Wow, I have always used Skydaz because of their awesome auto-installer. Never knew that it was stealing the mods...
Also, you say that malware is often found on these sites, but Ad Fly tries to trick you into clicking a 'download manager' advertisement every time you download a mod.
Yeah, I foolishly used the "download manager" once in my desperation to figure out how to mod Minecraft. That was stupid. My Norton antivirus removed it.
I think DRM is totally the wrong way to go. I bet a carefully-crafted license could grant enough rights to let players use our mods the way we intend, but without threatening the monetization methods that some modders depend on.
We could possibly grant licensees the ability to distribute derivative works, but not copies of the original work. And we'd have to enforce that derivative works must use different logos, names, etc. We could refer to the Firefox/Iceweasel issue for guidance here.
I agree that DRM would be the wrong way, but I have always heard that you should avoid custom licenses at all cost, unless you had a lawyer help you write it. Because otherwise you open up the possibility of fancy reading in a court room where someone could twist your words around.
Attached to this post, is the bottom of http:// skydaz com, which should be evidence if your mod is put on there with no permission!
#StopModReposts !
I bet these 2 pictures taking license and approving that it has no malware are fake and just uploaded. ALERT DANTDM about SkyDaz! Quickly!
I know, but I didn't get malware from Skydaz, and I've used it like 25 times. The only failure was the AvP installer, which didn't download the mod due to the website being down.
I agree that DRM would be the wrong way, but I have always heard that you should avoid custom licenses at all cost, unless you had a lawyer help you write it. Because otherwise you open up the possibility of fancy reading in a court room where someone could twist your words around.
My licence is pretty good... Also, I support DRM to some degree (but not rootkits like Sony had...).
I agree that DRM would be the wrong way, but I have always heard that you should avoid custom licenses at all cost, unless you had a lawyer help you write it. Because otherwise you open up the possibility of fancy reading in a court room where someone could twist your words around.
I totally agree... I'm generally against custom licenses, but Jakimfett gave some convincing reasons to try it out earlier in this thread:
Quote from jakimfett»
Part of why I made the license is because I wanted something that other people could modify to fit their needs. Feel free to fork and modify.
As for if it'll hold up in court...realistically, all that matters is how much money you can throw at lawyers, and/or who you know in the political power structure.
My license has enough legalese in it to satisfy the "reasonable person" clause that shows up in a lot of laws (eg, would a "reasonable person" understand this to be binding), but keep in mind I'm not a lawyer, and lawyers aren't reasonable people in the courtroom.
If you want it to be completely airtight, hire a lawyer to write a license for you that fits your needs.
Sure, some do. And then they get revenue from ads on the page when people visit their site instead of yours. Or, even better, their mod download link gives the visitor 2 options: 1) go through an adfly link, or 2) give them a "Like" on Facebook. Many people will say "they probably stole it so I'm not picking adfly", even if the adfly link is really the modder's, and so the visitor chooses to "Like" instead.
The site is happy in both cases: either they get adfly revenue, or else they get Likes, which are even better for them. Ever notice how many of these site have the facebook widget that says "212325 people Like us on Facebook"? That's why. And so new visitors think "oh hey, this must be legit!" And the site can even get higher rankings on search engines due to their "reputation", and so they get more visitors...
In short: no, those sites are probably still 100% evil.
Some of them are. The mod maker still gets revenue, as long as the original link is clicked.
I 100% agree. Just the other day I cleaned off a computer that had been riddled with a massive virus infection, and after removing 6000 malware items I decided to find what had initially infected the machine. What I discovered is that the user had tried to download a "Mod Installer" from one of these sites, and the installer had installed a dropper (a dropper is a virus that downloads and installs other malware). Since he had no AV installed, the infection quickly expanded to infect the whole machine. If there were less sites redistributing mods, there would be much less of a chance of getting fake installers like this in the first place.
Yup, agreed. Though I wish AV would worked better-I got infected once from something unrelated to this topic, and had to wipe the entire PC. I had to install Windows 8.1.
Hey, Jakimfett, I'm only 10 and I'm planning to write mods for the future. Due to my age I don't really understand data of copyright acts, so I would like to know how to fully license my future mods with the DBaJ license. Thanks!
Here are a bunch of Russian sites hosting mods. All these have had one of my mods on it. To prevent search engines from scraping these, though, I've encoded it; simply go to https://www.base64decode.org/ paste the content below, then press Decode, and you'll get a list of links:
I AM NOT YOUR PERSONAL MINECRAFT MOD SUPPORT AGENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT PM ME ABOUT PROBLEMATIC MODS THAT ARE NOT MINE. If you're having trouble/crashes with a mod, you'll have better luck resolving it in this forum section than PMing me. If you already made a topic, be patient about responses. If you have troubles with anything non-Minecraft related on your PC, I might be able to help, though, but no promises. Even though I could wish to be, I'm not a wizard.
Really? Well, about SkyDaz. You said you see absolutely no problem in SkyDaz, just because you see their launchers are cool and they give links to the official mod post. Think about it. Say you created a mod. Let's name it '4571police's BetterFPS mod' for now. You created it, posted it to MinecraftForum. About 2-3 days later, SkyDaz posts it to their website, with ABSOLUTELY no permission from you. How would you feel? You would write a DMCA takedown notice via email to SkyDaz, like Jakimfett did towards 9Minecraft. As the last paragraph of Jackimfett's takedown notice says, if no act is taken within 14 days of the writing of the takedown notice, it would be counted as willful infrigment to the 'DMCA' AKA Section 1200 of the US Copyright act. Yeah, you would feel awesome/proud of what you did if you made a takedown notice. SkyDaz make no profit of what they post, but it's still copyright infringement. Thanks for reading.
That's not what I meant. I know that they are stealing mods, but I didn't say they were good people. Also, you're "welcome". NO ONE'S PERFECT, NOT EVEN YOU! Plus refer to some of my previous posts. Then you'll see what I mean. I was hoping you would be nice, but you're just being a jerk.
Well, I'm sorry anyways. I am a jerk in fact, say lots of other people. I'm really sorry for disrespecting you, and harassing you in general. I ain't perfect, nobody's perfect. I'm far away from perfect. I have very bad social skills towards people, so I'm sorry for the 3rd time.
so you are complaining about sites stealing work that doesnt even belong to the "creators" in the first place? what? the modding community needs to get off its high horse and learn a thing or two from other modding communities. stop being so selfish.
Hey, Jakimfett, I'm only 10 and I'm planning to write mods for the future. Due to my age I don't really understand data of copyright acts, so I would like to know how to fully license my future mods with the DBaJ license. Thanks!
Buddy, you can never be to old or too young to mod... If I could go back in time, I would start modding and programming at your age! Good luck with your future mod endeavors.
Yeah, I foolishly used the "download manager" once in my desperation to figure out how to mod Minecraft. That was stupid. My Norton antivirus removed it.
I agree that DRM would be the wrong way, but I have always heard that you should avoid custom licenses at all cost, unless you had a lawyer help you write it. Because otherwise you open up the possibility of fancy reading in a court room where someone could twist your words around.
I know, but I didn't get malware from Skydaz, and I've used it like 25 times. The only failure was the AvP installer, which didn't download the mod due to the website being down.
My licence is pretty good... Also, I support DRM to some degree (but not rootkits like Sony had...).
I totally agree... I'm generally against custom licenses, but Jakimfett gave some convincing reasons to try it out earlier in this thread:
Some of them are. The mod maker still gets revenue, as long as the original link is clicked.
Yup, agreed. Though I wish AV would worked better-I got infected once from something unrelated to this topic, and had to wipe the entire PC. I had to install Windows 8.1.
I'm 10 too, and I want to do the same thing.
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
Or, if you prefer...
I AM NOT YOUR PERSONAL MINECRAFT MOD SUPPORT AGENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT PM ME ABOUT PROBLEMATIC MODS THAT ARE NOT MINE. If you're having trouble/crashes with a mod, you'll have better luck resolving it in this forum section than PMing me. If you already made a topic, be patient about responses. If you have troubles with anything non-Minecraft related on your PC, I might be able to help, though, but no promises. Even though I could wish to be, I'm not a wizard.
That's not what I meant. I know that they are stealing mods, but I didn't say they were good people. Also, you're "welcome". NO ONE'S PERFECT, NOT EVEN YOU! Plus refer to some of my previous posts. Then you'll see what I mean. I was hoping you would be nice, but you're just being a jerk.
Now let's forget this and be friends, ok?
Forgiven =)
Agreed.
Agreed. This is important information for new players.
Buddy, you can never be to old or too young to mod... If I could go back in time, I would start modding and programming at your age! Good luck with your future mod endeavors.