I'm confused on the whole permission thing.

I know I have to get permission to convert, however I've a few worries about the system, so can anyone help me out here?

Let's say I wanna convert a car from Shift 2, I get permission, but then it's revoked a few days later and I keep it for personal use, I don't release it or use it in any vids at all, that (least the way I understand it coming from other games) is fine, i.e. I don't go showing it off or posting pics or talk about it, it's solely on my system and stays there.

So let's say I model a car and show WIP pics and then somebody comes along and starts stuff like 'OMG YOU STOLE X'S MODEL' when I know I made it from scratch. Is it really that easy to claim that and go aorund accusing people of stealing models or illegal rips from other games? (I've seen the Huyera from Project CARS in IV already and I am not happy about it, I argued there that the devs ought to make it harder on a technical level to rip content).

Case in point, Forza. In the racing sim community people usually convert from games with the same engine, rFactor to Race series as they have the same game engine underneath it all. The problem though comes with stuff that's been ripped from game to game, it gets harder to track down the original authors and permissions.

For instance, I convert a Porsche 911 from Forza to rFactor for my own use, then that gets converted to Race 07, then that gets picked up and converted to GTA IV then back to rF under another name. It'd still be my model but I'd have no way of proving it.

I'm confused on the whole permission thing.

I know I have to get permission to convert, however I've a few worries about the system, so can anyone help me out here?

Let's say I wanna convert a car from Shift 2, I get permission, but then it's revoked a few days later and I keep it for personal use, I don't release it or use it in any vids at all, that (least the way I understand it coming from other games) is fine, i.e. I don't go showing it off or posting pics or talk about it, it's solely on my system and stays there.

So let's say I model a car and show WIP pics and then somebody comes along and starts stuff like 'OMG YOU STOLE X'S MODEL' when I know I made it from scratch. Is it really that easy to claim that and go aorund accusing people of stealing models or illegal rips from other games? (I've seen the Huyera from Project CARS in IV already and I am not happy about it, I argued there that the devs ought to make it harder on a technical level to rip content).

Case in point, Forza. In the racing sim community people usually convert from games with the same engine, rFactor to Race series as they have the same game engine underneath it all. The problem though comes with stuff that's been ripped from game to game, it gets harder to track down the original authors and permissions.

For instance, I convert a Porsche 911 from Forza to rFactor for my own use, then that gets converted to Race 07, then that gets picked up and converted to GTA IV then back to rF under another name. It'd still be my model but I'd have no way of proving it.

 

Generally, as long as we don't get a takedown request from someone claiming to be (with proof) the original author or copyright holder, then you'll be okay.  Things like this work on the basis that we assume you are acting in good faith and uploading files which you are allowed to and until someone demonstrates otherwise, you'll be okay.

 

If you flat out tell us that you can't do it though, we can't in good conscience let you do it, as we know that you're not allowed to.

 

I hope this cleared it up, although you might want to read up on the DMCA for a better understanding.  Note though that the DMCA only covers the rights of the copyright holder.  If someone makes a Dodge Charger mod and then someone else 'steals' it as the saying goes, then even the original author of the mod could not request its takedown under DMCA as Dodge has copyright over the Charger model.  This is where we have an additional rule, imposed by us, that people who we deem to be 'original authors', can also request takedown of content.

 

And yes, there are some people that seem to pride themselves on being the GTA modding police and going around making all sorts of accusations directed at content creators and directed at us.  Indeed, some of these people favour (and in some cases actually run) closed systems where only content made by them or their friends would be allowed to be uploaded.  The great thing about LCPDFR.com is that we allow anybody, normal member, tester, community team member, or developer, to upload to our database with absolutely no limits or restrictions imposed based on their status, who they know, post count, or anything else.

I'd say best thing to do is mark it in several different places, that be 3d or texture.