Mod theft is not going away. Trust me, it’s gonna get worse as more shady webmasters find out how profitable it is to share mods illegally.
Thats one of the downsides to modding for any game with a free for all setup
There have been many proposed soloutions to this problem over the years the one that springs to mind is for Giants to encrypt the mod once its passed modHub testing like they do the dlc's but when you consider that Giants have marketed the game on the ability of anyone being able to modify/create anything for the game is it in their interest, given the amount of free publicity generated by these scam sites.
One solution to Mod theft and the ScumHub sites is to educate newer players, as a lot of the time it's not done deliberately but done out of ignorance.
There are also many who actively encourage there followers to rip others off, as they have this twisted view of creative copyright, and state that once a mod is released they can do whatever they want, which is completely wrong.
If you run a Farm Sim social media platform page, site, channel etc then making a concerted effort to discourage illegal mods, and encourage your members to do the same hopefully will have some positive effect on the wider community.
Sadly though, even some of GIANTS YouTube partners don't bother to check on the validity of the mods they use in there content, and have promoted mods that use stolen assets.
Not to mention several of the Modhub modders having been proved of deliberately using other modders assets without permissions, with some still allowed to upload mods and earn rewards from GIANTS despite having done this several times.
That is something GIANTS could do is clamp down 100% on this within Modhub.
There are two options:
1) If a Modhub modder is reported and proved to have deliberately used others assets multiple times without permission, then stop paying them any reward money off Modhub. Once any monetary benefit is removed I'm sure it would discourage a number of questionable modders from uploading anymore.
Also it would show a good bias towards those modders who always create completely original mods or who have full permissions. Why should the thieves benfit as well as the honest ones.
Or as alternative...
2) Have it as part of the upload instructions on Modhub that anything you upload can be freely used by anyone for there own creations. Then it's up to each modder to decide if he's happy with those terms.
2) Have it as part of the upload instructions on Modhub that anything you upload can be freely used by anyone for there own creations. Then it's up to each modder to decide if he's happy with those terms.
Isn't that effectively giving the scam sites and unscrupulous modders carte blanche by wiaving all copyright.
blue_painted wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 4:26 pm
And that's not going to happen either, because the overwhelming majority of players do not engage on forums like this and, I'd guess, don't think beyond "I want a XXXXX for my farm ..." and go looking, the ones that do use mods at all that is.
2) Have it as part of the upload instructions on Modhub that anything you upload can be freely used by anyone for there own creations. Then it's up to each modder to decide if he's happy with those terms.
Isn't that effectively giving the scam sites and unscrupulous modders carte blanche by wiaving all copyright.
If a modder is happy to accept those terms to waive all creative copyright to upload to the Modhub then they aren't going to worry what happens to there mod.
Saying that I would not want that to happen personally as I feel it's important for a creator to retain control over the copyright even though we share that with GIANTS once it's brought through GE and ingamed.
But back to the illegal mod sites, if more modders, and YouTubers made a concerted effort to discourage the rip off sites and promote mods that do belong to the author it would have some positive effect.
The fewer players who use those sites the quicker they will soon give up and move on to something else as it won't be profitable for them.
At least with console players they have a 100% record of not supporting those sites.
BulletBill wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 12:43 am
If a modder is happy to accept those terms to waive all creative copyright to upload to the Modhub then they aren't going to worry what happens to there mod.
Saying that I would not want that to happen personally as I feel it's important for a creator to retain control over the copyright even though we share that with GIANTS once it's brought through GE and ingamed.
But back to the illegal mod sites, if more modders, and YouTubers made a concerted effort to discourage the rip off sites and promote mods that do belong to the author it would have some positive effect.
The fewer players who use those sites the quicker they will soon give up and move on to something else as it won't be profitable for them.
At least with console players they have a 100% record of not supporting those sites.
Wherever I’m in a group and see people posting links to mods on any of the shady sites and I know where the original mod is found, I always point them to the right direction and let them know. Another thing that we modders can do is to start submitting dmca notices either via a paid domain dmca method or at the least submitting one to their web host.
I myself just recently did a web host dmca and within a week all the links I reported were taken offline.
FS13 - Xbox 360
FS15 - Xbox 360/Xbox One
FS17 - Xbox One
FS19 - PC
L2K Perma wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 5:31 am
I myself just recently did a web host dmca and within a week all the links I reported were taken offline.
Cool! Glad it worked out for you Maybe you could do a short write-up about what the process is like? Like what do you need to do to prove that you’re the copyright holder.
I know 4D Modding hired a lawyer to reach out to the web hosts. I believe it was a success. His mods are rarely found on the parasite sites. One reason might be that a large portion of these sites are operated by a handful of people, mainly out of Lithuania.
L2K Perma wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 5:31 am
Wherever I’m in a group and see people posting links to mods on any of the shady sites and I know where the original mod is found, I always point them to the right direction and let them know. Another thing that we modders can do is to start submitting dmca notices either via a paid domain dmca method or at the least submitting one to their web host.
I myself just recently did a web host dmca and within a week all the links I reported were taken offline.
If you don't mind sharing the process here of sorting the DMCA that would be really helpful.
It's something a lot of modders have asked me about doing, I've also wanted to do it myself but been put off by not knowing exactly what to do.
Again, if more genuine modders did this it would make life harder for these rip-off sites again. Which would be a positive.
BulletBill wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 10:41 am
If you don't mind sharing the process here of sorting the DMCA that would be really helpful.
It's something a lot of modders have asked me about doing, I've also wanted to do it myself but been put off by not knowing exactly what to do.
Again, if more genuine modders did this it would make life harder for these rip-off sites again. Which would be a positive.
Might be different depending on the web host, but I used a website where you can enter a domain name into and it’ll tell you the web host of the site. The ones I went after were using cloudflare. Which on cloudflare’s website they have an abuse form you can fill out. Though it has to be done on a per domain basis, so if the mods are on multiple websites, have to submit a different form for each site.
L2K Perma wrote: ↑Sun May 02, 2021 6:23 pm
Might be different depending on the web host, but I used a website where you can enter a domain name into and it’ll tell you the web host of the site. The ones I went after were using cloudflare. Which on cloudflare’s website they have an abuse form you can fill out. Though it has to be done on a per domain basis, so if the mods are on multiple websites, have to submit a different form for each site.
The answer is quite simple, it would appear that even after reading the post you continue to hold this scam site up as a shining example of your ideal mod download site.
I’m sorry to have come across as a glorifier of parasite sites. I’m not. I want to get rid of them once and for all. Because Giants say they won’t go after and shut down the sites (which they could; sue one, scare the rest), I’m just spitballing ideas on how to shut down mod thieves by beating them at their own game.
Mod theft is not going away. Trust me, it’s gonna get worse as more shady webmasters find out how profitable it is to share mods illegally.
We can yell “Only Use Modhub!” all we want. It doesn’t help, judging by the parasite’s traffic numbers.
What numbers? The ones you made up? (That was a neat touch by the way - I really enjoyed it)
Ahh, fair enough. I must point out though that sites like similarweb show estimates based on various things and are usually overestimated, but that's neither here nor there.
1,000,000 page views per month is only around $3000 and that is based on high CPC, i.e. clicks in high value countries. I am still not buying your argument that setting up such a site by giants would help the situation, nor that it would be self-sustaining, nor that it would solve any problems.
theSeb wrote: ↑Tue May 04, 2021 3:19 pm
... I am still not buying your argument that setting up such a site by giants would help the situation, nor that it would be self-sustaining, nor that it would solve any problems.
I’m not being very stubborn about that idea. Of course, it has flaws. The bottom line: Modders are robbed of Modhub Downloads. I think that’s sad.
The positive news is that modders can fight back, like Perma’s Modding just did.
(It’s not 1 million pageviews, btw. It’s a million visits with an average of 8 pageviews each…)
Maybe you could do a short write-up about what the process is like? Like what do you need to do to prove that you’re the copyright holder.
