Hello folks,

 

Hopefully I'm not fearmongering or anything, but considering the awesome work that modders across the GTA community do I feel that putting this out there was the least I could do, in case some wrongdoing is present. I also hope I'm not repeating something that was previously posted, but I didn't see anything on search.

 

For those who aren't familiar Arma 3, it is a large scale, combined arms military combat game... you may know it as where DayZ came from, although that was an Arma 2 mod and Arma 3 is the latest title. Arma 3 Life is a roleplaying mod and community made for Arma 3 where you have some people playing civilians, some police, etc. etc.

 

Sounds great, huh? Well, unfortunately the developers have been gaining a very bad rep for a number of things, such as supposedly offering in-game rewards and content to people who donate IRL money (in a way that violates other modders as well as A3's licensing). I can't say these accusations are fact, but they do seem to be pretty valid from perusing Arma reddits/forums.

 

The other thing that they have pretty much definitely done, is rip content without permission, and without even crediting the original creator, from other modders in A3, and other games. I've seen some media from people playing this, and I have to say some of the cop cars look a tad familiar, down to how the lightbar emissives textures look (I've photoshopped so many EMI files to make my GTA cars all blues that I know those textures pretty well :P ).

 

TLDR: Perhaps I'm wrong, or perhaps the vehicles were used with permission and accreditation, but if not it may be worth a look at A3L by some modders here to make sure none of their content has been stolen.

I'm unsure what the main intention of this thread is. I don't believe a whole lot of people on our site play A3L (I certainly don't remember hearing about it on here before), and it's likely that only a few of them will be modders for it. This may be a modding-related community, but it seems like this type of thread would be better suited for a forum specifically devoted to those who play ARMA 3/A3L. That said, I won't immediately close this. However, this is not the place to incite a large witch hunt. If this thread turns into one, it will be removed. It's a shame that mods get stolen, but this site is more or less dedicated to the Grand Theft Auto series and not ARMA.

It just went into open beta on the 1st, I believe. Before that, I think you had to donate to join. A lot of places give you benefits if you donate...there's nothing strange about that at all. Right now the only thing they say you get for donating (over $30) is a forum badge and your application to join will be looked at sooner. They say they will add in-game benefits in the future, however.

I can't speak on models being stolen...but will, once again, say refer to my signature.

Edited November 10, 201411 yr by willpv23

Some of the models are definitely ripped, such as the Taurus. Not a whole lot we can do about that, as it's completely out of our hands. 

If anyone is interested in exactly what this is about may I refer you to this thread http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?184772-Legal-violations-by-A3L-Arma-3-life

 

There is another but it has been locked, this one is an ongoing discussion.

If anyone is interested in exactly what this is about may I refer you to this thread http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?184772-Legal-violations-by-A3L-Arma-3-life

There is another but it has been locked, this one is an ongoing discussion.

There is a post there that quotes an email from Bohemia Interactive saying that they are looking into it (about 3 or 4 pages in, I didn't go any further than that). So if something can be done, then they will take care of it.

I believe that Coffeeist thought there may have been the possibility that some mods from GTA IV being used without permission, specifically the police cars.  I'll admit that I even thought about starting a thread to notify people here because I thought that some of those cars looked familiar.

 

Also if you do go further in you will come to find out that Bohemia did take some action but now it is up to the mod creators to do their part.  Bohemia did all they legally could at the moment unless more proof is given to help  Now don't get me wrong there is alot of tard going on in that thread but it is interesting.  It's especially interesting for a mod creator of any game.  People may be quick to blow this off because it is happening in a different game but it's possible the outcome there is helpful for modders in all games.  I've been keeping my eye on it since the start and no the start is not that thread.

 

So if one can get past the tard, like I said it's strong in that thread, then this becomes an extremely curious discussion/topic, minus the lynch mob/witch hunt.

Gerheart is correct, and I apologize if that wasn't clear. Only intent of this thread is to inform the folks who go to the effort of producing the content that it may be being used elsewhere, in case they are concerned about it. As will said, they may not care to be concerned about it but I figured some may wish to know.

 

I only left the mass of explanation figuring, as Icon said, that few (if any) folks play Arma or A3L. No intent to bring a witch hunt on here.

 

Just for the sake of clarity, the reason this is so big on Reddit and Arma Forums is that they do (or did, but supposedly it still happens) the donation system in a way that violates Arma's EULA, in addition to the ripped mods. Bohemia (Arma dev) has taken action once, but can't do anything more about the donation system without solid proof. They also can't act on behest of modders whose own models are used against their license (supposedly they can take legal action, although I can't see many folks wanting to go to that trouble).

 

Anyway, as I said, merely intend to inform GTA modders so they can do with that information as much or as little as they care to do. No intent to create a lynch mob on this forum, or even really much of a discussion about the matter on here (it is an interesting matter but certainly one that would make more sense to keep on Arma sites).

Edited November 13, 201411 yr by Coffeeist

They've posted a response to these accusations: http://arma3-life.com/forums/index.php?/topic/35121-a3l-intellectual-property-statement/

 

Regarding vehicle models:

 

Any vehicles that have been made from another game such as the claim of a bus from another game will also be removed once we talk with the original maker to determine where the files originated.  Any other vehicles will be removed as well should they fall within not having permission to utilize will also be removed.

 

It seems like they just found the models and used them for the server without permission from anyone...

They have also been banned from submitting their mod on Moddb.  Scroll down to the comments section http://www.moddb.com/members/havatan10/blogs/stay-away-from-arma-3-life-mod/#4919757