[General Battuta]

Raise a glass to the BSG ModDB presence.

Kara, you champing stallion of manhood, assure me this: it's just a ModDB takedown thing, right? Not a cease and desist?

[newman]

I talked to Kara earlier today, and he didn't know what happened yet. Unless he found out something in the last few hours, we still don't know what happened, and to the best of my knowledge we haven't received any c&d's. Would be a bit strange if it happened now, as Universal has known about Diaspora for quite some time and some of us were even hired to work on the official game.
I can't even be sure this has anything to do with Universal, though it does seem like a probable scenario. What would they have to gain by pulling a bunch of non profit mods off a modding site well after the official game has been released is beyond me, though.

[FraktuRe]

oh noes, hope everything isn't all balls up.

[karajorma]

AFAIK the ModDB simply decided to purge anything which hadn't been updated in 4-5 months. Until I receive confirmation that it was due to something else, that's why I'd imagine it's gone.

[General Battuta]

welp

http://www.moddb.com/forum/thread/calling-out-to-all-battlestar-galactica-modders/#693027

Not exactly confirmation but indicative, I guess? Every single BSG mod gone but stuff like Black Mesa Source and TBP, which haven't updated in a while, still fine. 

[Mars]

What does this mean for Diaspora?

[Black Wolf]

Hopefully nothing. There are several reasons why this might have happened at ModDB without it neccesariy affecting here, such as ModDB being run by a for-profit enterprise, or an overreaction by ModDB to a C&D delivered to an unrelated Battlestar mod (who may have done something more specific to irritate NBC).

Of course, that might be the wrong direction entirely. NBC might be coming for you Diaspora guys. Better hurry up and release, get the genie out of the bottle before NBC put a permanent cork on it.

[Mongoose]

One thing I've always wondered about projects that legitimately do get shut down because of legal bull**** is why it seems like no one ever goes ahead and finishes things up in private anyway, even if it's just to pass around to a few friends via closed downloads.  There's obviously no stopping that particular method, and at least all of that work doesn't go to waste.  Then maybe you wait several months to a year, maybe the mod "appears" on some file-sharing site, and voila.  No way to prove that the original team authorized the release or even created the content themselves, so the fans get what they want, and the lawyers don't have any recourse.

(Obviously, I sincerely hope that nothing like that will have to apply to Diaspora.)

[LordPomposity]

One thing I've always wondered about projects that legitimately do get shut down because of legal bull**** is why it seems like no one ever goes ahead and finishes things up in private anyway, even if it's just to pass around to a few friends via closed downloads.  There's obviously no stopping that particular method, and at least all of that work doesn't go to waste.  Then maybe you wait several months to a year, maybe the mod "appears" on some file-sharing site, and voila.  No way to prove that the original team authorized the release or even created the content themselves, so the fans get what they want, and the lawyers don't have any recourse.

(Obviously, I sincerely hope that nothing like that will have to apply to Diaspora.)

Or move the project to a Russian server.

But, hopefully this is just a hiccup.

[karajorma]

Hopefully nothing. There are several reasons why this might have happened at ModDB without it neccesariy affecting here, such as ModDB being run by a for-profit enterprise, or an overreaction by ModDB to a C&D delivered to an unrelated Battlestar mod (who may have done something more specific to irritate NBC).

Whatever the cause, I must say that I'm immensely disappointed by the way ModDB handled things. It would not have taken much effort for them to have sent an email to the project leads saying what had happened. Instead it seems I have to send them a letter asking them what happened and wait over 24 hours for a response.

[newman]

Apparently they did notify the Nexus guys it was due to an NBC copyright claim. Why didn't we get the same treatment, I fail to understand.

[Mars]

Perhaps one mod did something unfortunate (used a non-free asset) and got warned, ModDB flipped out and dumped bsg?

[Thaeris]

If I might pose a... perhaps silly?.. hypothesis, might it be that the Nexus mod would not result in a stand-alone product, and that the source product (Nexus itself) would require the end user to purchase a licence for the game? Diaspora will not match that criteria, as the game will be completely stand-alone, and a price cannot legally be applied to the software regardless.

That said, if the BSG mods were being canned due to concerns of profit infringement for Bigpoint's MMO (which Diaspora might still be a case thereof), Diaspora at least does not divert actual monetary assets from that product. Well, besides the point of not bothering to play said MMO...

[newman]

That said, if the BSG mods were being canned due to concerns of profit infringement for Bigpoint's MMO (which Diaspora might still be a case thereof), Diaspora at least does not divert actual monetary assets from that product. Well, besides the point of not bothering to play said MMO...

If that was the motivation, it's pretty silly. BGO has been out for quite some time and has already lived through it's "new and exciting" phase. If they were concerned a bunch of non profit mods that aren't out yet would infringe on their profits, it would have made sense to act before BGO came out. Not go hiring artists from said mods and then have them removed from moddb months after BGO came out.
Anyway, if this stops just at moddb it's all good. And for now it seems to me that's indeed the case.

[Mars]

Has anyone contacted NBC already? (I assume so, just curious)

[Master_Drow]

Why draw the attention, don't poke the sleeping dragon. For you are crunchy and go good with ketchup.

[joncfc]

Why draw the attention, don't poke the sleeping dragon. For you are crunchy and go good with ketchup.

The legal bods at NBC will be aware of the mod.  It is what they are paid for.

[JGZinv]

http://kotaku.com/5848073/takedown-notice-sends-battlestar-galactica-modders-fleeing-from-the-nbc-university-tyranny

Kotaku's gotten around to picking up the issue...

[Aardwolf]

The legal bods at NBC will be aware of the mod.  It is what they are paid for.

These are the same people who are getting paid to piss off their fans? Maybe it's time they stopped getting paid. NBCU should fire the dumbasses.

[Halleck]

Sorry to hear about this - I saw the article in the Escapist and decided I should check in. It's good to know that Diaspora has not received a cease and desist.