Someone Is Selling Mods ! [Archive]

PROMETHEUS

07-09-2006, 09:20

http://cgi.ebay.it/ROME-TOTAL-WAR-OLTRE-500-MEGA-DI-MOD-SKIN-E-MAPPE_W0QQitemZ300004544237QQihZ020QQcategoryZ11053QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Basically on Ebay this guys is selling a service of around 500 mbs of mods made by others with the excuse that he is selling the service for the ones who cant wait to download , go around searching the mods or stuff like that , I dunno if this is legal and I would like to know and in case I think he at least should respect or ask permissions ..... :hmmm:

william the bastard

07-09-2006, 12:02

I think you should contact Ebay and explain the situation and maybe the seller. For knowing RTR, he is surely a fellowship member.
I consider that like a good warning to the community, perhaps we should consider to organize ourselves distribution of copies for low connection owners, after all this guy selling work of others guys, even if this stuff is free and sales price low, I think it's a shame.
Even if intentions are goods, process look rubbish.

BTW, I forgot ALLEZ les [COLOR="Blue"]BLEUS and [COLOR="Green"]FORZA [COLOR="blue"]GLI AZZURI

French with Italian origins, my heart beating and brain turn schyzo

Jambo

07-09-2006, 12:12

Most certainly it isn't legal. Anything related to Rome TW is the property of CA and Sega. Mods may be developed by individuals and they may claim ownership, but they cannot sell and profit from the mod.

TB666

07-09-2006, 13:43

Without a doubt, not legal.
He is even selling patch 1.2.
And as Jambo said, the mods are in a way properties of SEGA and CA and are meant to be free.

Lentonius

07-09-2006, 14:08

i dunno, if this bloke is shipping mods physically around, putting em on cds and stuff, there could be some confusion. I dunno, but if he is shipping these around on CDs to people, then theoretically the 5.99 euros he could just say is the cost of the shipping, and therefore non profitable. However, it is hard to clarify on things like this the legality of it all., but i suspect if in any way (and which i think it does) contain patches by CA and SEGA, then I suppose that is illegal. Although technically selling modified games for profit is illegal, they could simply argue they are only charging the 'postage fee'.

Anywho, I wonder who this person is?

Quillan

07-09-2006, 15:27

This could be tricky, as I don't speak Italian, but is he selling the mods, or is he simply selling a service? If what he is selling is the service of downloading the things you can't download, burning them onto a disk and shipping them to you, and the price he charges reflects only the costs of materials/shipping and the service provided, it might technically be legal.

When I saw the thread, I figured X1 was at it again.

Divinus Arma

07-09-2006, 15:31

Woah. This is actually a hell of a loop hole.

Think about it:

It takes hours for some people to download a mod on very slow connections. Some people pay to be premium members of public servers in order to get "bumped up" in line. Are they then selling the modification?

Therefore, someone could, hypothetically, sell the method by which it is distributed: namely via CD. As long as he does not sell RTW itself, this could be legal. After all, the modifications require the software from RTW to function. Again, he is not selling the intellectual property. He is only selling the method of its distribution. By the same token, somebody could host a super-fast server, bittorrent style, and sell the service, but only exclusively for downloading mods.

Woah.

If somebody decides to really run with this, they would likely end in court either way. Its just hard to say who would win, because the law gets fuzzy when dealing with the distribution of free software.

The Spartan (Returns)

07-09-2006, 16:18

Therefore, someone could, hypothetically, sell the method by which it is distributed: namely via CD. As long as he does not sell RTW itself, this could be legal. After all, the modifications require the software from RTW to function. Again, he is not selling the intellectual property. He is only selling the method of its distribution. By the same token, somebody could host a super-fast server, bittorrent style, and sell the service, but only exclusively for downloading mods.
thats true. but i think he selling mods not selling hosts. btw hes an idiot. he selling mundus map which is completly free, hes selling RTR 6.0 which i could get 6.2 and he selling a frggin patch which is free! hes an idiot! why would he sell something which you could get free! you can google mod and the first thing you see will not be ebay. it will be totalwar.org,twcenter,net,or stratcommandcenter.com. complete idiot. nuff said. cough no offense!

Monarch

07-09-2006, 17:00

This could be tricky, as I don't speak Italian,

http://www.google.co.uk/language_tools?hl=en

Put the URL into that and have a read.

Dominii

07-09-2006, 18:25

thats true. but i think he selling mods not selling hosts. btw hes an idiot. he selling mundus map which is completly free, hes selling RTR 6.0 which i could get 6.2 and he selling a frggin patch which is free! hes an idiot! why would he sell something which you could get free! you can google mod and the first thing you see will not be ebay. it will be totalwar.org,twcenter,net,or stratcommandcenter.com. complete idiot. nuff said. cough no offense!

Idiot 1 distributes to ignorant people 2-???. Those who think it's easier to buy mods or that they cannot be downloaded for free are getting ripped off. This is definately illegal as I assume he doesnt have the permission of those who created the mods to sell them, this is a breach of intellectual rights and copyrights as he is essentially an online street vendor.

Someone better send him a little note reminding him he's gonna get in trouble.

Silver Rusher

07-09-2006, 18:35

Wow, 100% positive feedback from 259 recommendations!

Hang on a minute: Is RTR 6.0 even available in Italian? Because if it isn't, people might buy it (would still be illegal though)

spirit_of_rob

07-09-2006, 18:53

i think RTr should be alerted and anyone else whose work is involved should be contacted as they can then complain to EB. They are unlikely to take much notice of only a few complaints whereas they would take note of a lot.

For example i would be serverly pissed if i found my work on Heg, Imperium or EB on there someone making money of my work.. i dont think so!

x-dANGEr

07-09-2006, 19:40

I think if he is taking the fees of shipping, no harm and no illegality.

manbaps

07-09-2006, 20:37

And anyway if someone is stupid enough to buy free stuff then i have no problem with fleeceing them; they deserve it.

Kekvit Irae

07-09-2006, 20:54

If permission is given by the mod owners, and the price covers ONLY the shipping and handling and the price of the cd itself, there is no legal issue here.
FilePlanet does the same thing, allowing you to choose mods/patches to put on CD to mail to you so you can have a hardcopy. Very useful for someone on dialup and doesnt want to spend several days downloading something.

x-dANGEr

07-09-2006, 21:24

I think the title should be:

"Someone is shipping mods!"

Mooks

07-09-2006, 22:00

I know someone that uses ebay frequently. She said that the main profit from ebay is the shipping fee.

TB666

07-09-2006, 22:07

http://www.google.co.uk/language_tools?hl=en

Put the URL into that and have a read.
Well that made little sense :dizzy2: .
But the item doesn't seem to be on sale anymore.
And it doesn't seem like he is charging the shipping cost either.
But seriously why would anyone buy it ??
If the download is too big then use a download manager, then you can pause the download if you wish.

x-dANGEr

07-10-2006, 12:33

And those who have a 100 MB limit?

lars573

07-10-2006, 13:38

This guy doesn't appear to be doing anything wrong. Everything he's put onto a CD and shipping around is distributed for free over the internet. He's breaking no laws (unless RTR or EB copyrighted there work, which they can't as mods are owned by CA and SEGA). PC gaming magazines have shipped patches and mods on their CD/DVD's before and will again. IIRC RTR was distributed on a gamming mags CD before, right?

When you do something for free you have no cover if someone does something like this. Consultation is nice, but not required.

Epistolary Richard

07-10-2006, 18:54

If the individual in question hasn't got the separate permission of the creators, then it's all down the licences included in the mods/patch.

If the mods/patch has a 'May not be used for a commercial purpose' then it's a breach of the conditions under which he downloaded it. Selling stuff is a commercial purpose, whether he makes a profit, a loss or breaks even out of it is neither here nor there.

Anyone got a copy of the licences of those mods so we can have a look?

gardibolt

07-11-2006, 16:26

Just because something is available for free doesn't mean that it's not protected by copyrights. The author retains the right to control copying, even if he's giving it away himself. If the license on the mod says that it can be freely distributed, then fine, but otherwise it's probably a violation.

Veresov

07-28-2006, 21:05

stalin

07-28-2006, 22:01

The title of the thread should bechanged to "OMG someone is bying mods why didn't we think of this first, and they are also buying WOW gold too"
Welcome to free enterprise son

gardibolt

07-31-2006, 16:45

The correct legal definition for MOD is freeware as you do not charge for the software. The below link is a book that was written on how to sell freeware. Most of the myths out there are that licenses that accompany mods somehow protect them. They don't. You can sell freeware legally by charging a handling and shipping fee.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SARA-BROWN-CD-and-Freeware-Riches_W0QQitemZ220005621372QQihZ012QQcategoryZ46689QQcmdZViewItem

Since you do not charge a fee for the software you are not selling a license for the software. Thus you can not restrict the distribution of something put out on the web for free downloading.

Old Sara Brown is kidding herself. Public domain software, sure, but just because something is freeware doesn't mean it's not protected by copyright. There's not a lot of incentive for a copyright holder to go after someone selling their freeware, since there are no profits to protect, but anyone who wanted to enforce their copyrights as a matter of principle would certainly be able to do so.

Zalmoxis

08-02-2006, 07:09

This is very weird. Who would pay for a MOD?

4th Dimension

08-02-2006, 21:08

It's not basicaly paying for a mod. They are paying for someone to download and to burn that MoD on a disc. Not everybody can download fiew hundreds of MB of mods.

But if he is overpricing those discs that's another deal. Basicaly nothing more than 1-3€ scould be charged for a CD considering one CD costs somewhere around 0.5€ (at least where I live).