Someone decompiled my mod

[hcpookie 3770]

So how much "respect" about my mods should I expect from people?  Am I out of line that this person who admitted to decompiling, modding, and then repackaging my mod (camonets / signal panels) has ended up with "you are a real piece of work" as if he is somehow justified in violating the EULA because it pisses me off.  It strikes me this guy could have been a "fellow modder" had he simply respected my wishes (AND THE EULA) instead of ASSUMING he could do this "anyway" like nothing mattered.

 

Perhaps I haven't had coffee this morning.  Perhaps I'm just sick of people fucking with my creations like they have a sense of entitlement.  That I have spent hundreds of hours of my time over these years creating.  Why don't people respect that?

 

Thoughts?  Am I being a whiny bitch or am I justified in lamenting the lack of respect for the EULA and my content?

 

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Hey Pookie,

 

I've been messing around and getting into mod making slowly (actually just today put a custom item into the game) 

 

I've been eyeing your old signal panel mod as it still functions in Arma 3. I've got it in the game, works with the virtual arsenal and when you pick them up they go back into your inventory. I'm getting an error that says

 

Cannot load texture ca\data\env_land_co.paa

which I am assuming has something to do with the .p3ds and unfortunately I have no idea how to solve the error. It doesn't seem to effect anything, you can still drop and pick up panels and they look good to me. 

 

Can you provide any insight into this? Maybe a way to work with p3ds and take this texture out?

 

Thanks!

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fathersarge 30

Replied: June 9 · Report

Not planning on releasing this to the general public, just use it with our unit pack so I didn't go through the process of credits and whatnot.

 

Here's the completed version. The only errors seem to be that one texture error and not being able to load the purple6 object (the I). Nothing too breaking though. I also made some custom icons for it :)

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a5xilt6a9n80xy4/%40A3_sigPanel.zip?dl=0

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hcpookie 1903

Replied: 15 hours ago · Report

It is against the EULA to decompile/extract/reuse my mods

 

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fathersarge 30

Replied: 8 hours ago · Report

"Gee FatherSarge, that's cool that you were able to do that, I realize you are new to modding and it actually is in poor taste and against the EULA to decompile mods like that, but I'm glad you took an interest in my previous work."

 

There I fixed it for you.

 

What's done is done. I already said it wouldn't be released, it was more a learning experience for me. You Unsung guys are something else lol. Feel free to use what I did if you ever feel like releasing it to A3. Don't even want credit, it was all you.

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hcpookie 1903

Replied: just now · Report

For the record I have brought that into A3 already.  Why you would decompile and redo a mod that I have specifically said in the EULA not to is really beyond me.  Your lack of respect and gratitude for my mod work that I have literally spent hundreds of hours on - for free - is amazing.

 

[General Kong 148]

Im with you on this one, he has one hundred percent went against your expressed wishes and the EULA, there is no excuse for what he has done

[HeroesandvillainsOS 1504]

I don't know man. I don't see anything wrong with someone decompiling and learning how to mod this way as long as it's kept private. How else are people supposed to learn? Why would you want to prevent someone from learning from you if you're the person they think that does top notch work?

 

As long as it's not released I don't see anything wrong with this. He might make The Next Great Mod because of you. What exactly is the problem here?

 

If we can't learn from each other than this isn't a community.

 

That said, if you wish to not have your work unpacked even for private use, then fine, rules are rules. Fortunately not every modder is like you.

 

Just my 2 cents because you asked.

[Drift_91 33]

I have to agree with @HeroesandvillainsOS. I personally have tweaked a couple of broken mods for personal use and used some of them as a reference for configs. Also 98% of people don't read the EULA, unless it's one or two sentences mixed in with the forum post and not it's own text file.

 

That being said, I do feel his "there I fixed it for you" response was incredibly arrogant and that childish meme needs to die.

 

Also you've kind of opened my eyes a bit about the subject. When I messed around with others' mods for personal use I never figured anyone would feel this way about it.

[Gunter Severloh 4043]

35 minutes ago, HeroesandvillainsOS said:

What exactly is the problem here?

The problem is:

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It is against the EULA to decompile/extract/reuse my mods

As he had stated, its not the point that you all want to learn and how else can one learn, it better to respectfully send a pm to the author of the mod and ask....

if you can.... unpbo, decompile, test, and create your own version if it comes to that, in order to learn.

 

If you state your intentions and actually respect the work, and the author's free time, to learn, test, and create what they did then dumb, careless attitudes would not surface

from people who went against the modder's wishes.

Thats what really bothers me more is the fact the guy turns on him and says " You Unsung guys are something else lol. " and laughs about it, really!?

He makes hcpookie look as if hes a premedonna for stating that he dont want his work decompiled, its his work, he put the time in not you!

 

Now if the guy were to respectfully ask and state his intentions be grateful, interested and serious about the work i dont think hcpookie would have a real issue with it,

idk maybe he would but the point being is he established a eula for a reason.

which imo should be enforced somehow, otherwise why have them.

46 minutes ago, HeroesandvillainsOS said:

If we can't learn from each other than this isn't a community.

Not the community either when you ignore a eula and just go do what you want, if you want to learn from someone then ask,

like your parents told you when you were a kid, to ask first before taking someone's stuff.

 

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I don't see anything wrong with someone decompiling and learning how to mod this way as long as it's kept private

I agree to a point, to give you an example, all the mods i built, and i built about 11 of them, aside a few in private, are all huge compilation mods,

so i had to ask permission otherwise look for an license or anything stating i couldn't add the author's mod to mine and rerelease.

Now the point to that is, if the license stated you can redistribute then fine, but if you want to modify then you need to ask, and I have done so on and in all my mods, so unless

a modder explicitly says you cannot change, alter, or redistribute their work without their content, permission or what have you then it only makes sense to ask, and i dont see what the

issue is with that, because by simply asking, you are giving the author credits, and a pat on the back for their work, they need that, and deserve that.

 

A eula on the other hand that says that you cant, imo i would still ask.

A modder's creation, is the time you dont have to spend to change, or add to the game yourself.

[kklownboy 43]

pifft... Lazy looters 

 

   ".. Not planning on releasing this to the general public, just use it with our unit pack so I didn't go through the process of credits and whatnot .."

 

 

what part of  just for "our unit "   isnt public.

 

Yeah a complete looter.... he sux. 

 

The "learning" excuse.... BS just a another way to justify theft.

[evrik 843]

Examples such as this, and the constant uploads on Steam Workshop, are one of the reasons we chose to obfuscate our 3CB mod packs. Not only that, but as we include contributions from 3rd party modders, we also have to make sure that we aren't compromising the permissions we receive when including them in our packs. However, when we are approached with requests for our textures for BAF clans to add their own unit flashes etc... we regularly help out others where we can, providing it isn't repackaged up into a mod and released to the community. Regardless, the point is, they have to ask permission first as the pack is protected. It should be common courtesy, but often isn't, as your recent experience proves. As part of my role in the 3CB mod team, I have sent many PM's, e-mails, and messages, chasing down permissions to include items with the appropriate credit to the original author, which is exactly how it should be.

[corporal_lib[br] 396]

That´s the "collateral effect" of proactivity.... people  act first (decompile, mess with code) and ask later (or better, they "acknowled the author they´ve messed with his work"...)... just like Brazilian MP: shoot first, ask the wounded/killed citizen later lol...

 

Political jokes aside, it should be the way around... KIDS! (even if you are older than 22) EULA or not, ASK THE AUTHOR BEFORE MESSING WITH HIS WORK... if PM isn´t responded, give at least a 4 to 6 months windows, some guys have ArmA sabatical years, patience, grasshoper...

 

But that´s the times we live in: extreme right wing spreading like fire, internet harassment and people generally acting before thinking, I´m too old for this shit... Hcpookie, I feel your pain (but please don´t give up on us, still plenty of good guys aprreciating your work down here =) 

[fathersarge 46]

You are right, I was in the wrong. 

 

Despite having been around this game for years I've never picked up an EULA and read it. I don't understand the rules/guidelines behind this stuff and I have already apologized. I am going to claim ignorance to this and quite honestly the mod in question was cool and it could not be found (to my knowledge after an exhaustive search for it) on A3. I figured it was dead. I believe I even sent pookie a message but I cannot find it asking for the mod on A3 or permission to edit it.

 

I say again, I was in the wrong to do this after reviewing EULA and such. @corporal_lib[br] is correct, it was shoot first. I will do a greater search for any message I might have sent because I have a habit of messaging people about their mods and never get a response back ever.

 

I believe by not releasing it (and never planning to) and approaching the author I chose the correct course after doing what little work I actually did. I could have easily just taken it and ran which I know for a fact has been done to countless people. I approached him with it as a tribute, offered it to him freely. I didn't try to hide what I did. That should prove no ill will and zero malicious intent. Just simple ignorance to EULA.

 

If you want to try and crucify me go ahead, but I doubt others that have done this kind of thing (and knowingly do it) would be so open about it. I'm here to learn and I learned something.

[FallujahMedic -FM- 867]

The user in question has been warned and actions were taken. 

As a reminder:
 

Posting addon/mod other content without permission:

For many years this community has been known as the premium addon/mod creating community. People work tirelessly and in great detail to create fantastic addons/mods/missions/campaigns to release for free so that everyone benefits, including Bohemia Interactive. You must get permission to alter someone else's work, to mirror their work or to use it in any way other than for personal use. Without permission please do not edit, mirror, add to your mod pack or edit and share around your private squad.

Unfortunately we cannot control what people do outside of these forums. However, on these forums you must follow this rule, if a person/team post a thread to share an addon/mod using content from someone else without permission, and we receive a complaint, the mod thread will be closed until the issue is resolved. Participation in this behavior comes with the risk of being permanently banned from these forums. Get permission by communicating with the original content creator(s).

and
 

20) Posting addon/mod other content without permission

For many years this community has been known as the premium addon/mod creating community, people work tirelessly and in great detail to create fantastic addons/mods/missions/campaigns to release for free so that everyone benefits, including Bohemia Interactive. There are a few simple rules in place to provide the respect to these creative people/groups that they deserve:

The first and most fundamental rule is that you must seek permission to alter someone's work, to mirror it or use it in any way other than for personal use. No permission, no editing, no mirroring, no adding to your mod pack, no editing and sharing around your private squad, none of that is acceptable.

Obviously we cannot unfortunately control what people do outside of these forums, however on these forums you must follow this rule, if a person/team post a thread to share an addon/mod using content from someone else without permission and we receive a complaint then the mod thread will be closed until the issue is resolved and the forum member(s) risks being permanently banned from these forums for taking someone's work without permission.

This isn't just limited to re-using content in addons/mods/missions however, it's not acceptable to edit someone's work without permission and then to post screenshots of it on the forums (even if the edited addon/mod is purely for personal use), it's also not acceptable to edit someone's work, or use someone's work in any way that you don't have permission for and then to create videos which you post on these forums, doing any of the above without the permission of the original creators risks a permanent ban, for individuals, for whole mod teams or squads.

https://forums.bistudio.com/guidelines/