[CaesarCalad]

I was wondering if you needed permission to use ships made by others in a campaign.
There are a few good ships that I would like to use, but I do not want to simply take them off freespacemods without knowing if i need consent to use them in a campaign i plan on putting out on freespacemods.
I am new to the community so I don't know what kind of "rules" there are on this sort of thing.

[MatthTheGeek]

If they're on FSMods, that presupposes they're free to use. If the maker of the asset is still active on the forum, it can't hurt to shoot him a PM just as a mark of courtesy, but other wise, yeah, you can just shop on FSMods for cool ships, that's what they're here for !

[Nyctaeus]

If something is in somebody's released mod - You can use it as long, as it's in your freespace mod and You aren't gaining profits from it. It must be released and distributed for free. Just place somewhere a credit list.

[SypheDMar]

Yeah, make sure to give proper credit and read the "ReadMe" if there's one included.

[Shivan Hunter]

Everyone seems to be saying you can always use it if it's released but that isn't entirely true. A member caused a lot of drama a while ago when he tried to revoke all his Babylon 5 assets when none of the rest of the team wanted to quit. IIRC they still use some of the original stuff (and are upgrading it so they don't have to), but it's not kosher to use any of IPAndrews' B5 stuff in any other mods.

Also much more recently, someone designed a mission around a leaked asset that he thought was actually released but wasn't (and seems unlikely to be released considering the apparent state of Earth Defense).

In most cases we all like people using our models provided credit is given- I know I do!- but just make sure, first.

[Black Wolf]

Those are very much isolated cases though. The kinds of assets 99.9% of people will want to make use of (those on the wiki or FS Mods or downloaded as part of a campaign) are freely available for use by others. Leaked assets get removed fairly efficiently, as a general rule (that destroyer you're talking about was only available for a few days, I'm pretty sure), and even IPAndrews stuff is, as far as I understand it, fine to be used for modding TBP itself, though trying to use them in another mod might be dicey (though why you'd want to I'm not sure, being obviously B5 ships and all that).

Given how many assets on the wiki are made by people who're no longer active or easy to contact, the best thing to do is assume it's OK. This is a situation where you're probably better off begging forgiveness than asking permission.

[Nuke]

it never hurts to ask. with my assets ive always said use em if you want, just give me credit as a matter of courtesy. id even help out by providing asset sources (like unflattened textures and preconverted models) to anyone who wanted them.