Mod Content Usage

Using content from other mods

It's a sad fact, but in some cases content is also being lifted from one Mod to another. It's often a misconception that just because a Mod is free to download, it's contents are also free for you to take and choose from as you wish.

Even if a Mod is free or not, the creators of any original work included within it (sounds, materials, models) own the Intellectual Property and Copyrights for their work. This is true if you are a high-school kid, a corporation, or just some other hacker who puts stuff together for fun. Every author gains these rights by default when they create their work.

The authors alone can decide how and who may use their work and have the law behind them should they decide to take issue of anything used without permission. If you see something in another Mod that would be of use to you in your own Mod or map, your first step should be to contact the Mod team and then specifically the creator of the item your after. They and they alone can give you an O.K. to use their work.

Using content from other games

Games on Steam

You can access content from any number of games on Steam, even if they don't use Source, by tweaking your gameinfo.txt. Your mod won't be playable unless the user owns all of the games you mount in this way.

Legally-speaking however, making a Source mod that features music from Defcon may not be permissible, even though only those who own Defcon could play it.

There are two competing rights:

• The right for the creator to dictate how their works are used
• The right of those granted access to works (e.g. by buying them) to mix them together

There is no legal precedent for the content mixing that Steam allows.

Games in general

Simply don't do it without a proper permission.

The intellectual property and copyrights discussion above is just as much in effect with commercial games, and you are also under End User License Agreement(EULA). EULAs usually forbid decompiling/modifying/re-distributing the game's content.

Also if your mod has a forum where users can post models, make sure they don't post copyright infringing content. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), once a web host finds/is notified of infringing material on their site, they are obliged to remove it or they must face liability for copyright infringement.

So if you let your users post infringing content(such as content from other games), not only the users but you can be accused.