This is Disturbing...

[Adm_Z]

I am no legal expert, but I"m pretty sure this is illegal. It was brought up on the FO forums, but I thought it might concern all of us on in the a2 community. Of course, it could be nothing, but that is why I put it here. Does anyone have a an opinion about this?

Edit: it seems that it includes several mods I have herd of. Here is a quote.

Spoiler: ...

Mods include:
Fleet Operations mods
changes to the federation GUI
new AI that makes the Klingon Hard AI... hard
the Nova Bomb from the series Andromeda.
texture replacement to give the Warp Nacells a CANNON look.
Borg Incursion 2
takes you into the Babylon 5 universe.
Everything is changed from opening cinematics to the main menu. adds new weapons from the new Star Trek film to the game
mod Star Wars enables you to play as either the
New Republic or Imperial Remnant,
in a massive battle for control of the galaxy.
This mod completely eliminates the Star Trek elements and takes you into the Star Wars universe

I hope its alright I post this link.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Star-Trek-Armada-II-2-PC-Extras-Ships-Mods-AI-NOT-GAME-/180542928935?pt=UK_VideoGames_VideoGameConsoles_VideoGameConsoles#ht_6944wt_1137

btw. I wasn't sure where to put this.

 

[CABAL]

I was going to PM Maj, but this works too. I recognize from the description B5A2, Borg Incursion 2, Fleet Ops, Star Wars A2, Freyr's Mercilles Klingon AI, and a retexture of one of Jetfreak's Sovereigns.

 

[Adm_Z]

yup. The ships look like they might just be Ghost's Compilation mod.

There is a GUI mod there that could be by fahres, and any one of the retextures could be by jetfreak. I don't know, but anything is possible when someone stoops to this level...

 

[Jetfreak]

This deserves an epic

He's obviously going to make money from the included "extras". I actually recognized a lot of the recently released mods from A2files from that incredibly long list, with a few from mine as well.

 

[Adm_Z]

heh picard palm.

I believe someone said that the package has already been sold 32 times for about $7 a CD.:x

 

[CABAL]

On the bright side, it's definitely illegal and I don't think Paramount, George Lucas, or J. Michael Straczynski would be too happy about the unlicensed Star Trek, Star Wars, and Babylon 5 material being distributed for profit.

 

[StarBlade]

I've forwarded the link to Freyr (who knows who to talk to among the FileFront brass about this kind of thing), along with another from the same seller for A1. We'll take a look into it-- I'm assuming something can be done, although I don't know what at present, and don't want to speculate. If anyone sees something like this in future on eBay or wherever, I would appreciate if they'd be kind enough to send me a PM or e-mail on the subject.

 

[Amateur]

I honestly don't see why anyone would spend money on something that is available for free - to buy it, they must have an internet connection; so why not use Google before EBay?

That being said, this is indeed very bad - from a moral view it equates to stealing as one, the modders who actually made the stuff are being practically exploited, and two those naive enough to buy this are being conned out of their money...

Now, I am also no legal expert - but from what I understand this comes under making a profit from modifying the game - a big no-no in the EULA. If Activision/Paramount or whoever notice this they may think that it was the modders attempting to make a profit and attempt to stop that. This is bad, I'm sure you'll agree.

I'm not sure of filefront's position on this - but is there anyway to say that he took them from your hosting location and is now making a profit from them? Can the higher ups not claim the files are their property and shut him down?

 

[Adm_Z]

ooh, I hadn't thought of that. It could spell bad news for the whole a2 modding community. They could say that nobody can mod the game:Y anymore. I would like to say that it couldn't happen, but unfortunately, anything can happen.

 

[Amateur]

Indeed, I hope that it doesn't happen - but I can't help but feel that the ony reason we've been left alone is that we slave away over lines of code for our own enjoyment and that of The Community. Add money into the equation and suddenly everyone will sit up and take notice...

That being said, the games are rather old now - and with no new versions Activision/Paramount don't get a single penny from any new customers; so they might turn a blind eye. But if they don't then I think the entire community will have someone to hate...

...but we could always move on to Homeworld 2 or something

Edit: From what I can tell, none of the mods of the list are MSFC exclusives - so it was likely A2Files that the stuff was taken from; which means he doesn't need to register to download. Sometimes the anonymity of the internet is an absolute pain in the...you get the picture

 

[Lord_Trekie]

There are ways to legally sell things not normally sell-able for money, however I'm pretty sure that even that cannot be done in this case. That's something I never thought I'd see though lol.

 

[Knight]

That is monumentally bad. From an ethic stand point, and for the community.

It may be possible for filefront to get the auction pulled.
Worse case scenario, log in and comment on the auction that all of it is available for free if you know where to look. pretty quickly undercuts this muppet.

 

[Terra_Inc]

What the *beep*?
Looks like this guy wants to SELL the community's work!?
This is not only plain stupid, but (as every one else already said) highly illegal.

 

[ISS_Enterprise_D]

*SPEECHLESS*

Seriously, how LOW can people fall these days?!?! Trying to make a few quick bucks off of modifications that people have put lots of time and effort into making for the fun of members of a community?!? Someone oughta report this guy. I can't believe someone would try and do something like this.

I've got a greater respect for those people who are edgy about letting other people release versions of their work. Their fears are well founded when people like this are around.

I think I see a possible reference to my ISS Enterprise-D that I've released twice. Now I've got to watch my back for this stuff....

Also, to Picard Facepalm, Jetfreak.

 

[StarBlade]

If there's one good piece of news in all this, it's that he's made it clear he's not selling the game.

And if they're not willing to part with the $200+ that the game sometimes sells for on the same eBay..... they're not going to spend the extra $4 this guy's asking for.

However, I sincerely doubt that this will spell the end of modding, nor will it impact on FileFront or A2 modding generally. But for buddy on eBay, well.... that's another story. We can, in fact, prove that the modding content he's selling is available in one of maybe three or four possible download locations. We can also prove the authorship of that mod content, and its original ownership.

But it's good to remember: This is why you put together a readme and a list of permissions and credits when you release a mod, folks. It's to prevent stuff like this from happening. Of special importance is the section in your readme in which you specify that your mods are not to be sold or distributed unless it's for free over networks like MSFC or FileFront or AFC.

Much of what is offered in this listing can be very quickly and clearly shown to belong to others (the A1 listing is actually easier to prove than the A2 listing), and their mod files will no doubt contain the creator's intentions in specific and in writing. So don't worry. Unless you're the eBay seller. Then I'd be worried.

 

[Adm_Z]

what confuses me is that he is selling all this on a disk. How does that work when he claims to have borg incursion, fleet operations, and all those other mods. I suppose there could be more than one disk, but I am wondering if he is selling mods at all, and its not a scam. It would make me feel better if it was, but at the same time, it could be even worse because hes claiming to sell y'all's mods, making mony off of them, and not even giving them.

of course if he has 32 byers, I doubt its nothing.


Dunno though...is it wrong to feel slighted because I don't see any of my mods on there(I know, I know, I don't actually make my own things, but work I hard on my mods too)

Jokes aside, I hope I haven't over-reacted, and yet, it would be better if it was nothing, and this was just a misunderstanding...

 

[Dan1025]

Unbelievable! I recognise work from Achilles, MaP, the FO team and a load of others. From the list I'd say he got them from A2files.

Amateur is right, the EULA completely forbids this kind of thing, so I've used my eBay account to report the item for breaching the EULA as well as copyrights held by Paramount. I've done the same for the other 3 mod packs he's selling, and I've reported the seller himself to the eBay higherups.

It's disgraceful what this guy is doing, and he can't be allowed to get away with it.

 

[Terra_Inc]

Unbelievable! I recognise work from Achilles, MaP, the FO team and a load of others. From the list I'd say he got them from A2files.

Amateur is right, the EULA completely forbids this kind of thing, so I've used my eBay account to report the item for breaching the EULA as well as copyrights held by Paramount. I've done the same for the other 3 mod packs he's selling, and I've reported the seller himself to the eBay higherups.

It's disgraceful what this guy is doing, and he can't be allowed to get away with it.

Well done, Dan! I'm not an eBay person, but if I was, I'd do the same right now.

 

[thunderfoot]

Oh, man! I am so crushed by this! Apparently, my stuff isn't good enuff to be stolen! *sobs uncontrollably* How shall I ever go on? What shall I do? To be completely ignored by dirtbags such as this is almost more than I can bear!

Kudos to Dan for reporting this, this... what I want to call him/her will be instantly filtered out. How can others report this worthless piece of trash to eBay?

 

[Majestic]

Unbelievable! I recognise work from Achilles, MaP, the FO team and a load of others. From the list I'd say he got them from A2files.

Amateur is right, the EULA completely forbids this kind of thing, so I've used my eBay account to report the item for breaching the EULA as well as copyrights held by Paramount. I've done the same for the other 3 mod packs he's selling, and I've reported the seller himself to the eBay higherups.

It's disgraceful what this guy is doing, and he can't be allowed to get away with it.

Unfortunately while it was the right thing to report him, I have reported people in the past for such things as not sending what was advertised and nothing happened. I feel also reporting it to activision or paramount or whomever holds the Star Trek licence these days would also be a good idea. They themselves could take legal action against this guy and take him to court and teach him a lesson.

So many people have put hard work into these mods, if anyone should be getting something back for it, it should be their creators.

On another note, I am glad there is no MSFC content there, it shows me my stance on making people register, and checking out both their email and IP address against spamming lists really does work. However I have been thinking with the other Admins for a good half year now of increasing our security and having members needing like 10 or 15 posts before downloading.

 

[StarBlade]

How can others report this worthless piece of trash to eBay?

That's about all there is to do-- you have to have an eBay account to report the violation. And Freyr and I have contacted Activision about the breach of the legal terms. Whether or not that changes anything, we'll see.

I would not be surprised to find out that this sort of thing has happened before, back when A2 was more current. This can hardly be the first time that eBay and Activision have had to deal with this sort of listing. I mean, yeah, the mod content available for A2 is second to none (biased in saying that? meeee? not at all) but at the same time, as I said before, the biggest impediment to this guy actually selling anything would have to be the rarity of A2 play-discs.

I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of those who purchased from the eBay seller in question didn't find themselves wondering why they can't get the game to work. It's not included. And that, rather than the mod content, may be what the seller is hoping will happen. People see the A2 graphic in the listing, and that it's a fraction of the cost, and use "buy it now" before reading the whole listing. I've done it before (not for A2 mods but with model kits-- turns out it's an add-on rather than a whole kit, that sort of thing).

I just wonder who's BUYING the mods. Maybe I need to get the Starbase 34 team looking into this lucrative market more closely.

 

[Adm_Z]

Oh, man! I am so crushed by this! Apparently, my stuff isn't good enuff to be stolen! *sobs uncontrollably* How shall I ever go on? What shall I do? To be completely ignored by dirtbags such as this is almost more than I can bear!

Kudos to Dan for reporting this, this... what I want to call him/her will be instantly filtered out. How can others report this worthless piece of trash to eBay?

See I"m not the only one.

 

[Starfox1701]

I reported his *** too. Put it under copyright infringment.

 

[Avon]

Er, kind of speechless here too. Recognise maybe one of my mods in there too
I too, have just reported it on ebay, but i dont hold out much hope for that.
Now, more importantly, he has listed his name and address, is there any way we can track him down from this?

 

[Lord_Trekie]

How exactly did you guys report?

Counterfeit/Copyright Violation?

Ebay item infringes intellectual property rights?

 

[Avon]

Yeah exactly that. LT. Copyright infringement. Also you get a box for other comments. I just added that it breaks the eula agreement that came with the game, and the mods listed were stolen from a website

 

[Dan1025]

Yeah exactly that. LT. Copyright infringement. Also you get a box for other comments. I just added that it breaks the eula agreement that came with the game, and the mods listed were stolen from a website

Thats what I did as well

 

[Lord_Trekie]

Yeah exactly that. LT. Copyright infringement. Also you get a box for other comments. I just added that it breaks the eula agreement that came with the game, and the mods listed were stolen from a website

Thanks Avon.

edit: Reported him as well.

 

[StarBlade]

he has listed his name and address, is there any way we can track him down from this?

I would strongly, strongly recommend AGAINST doing any such thing. It's best if handled the way it's already been handled --by notifying eBay and getting the listing taken down. It's not likely an issue that any law enforcement agency would want to look into once they see it's been reported to eBay. And beyond that.... well, I don't know what you had in mind by "track him down", Avon, but I can't see it doing any good.

 

[Starfox1701]

The only way I would recomend tracking him down is if any of you guys whos stuff he took intend to sue him as you could do that.