14 replies to this topic

[Slimory]

I had an idea, the idea of a mod thief really pisses me off, i know that the Moderator's are busy all the time not even LCPDFR Staff in general, but somehow, stolen mod's will end up on other site's cause the moderator's are busy with everyday life in general, but Author's are simply going to stop releasing their work ie Cj24, EVI (Which already left the modding scene) etc etc, anyway.
I find with alot of stolen mod's there are some thing's that kind of "hint" that it is a stolen mod.
1) There is an extremely low quality picture
2) No description of the mod
3) Really poor description of the mod
4) No Video
5) the "author" doesn't know the proper name, or does not give the name at all

so, i was thinking, what if site's had kind of a "mod investigator", before approval, these "authors" have to go through a more lengthy uploading process, such as a FULL description of everything that is in the file whether it be model, texture, sound, RTC etc
what i mean by FULL description is mandatory field's that have to be filled in with proper part's, then reviewed by an Admin?
if the mod somehow turn's out to be stolen, then permanently ban the uploader's IP from the site.
Just a thought.

Edited by Ross305, 20 June 2012 - 09:51 PM.

[theninja35]

Yeah, or at least fill in proper Credits. It also seems that people that don't user very well grammar in their description end up with a stolen mod.

[Slimory]

That's also what i don't get, people that download stolen mod's, simply do not care if it's stolen or not, this is what got me thinking about it: http://www.gta4-mods...iren-mod-f14947
ory1124 is my username on GTA-4-MODS lol

Edited by Ross305, 20 June 2012 - 10:18 PM.

[cp702]

Lack of video is an extremely bad indicator for any mod except a siren mod. Most mods have no need for videos. Even pictures can be annoying for script mods (since you really can't capture a script with a picture, and some script mods can't be captured with a video, either).

[taximan5]

i think the idea is great.
i'm really tired of seeing stolen mods too.

[Gerb]

Annoying it is, a good mod includes:

• Proper credits
• Nice pic and/or Video
• Pro description
• Is made by a good author

Most of the time, you can see immediately if the author is either a thief or if he's not putting effort in it.

[strike]

Is made by a good author

Ermm, what's a good author for you?

[Cj24]

Most people don't steal mods on purpose, they simply don't get they need to add credits or to have permission (because they don't read the readmes). On this page, I saw only one car that seemed to be credited wrongly on purpose.
For models, you usually see immediatly if the credits are correct or not. It's usually a longer list, I never see a car that was really made by only one author. Only "Made by whoever" is almost always incorrect.

Ermm, what's a good author for you?

I guess he means known modders.

[theninja35]

Cj is correct. I don't think EVERY mod is stolen on purpose, and some people think that they can just upload it and act like it's theres. +1

Although I will be working by myself on this Jeep I'm converting, CJ is correct again, most modders help each other out, like Corleone and KevinDV. I've found very few modders that have worked by themselves and made everything. I've seen EVI use Cj's stuff, and things like that.

Another way I've found is that usually it is people that don't tell much about them selves that steal. For instance, no Avatar, gender, information (about me)/interests, and stuff like that.

[strike]

I guess he means known modders.

That's what I thought, and it's totally wrong, every modder, even the best have been initially a unknown and maybe not so good modder or maybe have done an initially good work, so that doesn't mean is a thief.

[KevinDV]

This topic bears certain relevance to the topic I made with the crediting part of it, there has been a crediting box added to the right hand description of the mod which seems to be perfectly fine.

On one hand we all would like to see some sort of enforcement whilst on the other hand there would be too much work to do to enforce that no mods are stolen (yes, I have changed my opinion). There are only a few things that can be done to files that are stolen and the thieves responsible, from what I've seen so far; if a user uploads a stolen mod once and theft is proved, he'll be warned. If the user uploads another stolen mod and can be proved again, he'll be infracted for a period of time. So there are decent systems in place, I'm sure the staff have taken note of everyone's opinions so far regarding the matter.

As for your suggestions, I don't really think it should be mandatory to have a video present with a mod, it will help many people but also affects people such as me that don't have access to unlimited internet and so forth. All decent modders do have good descriptions of modifications and crediting, I guess over time the more "beginner" modders will start to improve their crediting and start to realize the implications of claiming false copyrights on mods, which is very common.

There are small ways to tell if a mod is stolen or not such as if it looks too good to be true then it most probably is stolen, but then again that's just a guessing game and functions without proof (unless you can acquire proof of course). The truth though is that nothing much can be done to get stolen mods removed, the current system in place works well in most instances, there might be a minor mistake here and there but if the site functions on a system where modders are judged on their reputation wouldn't work well neither, in many cases it would be very unfair.

So in the end it all seems to boil down to having proof, if a stolen mod slips by the staff then anyone can acquire decent proof and report the stolen mod, by doing so it'd make life much easier for all of us and most certainly help remove stolen mods within the community.

Edited by KevinDV, 21 June 2012 - 04:24 PM.

[Slimory]

Regardless if they do it on purpose or not, any good modeler put's in his/her description "DO NOT UPLOAD TO ANY OTHER SITE WITHOUT PERMISSION", if that's what it say's and someone upload's it anyway without permission then, in my book's, they are a mod thief, it's common sense to read, which, not alot of people do.

[KevinDV]

Regardless if they do it on purpose or not, any good modeler put's in his/her description "DO NOT UPLOAD TO ANY OTHER SITE WITHOUT PERMISSION", if that's what it say's and someone upload's it anyway without permission then, in my book's, they are a mod thief, it's common sense to read, which, not alot of people do.

I do agree in that instance. I'm sure though that it would be considered as proof of theft in the stolen mod is reported.

[Slimory]

Luckily, there is a select few that will point out mod's that are stolen

[cp702]

Regardless if they do it on purpose or not, any good modeler put's in his/her description "DO NOT UPLOAD TO ANY OTHER SITE WITHOUT PERMISSION"

I'm not convinced this is true. I've seen a number of good mods that don't have this description.