The Future... spin-off: Intellectual Property and resource sharing

[Lentonius]

Well, i think private forums are acceptable, but maybe a moderator such as ER, should have access and control over it.

Mod teams keep privacy for development, and the moderator can ensure that members are not thrown-out. This would also enable,in my opinion, that information that the moderator finds should be 'public' info, can be released to the community, while other aspects can stay private.

Also, the moderator can observe various aspects of a mod's development, and if he sees fit, enhance mod team co-operation. For example, if one mod needs something that another mod can help and vice-versa, productivity would increase due to this.

However, in an ideal world, i would propose a database full of all units by the community, that are 'freeware' to all private use... This way, once a mod is released, the units can be collected and placed here, along with any ui cards etc. Theoretically this wouldnt interfere with copyright as the units would be 'strictly private use'. I feel that all mod material should be freeware for private use...

[Epistolary Richard]

Well, i think private forums are acceptable, but maybe a moderator such as ER, should have access and control over it.

Mod teams keep privacy for development, and the moderator can ensure that members are not thrown-out. This would also enable,in my opinion, that information that the moderator finds should be 'public' info, can be released to the community, while other aspects can stay private.

We're talking about one single hidden form for all members of a hosted mod team - individual teams do already have hidden development forums if they so request.

However, in an ideal world, i would propose a database full of all units by the community, that are 'freeware' to all private use... This way, once a mod is released, the units can be collected and placed here, along with any ui cards etc. Theoretically this wouldnt interfere with copyright as the units would be 'strictly private use'. I feel that all mod material should be freeware for private use...

All mod material posted for download is free for private use, if you didn't want something to be used privately for other people then you wouldn't put it up for download.

[Duke John]

the whole point of the hidden forum is to help mods with problems with features they are not ready to make public yet

Any examples?
And this forum would be for the members of the big mods right? The big mods have more to "fear" from each other than from smaller mods. So you are sharing new features with the "competition" but not with the small fish? What is the logic in that? If this hasn't anything to do with competition then why not open it.

so then there won't be people saying 'where can i get this mod?'

I would have deleted such posts, but then I was a harsh moderator A research forum would definitely benefit from strict moderation.

[Epistolary Richard]

And this forum would be for the members of the big mods right? The big mods have more to "fear" from each other than from smaller mods. So you are sharing new features with the "competition" but not with the small fish? What is the logic in that? If this hasn't anything to do with competition then why not open it.

At this point, I rather agree. The people members of other mod teams would be most 'sensitive' talking to would be members of other mod teams. Currently, as things stand, if members of mod teams have a technical problem they tend to ask on the Modding Questions forum, where everyone can pop in with their thoughts - there's not been an occasion that I can recall where a team member has said "How can I get this to work?" there and then been inundated with demands from fans to get more info on it - if anything rather the reverse.

So 2) and 3) I don't think are likely situations - and 4) could be catered for by closing it rather than hiding it. 1) though would be a worthwhile ambition to achieve in some manner though - and I think it's clear both from this thread and from the variety of attempts to make smaller modding communities within RTW than some people are looking for a greater sense of identification than the rather woolly boundaries of being part of the wider modding community.

I would have deleted such posts, but then I was a harsh moderator A research forum would definitely benefit from strict moderation.

Previously, the Scriptorium has served as a research forum as well. It strikes me that there are some good synergies there. At the beginning of the game life cycle there's lots of research but few tutorials - whereas at the end there are lots of tutorials and much less active research going on.

[SomeNick]

I think this thread has been long overdue and the recommendations put forth here would resolve a lot of the barriers or shady areas to mod making. Especially the fact that a modder may not be able to be reached for his permission to use his work. A collective copyright notice would solve that for sure, where each who wishes to make his mod available to others can publicly state so, specifically in entirety of the mod or part thereof and give even further exposure to the mod created.

In particular with the read me files with mods and copyright notices it seems to be an issue of 'in part' or 'whole' mod property. This would be resolved too, without digging around in read me files for info or the method of acquiring permission. The collective copyright notice could be pointed out in such a file as reference, which would include all those who wish to disseminate their work in whole or part as pointed out in their post addition to the notice in relation to their specific works.

The other benefit would be that the creators are attributed in a more public way and their particular contribution; e.g. being a unit or as specific as liked. It would also act as a repository of skilled modders in a way, as per their specific skills enjoyed by the community.

Good idea hope it works!

[alpaca]

I like the idea of a kind of hidden forum, not necessarily for questions but for research.
It would go like this: Anybody can get admittance but they have to accept a terms of usage agreement that states that if they want to take advantage of the research being done in this forum, they in turn have to post any relevant (and I see that this term would have to be defined) discoveries they make in this forum. Mod teams can also join as a whole thereby agreeing that they will share their research work.
The problem with telling the public about something you research is that everybody can immediately take your idea and do with it whatever he wants while he in turn can keep all his small secrets to himself - thus, if everybody would share every scrap of research publicly we wouldn't need such a forum, but as it currently is, there are some kind of "trade secrets" where mods/people keep discoveries to themselves (and I am no exception to that).
Another issue with doing research at all is that it takes a lot of time and any team you are affiliated with doesn't profit from it more than the whole community. And as everybody cares for his "tribe" more than for "everyone else" this makes you sometimes develop a guilty conscience if you just spent 10 hours on research in which you could have been modelling/scripting (my own experience btw).

And a lot of advanced modding questions/discussions indeed happen through chat because conversation is just more natural if you use such a medium instead of a forum with the added advantage that you don't have any third party taking advantage as mentioned above.