What's the rule if the Original Mod Author has gone dark??

[seth289]

I ported Dynamic Vampire Appearance by Aipex a few years back and I also added a different blood effect around the mouth. I did this for personal use but after seeing so many people ask for a ported version and yes, there were some scattered versions all over the internet, those have seemed to dry up. Those skilled in modding have no issues because we can port most things we want but people who don't are basically playing half a game. I want to help and also share my version of D.V.A... Should I upload the SSE version that I have? Can I even do that?
 

[davisev5225]

Short answer: whatever the most recent permissions they provided is what you must follow.

 

Longer answer: It doesn't belong to you.  Lacking direct contact with the original mod author, you must follow the permissions that they laid out.  If they didn't lay out any permissions, then it de-facto cannot be re-uploaded because they haven't granted explicit permission to do so.  A lot of people get this wrong by re-uploading things without permission and adding some "disclaimer" that they didn't create the original content, but that's still theft because they didn't have permission to do so to begin with.

 

Looking at the Nexus page for this mod, they do not allow re-uploads or modifications without explicit permission from them, so the answer is you cannot and should not re-upload.

[emily1673]

As davisev said.

At the very most, you could post a patch, which is done in a way that it only works with the original mod installed.

But some mods explicitly forbid this as well.

Edited June 10, 2023 by emily1673

[davisev5225]

17 minutes ago, emily1673 said:

As davisev said.

At the very most, you could post a patch, which is done in a way that it only works with the original mod installed.

But some mods explicitly forbid this as well.

 

USA (and Canada, which is relevant for LoversLab since that's where the site is hosted...) have ruled that patches & code modifications are legally allowed (even lacking specific permissions from the original author) if you follow two conditions:

1. Your patch distribution must not contain any of the original code of the source except what is absolutely necessary for the patch to work (meaning you can't distribute an "updated" or "patched" copy of a file, you may only distribute the code to make the patch and the patching must occur live on the target system).
2. You must not defeat any protections (such as DRM) that exist in the source.

Edited June 10, 2023 by davisev5225