Recent development...

[vektorboson 8]

I'll just have to say this, because it's something that is really going the wrong way.

We had this thread about the whiners and bitching people who never were happy with any addon maker's work. With this mentioned thread and the closure of OFP.info comment system, I think addon makers have an easier life.

First I'll explain how I see the development process for myself. I began as a scripter in the community and my intention was always to exploit the engine as much as possible; besides this, whenever I found a way to do something, I wanted to share it with the community because of one thing: To make the game we all play more enjoyable, realistic and just a better experience.

I always saw it as an open development process. I looked at other people's code, I took ideas from other people's work and I tried, tried and tried. I try to reimplement something or to implement something new, in a way that the community gets something newer and better. Other people profit from this work from me, and they take code and solutions I released, improve it, or they just bundle it with an addon or whatever.

The scripting progress in the community was probably the fastest and the richest, and still new solutions are found and some engine bugs/limitations can be overgone. The scripting progress was basically a scientific one:

People are demanding solutions for their problems; someone tries to solve this problem and he finds probably a way to; the script code is being released either stand alone or with an addon; other people can look into the code, improve it, find bugs or use it as a base for new solutions.

This way you get a huge script repository and we have lots of tutorials regarding scripting and relative topics (resources, dialogs, a.s.o.). Scripting also seems to be more a intellectual challenge than modelling, island making and texturing, which are time consuming and require a lot of patience (of course you need talent and the right tools).

Nevertheless there are many more people willing to share their code and solutions in scripting than in other areas of OFP modifying. My interest in this is, what are the reasons why people don't want to share their models and textures?

Why are people instead trying to do everything possible to prevent people from modifying their addons?

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you should give away all your hard work to this "ungratefull" community. I hate it, when someone is using work he didn't do himself and does not give any credit to the original author.

The point is: In the modelling and texturing area everyone has to go either the way creating models and textures from scratch, or he has to ask some addon maker. And in the latter case no-one can guarantee that the addon maker will say yes. Actually I wanted to derive my work from someone's work, but the original author said No.

Guess what? Now I have to go all the hard way in recreating a model from scratch that someone else has already done. It's not hard to imagine that this takes away time from other projects you are doing or you are planning. And this made me really upset.

Instead of switching to an open method of addon developing where all addon resources are free to use for other addon makers (with crediting), we are going the other way, people want to build up their egos instead by restricting the user's rights in using an addon.

The recent usage of new PBOs which you have to edit in a Hex Editor, before you can open them in UnPBO (well I actually didn't try it yet, but I guess I'd find it quickly) is making me sad. I remember where people were willing to help people in Decrypting Resistance PBOs and people thanked for this help.

Now those people who are able to tell someone how to change those PBOs are asses if they tell it. I'm pointing now at CSLA and Inquisitor. It makes me upset because CSLA Mod uses free to use and free to modify Scripts from me, while they chose to say that people who open their PBOs are "cracking" their addons, or they want to rip their addons.

I think that this is not OK, and if people chose the restrict the usage of their addons in such a way, I am going to restrict everything that was created by me in the opposite way.

I'm thinking about a "viral" license like the GPL for everything I created so far. For those who don't know: The GPL is a license which forces you to release the sources to the binaries (compiled software) you gave (free or sold) to someone, even if you were using only portions of GPL code.

It's very easy then: People have the right and possibilty to "secure" their work and restrict usage of their addons. So I have the right to release my work with such a license that forces everyone who is using it, to release their addons in an open and editable format.

Just think about it: You are profiting from other people's work; why should that guy who released his work open and free profit from your work and modify it to his pleasure?

And to make sure: I am in no way for unauthorized usage of other people's work, or for just giving away your work.

All I want is, that if you use free and open work (and tutorials count as free work, too) that you you take over the sense of this open development because there are people who made a lot of basic work just to make it possible for you to create additional content for OFP as easily as possible.

I thank to every addon maker who releases his work free to use and without restrictions, but I thank also those who leave their PBOs easy extractable and their config.cpp unencrypted.

And my biggest thanks goes to everyone who contributed tutorials and documentation about creating OFP content, and the necessary tools of course. Without those people we would be probably in Addon Nirvana.

[toadlife 3]

So the nutters have found a way to 'encrypt' pbo's eh? Lame.

Quote[/b] ]It makes me upset because CSLA Mod uses free to use and free to modify Scripts from me, while they chose to say that people who open their PBOs are "cracking" their addons, or they want to rip their addons.

Double lame

[hardrock 1]

I could quote nearly everything you said, VB. It's true, nobody can say he found out all the stuff with O2 and scripting himself. EVERYBODY used others work to see how they did it, and was therefore able to develop new technologies and better addons, now, just because he thinks his work is better or more important he encrypts it so everybody else has to go the same hard way developing addons of that quality. I think it's alright if people binarize their p3ds and cpps to increase the performance, but they at least should also release a pack of with everything decrypted.

Think of mankind: If there weren't schools or hadn't ever been any people who shared their knowledge to others, we wouldn't be sitting in front of this computer, rather we would be hunting our next meal....

If addon makers would release their addons as open source with a detailed readme, everybody else could learn from it and would himself have an easier way developing addons.

But another important point in my opinion is the other way round. Also many addon makers refuse to use "open source" or code from others because they think they have to do everything theirselves, and that otherwise the addon wouldn't be as good. That's simply wrong! If we all work together closer instead of going 200 different ways, the development and also the usage of addons would be much easier.

Just according the encrypted PBOs: There is a way to decrypt them with a tool called CutPBO

put the PBO in a NONSPACED directory, e.g. C:\Temp\, put CutPBO in the same folder and execute all in the command line as follows: CutPBO MyPBO.pbo

[BraTTy 0]

I know...why are people so selfish...and what about the modmakers that got O2 before me and learned how to make addons and left.I was starting with only some basic tutorials (thankx Col Klink and Bresseb) and at the time only a few openable addons really (for what I wanted to do anyways)

And I am not one to pry anyways,I would rather do it myself and it would be my work after

Alot of the addons that are protected often have many parts that were not even made by the author

I believe in helping people and I help most any chance I can,often it goes un-noticed ,but thats ok...like the old saying:

Give a boy a fish you have fed him a meal,teach him to fish you have fed him for life

I have some technology that I hide too,mainly because people aren't so giving.I may inform soon,but I plan on releasing in time,in the past I would have informed the community at first chance

Weird that people don't give permission to rework their addons (maybe they get insulted and think its perfect already?)

I would be honored if someone wanted to refresh an addon I did.Not that I have done that many

But in my Corsair I had a friend finish the textures , that work is his now and I very much appreciate it.I couldn't give those away and maybe thats the situation with the addon you wanted to do?

[Placebo 29]

I think selfish is an unfairly harsh and inflammatory word to use, by definition I cannot see how addon makers can be considered selfish when they're using their own free time to create something to give out to other people for free, that is not an example of a selfish act.

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]by definition I cannot see how addon makers can be considered selfish when they're using their own free time to create something to give out to other people for free, that is not an example of a selfish act.

They're using stuff created in other peoples' spare time (Tutorials and old models) so that they can make their own models.

[BraTTy 0]

True Placebo , suppose another word is needed.

And I mean no disrespect towards addonmakers and of course the ones that don't share too,I still enjoy just the use of the addon.

I would like to list a few reason why I think someone may not allow disecting or rework of their addons:

1. Don't own all the parts (ie: textures)

2.Worried about duplicate inferior addons that may hinder the originals unusable

3. May rework the addon to an incredible level and embarass the original author(s)

4. Has borrowed parts in it ( parts used without permssion)

5. Doesn't want to give away his work

6. The permission to edit gets extended to other parties without the original authors knowledge (ie: i say you can edit something and release and after release of yours you allow others to do same to yours)

7. Credits to author might not get honored with release

8. Some work within the addon may have flaws and may not be best work and author may be embarassed from that

Those are a few off top of my head

[Balschoiw 0]

I did never understand those attrocities among mod makers. Well my home is mission editing and sharing is all what it´s about. I would never hade access to all those editor functions without the initial and ongoing help of other editors like RED or others here or the guys at the AEf forums.

Now I try to help people as good as I can as others do also.

It´s always been a coop game

Maybe if the model coding would have been more accesible to a broader community like the editor was, all that "I got something you don´t have" - mentality wouldn´t even exist.

Just my 00,2 cents

[sanctuary 19]

I thought that the word community included sharing knowledge and helping other members.

Usually , you learn a lot by studying and observing what other people have done, the same people learned from BIS work by looking at their PBO.

The mission editing community that Balschoiw wrote about, is the perfect example of that. Someone has a problem , lot of people will try to help or will share their own scripts or missions triggers .

I can understand that an addon maker does not want to see his model stolen and released by someone else.

But , i cant understand why an addon maker does not want people to look at their work , to let them learn from those observations.

That is really beyond my understanding.

just my 0,0000002 euros

[ebud 18]

long ramble

I think if someone doesn't want someone else to use/modify their work then they are more than entitled to that option. There are lot's of friendly, helpful people around to make up for it. I specifically worked on my jungle island for that very reason and left it all open source, so people could edit it, tear it apart, use it, whatever. Now I don't feel the same way about other things i worked on. Call me selfish or greedy, but there are certain things that I just don't want others using, simple as that. Partly because sometimes it's the mood I'm in. One day a stranger could ask to use something I made and I'll give them the files plus help them however I can, next day I may tell someone to get lost. I think encrypting pbos so that others cannot edit the files for their own use is kinda shitty, but hey, it's THEIR choice, and I sure as hell won't complain about it, and I sometimes don't blame them. The CSLA mod is a good example. They made a totally new experience, not just an addon. I don't blame them for wanting to keep the integrity of the package. It's like when Tonal first came out. It wasn't just an addon, but a whole new populated 3rd world country. Not 2 hours after it was out people wanted to use it to make their own islands. Now it's far from perfect, but it did take 3-4 months to do, and at the time my thoughts were "Screw you, I didn't stay up late for 3-4 months, get no sleep, skip work, blow off friends, tear my hair out, work with a group of people making a small 3rd world country who saw me more than my family and friends just so you can skip the hard work and go straight into wrpedit and make an island in a week. Not gonna happen, YOU spend the time and make your own damn work." Now I could care less as the newness has worn off. Thats why we initially said no to people who wanted to use the stuff, and why I started something to fill that void.

It's not that most addon makers are greedy, ego-maniacs, selfish, etc. If you contact them personally most have no problem helping someone. I think that open source mods/addons could be a good thing only if everyone participated and I don't see that happening soon. Nice idea though.

[m21man 0]

Quote[/b] ]Call me selfish or greedy, but there are certain things that I just don't want others using, simple as that.

You're different. Your release of Ilo Ilo was very kind and provided us with some very nice objects and textures to look at and use. Since you were generous, people aren't going to feel as annoyed when you refuse to allow certain things to be used. Sure, you'll still have some greedy people coming by and begging to use your objects, but there'll be less of them.

[edc 0]

I would definately agree w/ creating sort of an OFP GPL.  If you open you models and scripts so that other people can use them in their addons learn from it, the absolute least that person can do, is let people modify their addon, so that people can make it better and learn from it.  If the original maker was so kind as to allow people to do that, the person who uses that persons addons should extend that courtesy to everyone else.  Not doing so is just plain rude and arrogant.    

If someone edits your addon and releases it, claiming it's their work, then, for christ's sake send an email to the site(s) hosting it, and/or post it here.

[Schoeler 0]

3WX is a non-proprietary mod. Everything we make is freely and immediately available to the community. We also are assembling a texture library to make our massive collection of textures available to the entire OFP community. We encourage others to share their textures, objects, vegetation and buildings with us as well. We will simply add them to our inventory and retain the original maker's tag. We ask that you do the same and that is all that we ask. Just credit the original author in the readme and share and share alike with us is all we ask in return.

If you like freelance work, want to share and like to work with enthusiastic and creative addon makers, join the team full-time or as a freelance contributor. We have some real talented members on the team both full and part-time, and we have some great things in store for the community.

[Guest]

Hmmm...not sure whether I should stick my nose in here or not as everytime info about our mod gets posted on these forums someone brings up a certain incident that happened nearly 2 years ago.....but here goes.

I think in general there is a fairly good level of cooperation between addon makers. I haven't had one person yet refuse me permission to use their work which I think says a lot. Thx guys.

I think people do have a right to protect their work to a certain extent. The permission system seems to work reasonably well and I do think there are good reasons not to include MLOD format models, most of which have been covered here (and in the p3dEdit thread).

But at the same time I think endlessly accusing people of theft leads to a lot of resentment, and most of the time the accusations are by third parties....and most of the time they are wrong. X accuses Y of stealing Z's work....this sort of thing. And that IMO is the worst of what is going on. There are very few genuine thefts in this community and a hell of a lot of incorrect accusations. This needs to stop.

Also what needs to stop is third parties sticking their nose in. If you think you have discovered a theft (99% of the time it seems to be someone just forgetting a credit in a read-me....very easy to do)....then contact the author of the work. Don't go flaming them here or anywhere else. You might find that there are agreements you don't know about. I could give examples, but I won't.

PS...3WX is a great idea and I'm very proud to be part of such a nice team.

[benu 1]

Actually, i have to agree with most everything that has been said. Mostly with Vektorboson, but also with everybody else. I think addon makers of course have a right to say how their addons should be used, in regards to "ripping apart and reusing", but i also think that it is kind of lame to profit from 3 years of work that others did and then to claim that it is all their work and forbid others to "use" it. Especially if they use other people scripts/models/textures. That actually is selfish, although in their right. If they had done everything themselves it would be different. Maybe some kind of viral license would really help with that.

Imagine what it could be like to have eg a free texture library: people would have to download smaller addons, addons would fit better to each other, etc. Some goes with sounds.

Also i would like to thank VB for his work and tuts. I had heard you left the community and i am happy that this seems not to be true

[MAA 127]

Since release of first demo I'm experimenting with OFP editing. I waste days, months, years with self-educating.

I'm not keeping my skills for myself and I freely provide my knowledge in my tutorials (many tutorials for editing missions and addons) and helping guys via ICQ and forums.

So why I can't protect my final work against "bad guys" which are in community when I'm sharing my knowledge via other way then releasing "openable" files?

If I have problems then I'm asking... so why you don't ask if you want know how some things work? I think that it is better way how to learning...

[Bobby - CSLA team 0]

I have to react to above mentioned themes as well.

I have feeling that all this thread looks like bitching CSLA mod and I don't know why. Really, what did we wrong?

Our mod is freeware, it can be downloaded and played without any payment, it is available freely to all people. This in my view FREEWARE.

We spent on this mod nearly two years of work. Mostly we have families, wifes, girlfriends and childs. Our free time is our the most valuable asset. But we use it to please ourselves as well as all community.

We did our mod for certain purpose - to made complete modification of the game. Maybe Vektorbosom did not noticed, but this is not simple single addon but complete mod. The same as FDF is (will you bitch FDF for the same, Vektor?). We stated that we don't want to separate addons from mod because of number of reasons. I don't want to repeat them again (unit settings, version probs). We used some Vektor's scripts (and credits were given), but they were free to all, but it doesn't automatically means that we have to agree with separating units from mod!!! On the other hand we promised to release config for using units out of the mod. And we fulfiled the promise...What's wrong here? Why should we give up our aim (to have complete mod)? After so long work and development....

About sharing models, textures and scripts...Main problem I see in amount of work to make really good addon (model and textures) and to make script. Script can be (with all respect) done in much shorter time and with less work than really good addon. Addon making is collecting materials, taking pics, looking for museums and bribing to get inside, modelling model and last but not least - painting textures and mapping. Then setting config. I made my addons (2 AFVs) 9 months. Then I understand addonmakers that they want to have credits for it and they feel their addons as some kind of ownership (because they have relation to their addons). Free openable models mean tons of shitty remakes which took only several days of work (no ask, no credits, bad quality and total dissatisfaction for original maker). Problem is not with addonmakers but with community. Addonmakers are strange (unfriendly) because of unfriendly community. That's why attitudes of scriptmaker and addonmaker are different.

Concerning Bratty's points:

add 1) we have all models/textures ours, free or asked for permission with positive result

add 2) Yes

add 3) Yes

add 4) Noway

add 5) Maybe will happen as a result of community

add 6) Thats point in case we have stuff which was agreed with author for CSLA, but we cannot extend this agreement to other people (and we have such a stuff)

add 7) ?

add 8) I don't think so...

On top of that, we are always open to consult/advise/help addonmaking via different channels.

Sorry for that typical addonmaker's crying post, but I the first post made me really upset. Sorry for grammar and spelling as weel, because when I am upset my education is left behind...

[vektorboson 8]

I've forgotten the Third World Explosion team to mention as a positive example (in the first I did, but I've deleted the section mentioning you).

They are doing something which is lacking in the OFP-community: A model and texture repository (here for 3rd world, as I understand).

And Ebud, I don't want to flame, but that kind of attitude regarding Tonal objects is something that really disturbed me. This was a kind of restriction never seen before because you forbid the usage of an addon. I know how long it takes time to create objects, but I don't see why I would prohibit the usage of my objects in someone's island?

Someone wants to make an african style island, and you say "you may not use our objects!" Well, there are two choices: He either makes his own objects, or he waits until you changed your mind. Because he has no guarantee that you change your mind, he probably makes his own objects, or he abandones it.

Anyway, he has to recreate a lot of stuff, that is already available, perhaps he has to learn O2, and perhaps he makes lower quality objects, because all he wanted to do is an island and he just has not the time to learn O2 and to create those objects.

I don't see any rationality in this, I don't know why people are so emotional about their creations, that even usage of those is wrong or not allowed.

Also I don't deny that there is cooperation among addon makers, there is a lot of. But it could be better with a more open development method of addons. Without all this "do you give me permission"-stuff. As I said, there is no guarantee that an addon maker gives you permission and gives you necessary models. I would like to see more addons which say "here you are, make what you want of it, just give me credit."

This is something I'm doing and something I'll do, create some models that may be used among many addons, just a example:

Almost every US or NATO fighter plane carries Sidewinders or are able to carry Sidewinders. Well, you can make your own Sidewinder (it isn't that much work, even texturing of it isn't much work) or you there is someone who made a free available model and texture for it. This is something that the ACES-project (hardrock and me) does, but it does more than this.

And I imagine that you want to do more than just a sidewinder, you want to make bombs, LGBs, ATG-missiles, whatever. Now, this actually costs a lot of time, time where you could have done something other.

And then many fighter planes have the ACES-II ejection seat... I hope you get it.

What I want is a model and texture repository for all kinds of models which you can reuse in your addons. Just like with scripts; we have script snippets, why shouldn't we have model snippets?

And hey, all that talk about the bad guys and about those thiefs. There always will be people who only take, but don't give.

You get upset for a few hours if someone used something from you without permission or without credits to you. But an open development method saves you days and weeks where you can work on your actual project, not on the things which were already done by other people.

[Pathy 0]

Hmmm well i am all for addon makers being able to choose what they do.

My PERSONAL policy, i will encrypt my addon, but include in the readme my email address for anyone who wants to look at the addon to contact me. This is just to regulate the use, not that i am unwelcoming.

I will probably get flamed for my opinions but i will stand by them.

Edit: AFAIK, Ebud has allowed 3wx to use Tonal objects hasnt he? Or am i just imagining things?

And this thread stems directly from the P3dedit argument, doesnt it. The message is still the same: GIVE ADDON MAKERS THE CHOICE. after all, they dont HAVE to make anything!

Oh and im writing a tute for drawing weapon textures, something that is badly lacking....cant say im a bad guy huh

[vektorboson 8]

Hmmm well i am all for addon makers being able to choose what they do.

I quote myself, to make clear what this thread is about, but you are right, this thread has its origin in the p3dEdit-thread.

Quote[/b] ]My interest in this is, what are the reasons why people don't want to share their models and textures?

Why are people instead trying to do everything possible to prevent people from modifying their addons?

I don't want you to repeat the argument you posted in the thread, as I don't want to repeat the arguments I posted.

@Bobby

This thread is not intended to flame CSLA, in no way, but your Mod and Inquisitor are those recently "crypting" their PBOs, and therefore you came into my mind.

And because of this, there will be many people who will follow your example, because people tend to think, it is trendy to do so, because the big guys or whoever do so too.

But all in all, it's just about opening a Hex Editor and deleting some bytes. Congratulations, you stopped someone for 1 minute from "ripping" your mod or addons apart. And if someone posts how to do this, you flame them, and this is actually disturbing.

I don't know why you CSLA people are so emotional, when someone mentions that he opened or wants to open one of your PBOs, because he wants to use them on another unit, just for personal use!!! Please keep cool, I don't ask you and don't force you to place your MLODs on your server, so everybody could change and derive from them (but this would be really cool, and especially if everybody would do so)

I know how long it takes to make a really nice model and good textures, but saying that scripts are written in some minutes, whereas addons take forever is just wrong.

This isn't very kind to all those people who are working on huge scripting projects like MFCTI, CoC Command Engine and all this complex scripting stuff. And I remember some people saying (I think those were from BAS) that it's the scripting part, that takes most time of addon making. And this depends again on the complexity.

And if Ebud allowed 3WX to use his models and textures, then this is a very kind gesture and I think that this should've been from the beginning like this. I think we can keep away a lot of all this stealing and ripping discussions if we turn into a more open development process, and ignore those lamers who don't credit someone.

[ebud 18]

i also think that it is kind of lame to profit from 3 years of work that others did and then to claim that it is all their work and forbid others to "use" it. Especially if they use other people scripts/models/textures. That actually is selfish, although in their right. If they had done everything themselves it would be different.

I think that if someone makes every single thing from scratch from the model, the textures, the config, scripts, then that IS a different story. But most people do reuse parts of bis items out of convenience. Still, addons don't make themselves, and no matter how and addon is made it still takes countless hours of work that most people will never get back.

<edit> and the Tonal discussion was gone over at looong length in the Tonal thread. I also don't have the right to give permission to use any BAS related objects even if I worked on it completely as they are all team projects, and it was a TEAM decision to hold off giving out the island for people to use as a) It was barely out the door b) Too much time was spent on it to give it away just yet. Nothing harsh about it. And now that people who started using the objects anyway are starting to finish islands and I personally see nothing wrong with them, and the 3dwx team and those they are working with was told they could use the objects as that would control how they are used in a sense. If you remember the Tonal thread I was all for letting things be used, but it was a team decision.

[MAA 127]

I don't know why you CSLA people are so emotional...

Maybe it is because we are not respected. We are working hard 2 years with entusiasm and after release we fall down to the ground and lost our power because of criticism, negative comments and disrespect of our work (not only in this forum). .... it is my personal feeling.

I know how long it takes to make a really nice model and good textures, but saying that scripts are written in some minutes, whereas addons take forever is just wrong.

This isn't very kind to all those people who are working on huge scripting projects like MFCTI, CoC Command Engine and all this complex scripting stuff. And I remember some people saying (I think those were from BAS) that it's the scripting part, that takes most time of addon making. And this depends again on the complexity.

I know (and Bobby too) that making advanced script is hard too so we don't doubt it.

And I must say again that we are not against cooperation or sharing our knowledge.

[der bastler 0]

Well, when I noticed that I run out of free time with the USCM Mod I released my sources...

After the first release of the M41 there appeared retextured versions of it --and I didn't know until I visited ofp.info. But... geschenkt. As long as the people can use the stuff...

P.S.: Vektorboson, reading your signature... what happened? ->PM

[Romolus 0]

I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding here.

If someone creates something and gives it to someone else, then he basically has the right to say what things can be done with his stuff and what not. This is a fundamental right and you can find this in allmost all societies.

In most cases there are ideas about something like "fair use" when it comes to what you can do with other peoples stuff but there isn't something like a general right to use other peoples stuff or an obligation to make the things you created and giving away freely available.

So by calling someone greedy and demanding the free use of everything is denying this right to determin what others can do with the things someone created. You are denying someone a fundamental right he has, while there is no such right to use everything as you like. You are taking away his freedom.

And I'm not just talking about rights that are written down as a law.

The GPL you (Vektorboson) are talking about is based on exactly this right.

Since you have the right to determin what others can do with your stuff, you can say that if they want to use your stuff, they also have to provide the sorce of their stuff. That's absolutely ok, since everyone can choose if he wants this or not.

The main idea behind all this is, that everyone can decide for himself what he wants. If he wants that his stuff should be used in a specific way then he can do this and if he wants to use stuff other people created he also has to respect their right to do so.

Now about this "fair use" stuff:

In many countries and societies there is something like you can use other peoples stuff freely as long as you keep it to yourself or to a limited area like close friends or such. There are many degrees how far this is allowed but in most laws this is pretty much restricted.

In no case distributing the work of others to so many people like the OFP community is covered by those "fair use" terms.

And in all cases the right and freedom you have to determin what others can do with the things you create is weighted much higher than those terms of "fair use".

There is no right of free use.

It is perfectly valid if someone encrypts his OFP work so that no one can open or modify it and you have absolutely no right to call him greedy or what else. If you do, you are guilty to deny his a fundamental right he has.

Now what if this work is based on the work of others?

That depends on what those other people wanted. If someone writes a tutorial or a script and posts it on a freely available internet site without encrypting it or saying somehting about how this should be used, then you can assume that he didn't want to restrict it in any way (since he made it freely available).

Even if someone based his work on such freely available stuff but modified or added quite a bit to this, he has the right to determin what can or can't be done with it.

And you can't call him greedy either since it is his good right to do so.

Everyone can decide for himself - that's the freedom we all have and you have no right at all to tell someone how he should decide.

All this might be pretty annoying when you are working on something and can't just open up everything and take it apart with just giving credit to the original Author.

But in most times all you have to do is to contact the author and ask him and you'll get what you want. And by doing so you show that you respect the authors rights and freedom.

If you don't get permission, you should still respect this since it's the freedom of the author to do so and our I think your ethincs are also based on the idea of freedom.

Think about what it would mean if your freedom would be taken away.

[Guest]

I don't know why you CSLA people are so emotional...

Maybe it is because we are not respected. We are working hard 2 years with entusiasm and after release we fall down to the ground and lost our power because of criticism, negative comments and disrespect of our work (not only in this forum).  .... it is my personal feeling.

That I feel very sad about. I really enjoy CSLA and think you should be praised for all the hard work. Lately I feel very apprehensive about release of our mod after seeing reaction to other mods....I just know there will hundreds of nasty comments.