that's going off to the clink...maybe everybody who shows up for work the day Interpol shows up with the arrest warrant and extradition paperwork, to haul them all off to Old Bailey in the UK, to stand trail for selling him X Rebirth. (You cant make this stuff up, this really is what he's been saying.)
This person makes a good case for the old saying.."Better living through pharmaceuticals", as it is abundantly clear that he has gone off his meds and gone 'around the bend' as they say.
Pay no attention to this person, as he doesn't understand half of what he's talking about and all he wants to do is bait you into an argument, so that he can spout more gibberish.

DavidGW · Post by **DavidGW** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:26

I think what this guy doesn't get is the concept of sub-contracting. For example, if you buy a car, you wouldn't expect every part of it was made by the manufacturer whose badge adorns the front. Buying a computer, you would expect that very little (if any) was actually made by the company you bought it from.

Similarly, normal people wouldn't expect every line of code, every texture, or every model of any particular piece of software to be written/made by the one company. How many games out there just use someone else's game engine???

Now, moving on to legal responsibility, if our 0.3 mL of modder (the sub-contractor) blood happened to contain Byte Flu, who would be responsible? Personally, I think it would be EgoSoft who would be guilty of negligence, i.e. they didn't check the code before they submitted it to us, as authorised by them. I expect it would then be up to EgoSoft to sue the modder for negligence, or even fraud.

My precedent here would be a few years ago my Apple laptop went bad because of NVIDIA's "Bump-gate" debacle, and Apple fixed my laptop free of charge, even though it was out of warranty. What settlements Apple and NVIDIA worked out between them never affected me.

Of course, if the user installs a separate mod, then this is all irrelevant, because then there's a whole lot of other disclaimers one has to go through to install a non-EgoSoft-approved mod.

As my closing statement, relating directly to the OP's linked thread's OP, a great man (me) once said (right now):
"A small amount of knowledge makes an idiot a fool."
- DavidGW, 2013

P.S. This self-quote may also apply to me, and my pseudo-legal ramblings above...

Brachra · Post by **Brachra** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:29

L O L

that is all.

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:33

Lhotse5 wrote:Pay no attention to this person, as he doesn't understand half of what he's talking about and all he wants to do is bait you into an argument, so that he can spout more gibberish.

Aww, don't ruin it!

This thread has been the best thread in the Steam Rebirth forum ever!

DavidGW wrote:Now, moving on to legal responsibility, if our 0.3 mL of modder (the sub-contractor) blood happened to contain Byte Flu, who would be responsible? Personally, I think it would be EgoSoft who would be guilty of negligence, i.e. they didn't check the code before they submitted it to us, as authorised by them. I expect it would then be up to EgoSoft to sue the modder for negligence, or even fraud.

While not a legal document, I think this makes Egosoft's stance towards modding pretty clear.

And yes. If Egosoft releases shoddy software (like Gazz's turret script) in say, an expansion like TC:AP, it's their responsibility to make sure it doesn't kick the dog or sets the player's house on fire.

Kangaax · Post by **Kangaax** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:36

I think i already ruined it at the who can write more gibberish contest

Vim Razz · Post by **Vim Razz** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:41

Take heart! After all: someone wandering into the thread accidentally might learn something from what you wrote, so it might not have been entirely in vain. You expressed things pretty clearly.

ybeline · Post by **ybeline** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:43

Hello,

Thank you Gazz for sharing

By the way, Gary's Steam public profile is also interesting:

Gary (Steam public profile) wrote:[...] In order to progress and ATTEMPT to fix your woeful ingame problems many advocate "editing the savefile". [...] The format would be confusing to most and is inherantly frustrating and prone to errors. In my personal attempts to get the game to work I edited this file hundreds of times. [...] In order to get the ship back to my "safe area" I had to edit the save file and turn off enemy standings so it could actually fly to safety.

I let you make your own opinion

Regards,

ybeline

FinWiz · Post by **FinWiz** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:48

But I still don't know that did beta tester had an access to add something to that patch? Not that it matters but just out of curiosity.

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:52

No.

And it doesn't even matter.
If Egosoft released it then guess what... Egosoft released it.

But for god's sake don't start discussing this "thread" here! It's great for pointing, laughing, and knee-slapping but beyond that...? =)

Kangaax · Post by **Kangaax** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 02:53

Probably not, egosoft is still fixing engine core features at this point, but it's very likely to happen in the future.
X3 had plenty of modders code released in the different updates, up to the point that X3AP v3.0 was basically entirely community made.

jocan2003 · Post by **jocan2003** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 04:15

Anyone remember that nutcase who sued World of warcraft saying the gae made him fat/use tehcnics to artifficialy inflate played time to increase their own revenue trough all kind of ways?

Lemme see if i cant find the case again.

There it is.

I wonder if its the same guy o.O
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/12437-cal ... mechanics/

made me laugh and weep over the fact that this guy.... is human....

jwt22 · Post by **jwt22** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 04:30

well that thread is gone now good read tho

bbeach · Post by **bbeach** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 05:45

Damn, the thread closed down while I was writing my reply to him.

I'm still not sure if he was just trolling or a complete idiot. Since I'm assuming he had the thread deleted, I'm going to go with complete idiot that's trying to hide it from the world.

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Wed, 4. Dec 13, 07:04

We will always have the epic memory. =)

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

The legality of modding