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Modders, FYI: StrategyInformer.com

Inyri

By Inyri
in Holowan Laboratories

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jonathan7 Newbie

jonathan7

Posted
Posted

Cheers for the spot Inyri, I will send an abusive email shortly ;)...

 

For anyones amusement, here was my letter of complaint;

 

Dear Sir,

 

You seem to be stealing Modifications from modders for KotOR and hosting them on your site. Please get permission from the respective modders or remove them; or incur the wrath of our community; I for one shall be emailing you everyday untill you improve your file hosting ethics (or distinct lack of).

 

Not very kind reguards

 

Jonathan

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Ferc Kast Newbie

Ferc Kast

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*looks in K1 section* My Irish Jedi Robe?!! (Which I only released official on Inryi's forums with my link to moddb.) *looks in TSL section* Mine & Quanon's Quarrens?!! WTF?!! :eek: *breaths heavily* must remain calm...must remain... *storms off to complain*

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Inyri Newbie

Inyri

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THEY'RE STEALING MODS?!?!?!

That is really disgusting. Why would people do that? Just download it from Kotorfiles!

Iryni, was that your Irish mod on the site? If it was....

Those Idiots.

Yes it was. They're also hosting four of my JK3 mods.
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HdVaderII Newbie

HdVaderII

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Posted

Was a joke, but whatever.

Originally Posted by Jonathan7

Dear Sir,

 

You seem to be stealing Modifications from modders for KotOR and hosting them on your site. Please get permission from the respective modders or remove them; or incur the wrath of our community; I for one shall be emailing you everyday untill you improve your file hosting ethics (or distinct lack of).

 

Not very kind reguards

 

Jonathan

 

That is a very good idea though.

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Ferc Kast Newbie

Ferc Kast

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Suggestion: If we want them to fix the situation, I suggest selecting the box next to: "Do you need a reply?"; Personally, I sent off two messages to get my point across.

 

Looking at it, it looks like they've been stealing mods for a while (since 2004, looking at the oldest files in the K1 section). IMO, it's like 9/11 all over again.

 

@Below: Didn't you see my sarcasm in there? :xp:

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jonathan7 Newbie

jonathan7

Posted
Posted
Suggestion: If we want them to fix the situation, I suggest selecting the box next to: "Do you need a reply?"; Personally, I sent off two messages to get my point across.

 

Looking at it, it looks like they've been stealing mods for a while (since 2004, looking at the oldest files in the K1 section). IMO, it's like 9/11 all over again.

 

I did tick that box, 9/11? As in the two towers? I do hope thats a joke :p

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DarthJebus05 Newbie

DarthJebus05

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I saw a lot of respected modders mods up on that site. Sent them a email asking all of them to be taken down, until they get the required permission to host them. It would have taken them a few days to get permission, but no, they think they're above it. If I see one of my mods up there... there will be hell to pay.

 

Hope all the mods will be taken down, and the respected modders get the courtesy they deserve.

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Quanon Newbie

Quanon

Posted
Posted

What? This is insane, looks like the buggers don't read the README :

 

PERMISSIONS: This mod may not be used without the explicit permission of the

author. This mod may not be distributed on other sites without the express

permission of the author.

 

They'll get a complaint from me and they'll have to beg from now on to get mods from me. :evil6:

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DarthJebus05 Newbie

DarthJebus05

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Oh my God... they are trying to JUSTIFY what they're doing, here is a copy of their reply:

 

Hi,

 

We get rare complaints for fan made files hosting, but they do come in,

and this one was the most massive complaint so far. We don't always

manage to find credit notes in which case files get added without them.

 

If these or any other files were made exclusively for your communities I

understand that what we are doing is making you upset.

 

We offer all files without any user registration requirements, but just

as clean direct downloads. People from Filefront know how much such

servers for downloads cost, and we always assumed that authors would

take that to their advantage and benefit from it. From extra sources.

That was always a justification for us for going around and hosting

various fan made files.

 

All in all, we will remove any file from SI that any author tells us to.

 

Coincidentally, we're as well a few days away from completing our user

file upload tool, after which authors will be able to upload their files

directly, so we wont have our staff going around the internet,

FileFront, for mod file chases.

 

Authors, sorry about hosting the files without your permission. As said,

we assume that using our servers for your files gives it a good extra

source that you can use. But we understand that some authors have their

own plans with their own files, so we will respectfully remove any

requested file, or add credits to any required file. So please tell us

what to do.

 

Furthermore, if public apology is needed, I will be willing to do it. As

we indeed host many files from your communities. So it is the least that

we can do to repair the potential damage.

 

Again, sorry for inconvenience that we've caused.

 

3rd paragraph.

 

:EDIT: I downloaded the Irish hat, to check the copyright, it states if the file wants to be hosted somewhere else, it needs the authors expressed consent. I reckon a public apology IS needed.

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Ferc Kast Newbie

Ferc Kast

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I was just going through my inbox this morning when I saw the message.

 

All in all, we will remove any file from SI that any author tells us to.

Why don't you change that to all files? I, personally, told them that by the tonight to get rid of my files.

 

I agree, DJ05, that we do need a public apology from them.

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Ztalker Newbie

Ztalker

Posted
Posted

This is disgusting. People who invest their spare time into making the game more enjoyable for others...and a lazy son of a **** takes credit for it?!

 

Darth InSidious wrote:

-Just give me a forum, an account and two accomplices.

-Now, for a target. I think I have a few ideas...

 

DI, Astrotoy and Sabretooth: would you be interested in leading a last 'behind enemy lines' mission if they don't retaliate? A last stand of the Ahtonauts?

 

Begun, the mod wars have!

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jonathan7 Newbie

jonathan7

Posted
Posted
Oh my God... they are trying to JUSTIFY what they're doing, here is a copy of their reply:

 

 

 

3rd paragraph.

 

:EDIT: I downloaded the Irish hat, to check the copyright, it states if the file wants to be hosted somewhere else, it needs the authors expressed consent. I reckon a public apology IS needed.

 

The idiots haven't replyed to me; this was my email for the day;

 

Hello,

As you haven’t had the decency to reply to my first email I would strongly advise you have the decency to reply to this one; as I’m very close to contacting my friends who write for PC Gamer (http://www.pcgamer.com/); do you really want bad publicity? Because if you do not rectify your appalling behavior soon, indeed from March 25th you have one week to avoid your behavior going out to the wider community in print form. It would be advised for your own interests to do the following;

Point 1: Take down all the Knight of the Old Republic mods you have stolen, or get permission from the modders to have them up on your site.

Point 2: Issue a public apology for your thefts and that you promise not to do this again.

Because of your actions you do not, and following this will never have permission from me to host any of my mods here. KotOR files made this mistake several years ago and it took them several years to recover their reputation with the community. For the record I don’t care how much it costs you for your servers; that does not excuse theft of intellectual property.

I would strongly recommend that you reply quickly and courteously to me, as you have already greatly irritated me; which I will press is not a good idea as I will have stories out in the public domain about your conduct; do you really want the bad public relations? Furthermore I would advise you don’t try and justify your behavior to a philosopher, lest you wish for a lecture in ethics.

Yours Sincerely

Jonathan7

 

Edit: Just a thought but if anyone has any contacts at LA or has an email address, you could send them an email pointing out it would be good PR for the company to be seen coming to the defence of modders and demanding StrategyInformer.com sort themselves out.

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Darkkender Newbie

Darkkender

Posted
Posted

While I can apreciate the disapproval from the community, I do find it Ironic. The reason being is this is the same way in which "KotorFiles.com" came onto the scene for our community doing the exact same thing a few years ago and even justifying there very same actions at that time with the same type of email and public response without ever taking down the mods for quite awhile. Now this is not to say I support there actions but I find it humorous that this has now happened to Kotorfiles.

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Ferc Kast Newbie

Ferc Kast

Posted
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I just got a personal response, which I found very humorous when I read the bolded paragraph, to my second feedback message:

Hi,

 

Can you please tell me which file names under which game you would like to have removed?

 

Sorry, I can see that you're frustrated but we just didn't knew we were doing such a bad thing by rehosting them. And actually thought that extra exposure and source would be more good then bad.

 

Anyway, sorry again.

 

Just please let me know of the file names under games that you want removed and they'll be removed. For mods that you made.

 

Thank you for the time we were able to rehost your mods.

I gotta give 'em props for at least listening to what I said. "...Didn't knew we were doing such a bad thing by rehosting them." Well, read the read-me files before hosting other mods on your site. Hopefully, this means the other stolen mods will be off their site shortly as well. (BTW, Quanon, I already told them to take off the Quarren PCs.)

 

EDIT: They actually took my mods off of their site. Suggestion to other modders: send feedback to them and link to the pages on their site where your stolen mods are. That's what I did to get fast action from them.

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Inyri Newbie

Inyri

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There's a very good reason for the similarity Darkkender. The site admin back then, Jamie, is the same site admin for StrategyInformer.com

 

History: http://lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=148387

This actually makes me feel better about the whole past situation. Obviously it was a confined 'lack of judgment', but one that unfortunately wasn't learned from the first time.

 

I wouldn't even have cared so much about the re-hosting if they had some kind of crediting system on their website -- copying a read-me simply isn't sufficient for me. I mean when KotORFiles did it it still wasn't right then... but at least every single author got clear and appropriate crediting for their work in addition to the read-me file being posted.

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