EULA and EU law

[cozmosis]

So I saw some points in a review that got me thinking, like the following:

Modders: you will not be able to make any money from your creations. No surprise, but it goes further. Basically if you create a mod, you do not own it.

So. TLDR for modding: don't expect to be able to take any code or ideas you create and profit from them.

Also in the terms allows for them to spy on you and sell your data. So, you know. There's that.

Neither of these points seem specific for the EU market since they would breach EU laws on intellectual property and data protection.

Are there different versions of the EULA for NA/EU or can we Europeans basically just ignore it :)

[ToxicSludge]

Shouldn't be able to anyway... I've been gaming for many years. I remember when mods were free and pretty successful. The Battlefield 1942 series had a load of fun mods to dabble around with. Then the famous desert combat mod was gold.

Nowdays everyone just wants to make a quick buck. I understand you're putting YOUR time and effort into creating something for the game. Though that seems like a choice that YOU made.

I made a small add-on mod for the arma series. I'm not out here collecting or demanding royalties from it. It was a decision I made.

Simple if you want to make money from games then start your own studio and build from there.

[Frisko [VL]]

that is in a lot of games lol
first of all: you do not OWN a game, you obtained a license to use it. second, mods are based on an existing game, a source code, and you do not own that, so obvious you can not own or monetize mods, except where stated otherwise.

[gabriele83]

This is not just about that, they will own the mod you made, and guess what, they might even sell it as a DLC later on and make money on your work, does this still appeal you? Remember the two DLCs for the original KSP? Those are essentially just clones of what you could get already anyway with community free mods.

[Central]

i am not sure about mods and making money off it, strings of code might be part of their copyright so European law might actually be with them on that part. at least when it comes down to the code they created.
not sure about any coding that you yourself did.

but im sure we can at the very least ignore the part where they can spy on you. it goes against the law and if they do that than they can face serious consequences.
it does not matter what agreement you sign, if the agreement itself is against the law than it does not count.
you can get someone to sign a contract saying that they become your slave but the law clearly states that that is illegal and as such signing it will not make them your slave.

[meatshieldChris]

pretty standard, Valve jumped down a bunch of mod maker's throats about trying to sell HL mods years ago. Scripting stuff using their scripting libraries is literally using tooling that they own. This all makes sense from a legal standpoint. One mod started out free, then made a deal with Valve to sell it, and then it became a big deal. Which is the way it should work. Work with the company you're trying to use the IP of, not against it.

This is similar to Unreal's licensing, which you can use for free but if you make money off of it, you have to give them 5%. If you don't, don't complain when they sue you. Unreal literally owns 5% of your profits, which really means they own 5% of your game. This is no different. Until you have made a licensing agreement with the publisher of KSP2, you CAN NOT make money off of it. Simple as that. Laws supporting this go back to the days when people were copying cassette tapes.

One clarification though, the bit about owning the data, that's because since the data going through the mod goes through the game, they MUST be allowed to access that data. If they can't your mod doesn't work. This part of the EULA is you acknowledging you understand that technical limitation and hope you don't create silly lawsuits about it.

Could you point out the exact phrasing that indicates they can take and redistribute your work without your permission? I can't find that exact paragraph.

[IllustriousGodKingEmperor]

Mod auth's don't need to get paid. Either have passion or GTFO