Warning: Paid Mods

[WinterQueen]

Its come to my attention that more and more people within the community are buying Truck MODS for ATS in recent months.

This spells disaster, for one, if the original manufacturer, say Kenworth, see a mod like the 521 being sold, they may make the whole licensing deal with SCS fall through because people are PAYING for UNLICENSED models, which is defrauding both SCS and Kenworth/paccar.

Theres a reason why SCS take so long with bringing out new trucks, and that the whole licensing agreement, this piece of legal paperwork means that SCS have full legal right to depict and distribute a close to accurate representation of the companies truck model with full legal backing from the manufacturer, whereas 99% of truck MODS, whether paid or free, are completely unlicensed and are just third party creations of real trucks, which is fine when they are free to download, but when you step into the world of paid mods, especially vehicle mods, then youre really within the legal redtape and if the proper avenues are not followed, then serious issues/reprocussions can occur.

So please people, think twice about BUYING mods, especially if there is no legal paperwork or any sign of a licensing agreement between said manufacturer and modder, im damn sure non of you want to see SCS pay the price for some greedy modders wanting to make a quick buck off of their mods. I mean, worst case is that Paccar and other manufacturer heads pull all deals off the table and SCS are just left with 3 trucks for the entire game and the possibility of legal issues and complications throughout the rest of the games lifecycle.

[Madkine]

liquidzero29 eredeti hozzászólása:

ok guys so after reading thru this and being a mod creator my self for other games theres a few correct and incorrect issues here.
1. can you make a modification and sell it? answer yes you can but with that said you can only sell it if you have made this mod by hand now as far as trademarks go as long as SCS has paid for the right to have lets say the peterbuilt logo in the game then by me buying the game and scs making the ability to make mods i there have the right to make a mod for said game but do i have a right to sell it well this is the grey area and heres why yes i have the right to make the mod but then you have to look at the small print to see is that license scs has to the tradmark logos carried over to me and is there any contract saying i can or can not sell what i create well the answer normaly is yes i can sell it

1. i made the model so it will not be 100% the same as the real life version
2. if scs did not want people making money off of the models the modder makes then it is there fault for giving modders the ability to make the mods in the first place lets look at flight sims almost all flight sim mods are paid why because your not paying for the plane per say your paying for the time that the modder has put in to making you that plane the same stands here your not per say paying for the truck but for the persons time that it took them to make you that truck if you where paying for the truck and the labor it took them to make it you would pay around 60 to 100 dollars per truck. And side note after looking at the RTA Mods trucks and looking at the screen shots there very porly made.

1. Just because SCS have the rights to use the logo does not confer any rights on you to re-use it.
2. Your error's in replicating a company's model does not mean you aren't trying to use their model.
3. SCS is not at fault in any way for modders making money off mods. A modder is free to create a perfectly new truck design and not infringe on anyone's copyright.

[Nimir-Raj]

1. You can only sell a mod legally if all the work in it is your own and does not use any content from any other source without permission. So selling it is illegal whether you believe it is or not.

When it comes to licenses that the company have, lets use Kenworth as an example for SCS. You do not work for SCS, you have no legal contract with Kenworth allowing you to use the Kenworth name or brand in any of your mods. You are breaking the law by doing so.

Now if that mod is free and using SCS made parts, Kenworth would turn a blind eye in most cases. But you do not have permission to sell a mod with that content in it.

As far as mods using SCS content like a map mod using their prefabs, that I can't answer. I have read SCS's policy on making money from their assets. That it is a company by company legal agreement that you would have to look into.

You have to remember that SCS do not authorise any mods, they and unofficial and unsupported. You need expression permission to sell something you don't own. This isn't a "if it doesn't say no, it's fine." It's very much a "if it doesn't say yes, you're not allowed to" situation. To put it in perspective: Do you have a sign on your door saying "You are not allowed to rob my house at gun point?" No? does that mean I can then? No of course not. Yes I know that's an extreme example, but that is how the law works. If no permission is inferred then there is no permission.


One big fallacy I see thrown around a lot is that if you copy it you own it. You don't. It doesn't matter if it's a 100% copy or not. You are actively attempting to copy it, that is your intention. It does not become creative commons or fair use just because you recreated it.


2. There's no fault on SCS at all. You are an individual who made a choice. SCS didn't put a gun to your head and force you to make mods.

Yes RTA mods are badly made. I have a version of the K200 (not paid for) and I've had the T908, Range T, and Merc MP4. All had major flaws and none of them are optimised.

[Asigion]

Mohegan Moh1336 eredeti hozzászólása:

Yes RTA mods are badly made. I have a version of the K200 (not paid for) and I've had the T908, Range T, and Merc MP4. All had major flaws and none of them are optimised.

Recent models? I haven't seen the Merc available on their site so if you are talking about older versions then you are basing your opinion on old models.

[axe]

Willy.J.K eredeti hozzászólása:

Thank you for that information. It is enlightening.

Perhaps in that case it would at least be better if SCS removed truck mods from the workshop. There is currently the Aradeth VNL670 which I imagine SCS would have sought the licence for, hence the Volvo dealerships in the game.

Its free in the Workshop so I dont think that would count. But here is a FYI I found something hidden in the .scs files. I bought ATS at pre launch and got the Steampunk skins, when extracted the files I opened up the paint skin folders to look at the Steampunk skins SCS actually had a skin for the Vnl Volvo in the folder so to me that would mean SCS always had intentions of getting Volvo in ATS.

[B_Wald]

The issues reaised in this thread are exactly why I don't use paid mods such as RTA.

Like I sad in the recent "paid mods" thread a few weeks ago: Morally speaking, I don't mind if someone skirts the law when making a mod, SO LONG as they don't expect me to pay them for it. If you didn't cross the "T"s and dot the "I"s, I'm not supporting you financially. Simple as that.

[Nimir-Raj]

Willy.J.K eredeti hozzászólása:

Recent models? I haven't seen the Merc available on their site so if you are talking about older versions then you are basing your opinion on old models.

The Merc is a very old model to be sure. It was released before SCS put their official one out. Why they removed it I don't know, probably because the SCS one came, probably stopped being profitable.

The k200 I get the updates when the person who bought it sends me them to unlock. ;)

[ttower]

axe eredeti hozzászólása:

Willy.J.K eredeti hozzászólása:

Thank you for that information. It is enlightening.

Perhaps in that case it would at least be better if SCS removed truck mods from the workshop. There is currently the Aradeth VNL670 which I imagine SCS would have sought the licence for, hence the Volvo dealerships in the game.

Its free in the Workshop so I dont think that would count. But here is a FYI I found something hidden in the .scs files. I bought ATS at pre launch and got the Steampunk skins, when extracted the files I opened up the paint skin folders to look at the Steampunk skins SCS actually had a skin for the Vnl Volvo in the folder so to me that would mean SCS always had intentions of getting Volvo in ATS.

I remember that one of the pictures on the steam store pre-launch was a Blue Volvo VNL in San Francisco. It was removed about 2 or 3 weeks before launch.

[happy]

The only mod i ever paid for was the promods map for ETS2, because its an entire Selfmade project.

[AyMazingATS]

Tøtesfleisch8 eredeti hozzászólása:

The only mod i ever paid for was the promods map for ETS2, because its an entire Selfmade project.

Promods is free. What you paid for was to download the file from a paid server instead of their free server.

[happy]

AyMazingATS eredeti hozzászólása:

Tøtesfleisch8 eredeti hozzászólása:

The only mod i ever paid for was the promods map for ETS2, because its an entire Selfmade project.

Promods is free. What you paid for was to download the file from a paid server instead of their free server.

For me its paying for the mod, but i dont really mind tbh.