A Question to all Graphic Artists / Moders

[Ishmaru]

Hi everyone in the Glest community. I've noticed mods that have been using material, like models and textures, from other mods. Some may ask permission, while others may assume that since Glest is GPL everyone's graphics are too. Which is not the case, custom graphics does not apply to GPL. Anyway I just want to know what the opinions of the people who do hard work making mods on this matter. This pertains to you and your mod, and not to what the general rule should be. I appreciate all those who vote.

[wciow]

I don't mind if people use my work in their mods.
They don't have to explicitly credit me as long as they are not trying to pass it off as their own work.

The Glest team gave us this game for free. 

[Fluffy203]

I agree with wciow , but I would like you to get permission or give credit. Only so that you don't try to pass it off as your own work =)

[Omega]

I'm fine with it, but it's polite to give credit. Also, I don't like it if they give me a bad name (very bad textures)

[John.d.h]

Everything I make is free to be used by anyone for any purpose, but credit should be given where credit is due.  This is the same license Glest itself operates under.

[gameboy]

I don't mind as long as I'am told what it is being used for. You don't have to ask permission only let me know your  using them.

[Omega]

Oh, I almost forgot: I do NOT want people using my models before I release a final unless I state that the version is the final or the models may be used.

[Ishmaru]

Thanks for commenting on this subject. The general concensious is that most people are ok as long as they ask permission first, and some feel like you dont need permission as long as they dont try to claim it as their own.

Now if you dont mind me asking
 1      How fearful are you of people stealing your work and passing it on as their own?
 2      What would you do if you saw some one doing this to your work?
 3      Is there any way to protect yourself?

[wciow]

1      How fearful are you of people stealing your work and passing it on as their own?

Not too bothered really. It's very unlikely that anyone would steal my appallingly textured models and try to claim that they made them. It's even less likely that they could make any kind of profit from them.

2      What would you do if you saw some one doing this to your work?

Send them a message telling them to stop.

3      Is there any way to protect yourself?

No (this is the internet)

[titi]

I want credits if someone uses something of my work. ( I don't care for the license )
If he wants to use it without credits, he must contact and ask me first.

Glest uses GPL for the sources but a very unclear copyright for all the models/arts. For the models/arts license they simply say "use it as long as you credit us". This very uncommon way of stating the copyrights results in a lot of trouble for linux maintainers and so on and this is the reason why glest is often marked as "non free"
Thats the reason why I decided to give a clear copyright (GPL matching to the glest code ) to my models, also GPL is really not a very good choice for models/art because the license was made for source code.

But I also have made some things that I explicitly marked as public domain. These can be used by everyone without credits and so on.
For example all my texture related photos at http://www.burningwell.org are free to use. You can even say that you made them ( but thats really not very nice ).

[Ishmaru]

1      How fearful are you of people stealing your work and passing it on as their own?

Not too bothered really. It's very unlikely that anyone would steal my appallingly textured models and try to claim that they made them. It's even less likely that they could make any kind of profit from them.

You shouldn't bash yourself your models / textures are better than you give yourself credit for. I really like your tropical tileset.

For protecting yourself I meant via licensing. I know there's no stopping anyone from stealing.

[Ishmaru]

Thats the reason why I decided to give a clear copyright (GPL matching to the glest code ) to my models, also GPL is really not a very good choice for models/art because the license was made for source code.

Then do you know of other types of licensing that could be applied?

I want credits if someone uses something of my work. ( I don't care for the license )
If he wants to use it without credits, he must contact and ask me first.

Why would you let someone use your work without them giving credit to you? (if you don't mind me asking)

[titi]

Why would you let someone use your work without them giving credit to you?

Oh thats simple, think about the usage of the things:
When you create a new faction you use lots( hundrets !!) of photo snippets sound snippets and so on to build up model textures / sounds .
If you have to give credit for every bit you used you will get mad (credits for all those photos/music/people ).

Thats what I learned when I build my factions, and thats the reason why I made all these photos for burningwell!
All these base datas like photos and base sound recordings should be really free ( public domain )

[wciow]

Textures for my dwarf faction were entirely created by me in paint.net. No photo's at all 
As for sound I'm probably going to have to use a mixture of my own sound effects and some free license stuff.

[Fluffy203]

Yea i really am sucking at this texture thing i have a problem with it showing pixels on my model for some reason anyone know the problem? ( sorry off topic)

[-Archmage-]

since i can'r model yet i use others models
and i thank you people who created those models
that i used in my elementals mod

don't worry i'm not going to steal your work and say i did it, that's not like me

anyway i just wanted to say