[Phantom Hoover]

Jesus christ Droid, go easy on them. Permissions can be a very big deal in some communities (one of the most popular parts packs for Kerbal Space Program had to vanish for a few months because they didn't have explicit permissions from all the original creators and the licensing rules were made more stringent); it's perfectly reasonable for them to want something they can rely on. Way to make a first impression.

[jr2]

I think he was only half serious.  IDK though.

[Droid803]

I'm playing devil's advocate here pretty much, but I'm being serious.

If you want to use my stuff, so you are the one that is going to be signing my contract and agreeing to my terms and conditions, not the other way around. That's the way it should work, and expecting anything else is ridiculous. If I want to reserve the right to retract anything, I should be able to (so as long as it's stated). Of course, I'm not saying that I should be able to randomly change my mind and go bat**** calling people thieves for using my stuff because I suddenly decide I want to, but the people demanding documents to protect their things it should be the authors not the people asking them.

I actually hold that "give credit, don't claim it as your own, don't try and sell/make money off of it (without asking for permission), and you're golden" rule should be the default unwritten contract, and you don't need a signed version of that.

[karajorma]

The simple fact is that you might hold that all assets should be under an unwritten contract but not everyone does. The debacle with TBP, DiamondGeezer's S:AAB mod and the split over BtRL assets are examples of it happening 3 times in this community alone.

Besides, if you're arguing that it should be the authors job to write a contract, why haven't you? If you want, just simply state that your stuff is released under a Creative Commons licence and be done with it. It would literally take 2 minutes on this website to pick a licence that would make their need to ask for a contract unnecessary. Hell, that licence would probably even hold up in court if you're talking about IP that is 100% yours. It would probably take you longer to tell me why you think I'm wrong.

As for why they're the ones writing the contract, maybe they're just trying to save you some work. If they present you with something, no one is saying you must agree to it. No one is saying you can't make revisions to it. But they are making sure that everything they are concerned about is included and saving you the hassle of being asked several times to address their issues. Even if you rewrote the entire thing, it's a better starting point than a blank page. If someone came up to me and told me that they wanted me to write out a contract so they could use my stuff they'd get a two word contract with one of the words being "off"

[The E]

Any and all Assets produced by BP team members are free to use by other mods and games, as long as attribution is given (Functionally equivalent to a CC-BY-NC license).
Everything else, as listed in the in-game credits, is either used with permission from the original authors, or used under the rules and regulations covering fan work.

[Droid803]

Besides, if you're arguing that it should be the authors job to write a contract, why haven't you? If you want, just simply state that your stuff is released under a Creative Commons licence and be done with it. It would literally take 2 minutes on this website to pick a licence that would make their need to ask for a contract unnecessary. Hell, that licence would probably even hold up in court if you're talking about IP that is 100% yours. It would probably take you longer to tell me why you think I'm wrong.

That's cool. I'll get right to it.
You should also recommend that to other authors, so that

The debacle with TBP, DiamondGeezer's S:AAB mod and the split over BtRL assets are examples of it happening 3 times in this community alone.

doesn't happen again. Ever.

Maybe putting up a default "by releasing things on this site, you are agreeing to release under CC-BY-NC unless otherwise stated." (and if you can't release it under that it's your job as an author to make sure you have the required terms stated) or something along those lines could prevent any further instances of that ever happening again as well, (put it into terms and conditions for the forum or something).

Might be a bit overkill, but hey, there's no kill like overkill.

[Black Wolf]

Speaking as someone who has contributed a few small assets to BP, I'm glad that people are asking permission in this case, because this project involves conversion of assets to another game. Anyone who's read one of the readmes I use with my mods will know that I'm not fussy about permissions, but I've always been that way because I've always kind of assumed that they would remain within FSO, and therefore within the broader FS community. Moving to a different game - well, I honestly can't see it being much of a problem (unless someone's planing a conversion to battlecruiser millennium ), but I do think that that is a threshold of sorts, where explicit permission should probably be sought, for politeness' sake if nothing else.One if the main reasons is that, for a certain percentage of people, modding is a stepping stone into the game development industry. For those who want to go down that path, keeping track of where your assets are being used is potentially very useful and very important for future employment purposes. This doesn't apply to me, but I wouldn't want to assume that about everyone who's assets I port to another game. So bravo to this team for doing what I think is very much the right thing.

[Gunteen6]

General consensus I'm seeing here is... "thank you for asking, you have the green light"

am i wrong in this?

[Droid803]

General consensus I'm seeing here is... "thank you for asking, you have the green light"

am i wrong in this?

Any and all Assets produced by BP team members are free to use by other mods and games, as long as attribution is given (Functionally equivalent to a CC-BY-NC license).
Everything else, as listed in the in-game credits, is either used with permission from the original authors, or used under the rules and regulations covering fan work.

I'd say you're spot on.