Hello everyone! First of all, congratulations to the Command & Conquer franchise for its 25th anniversary. I think that my first experience with a Command & Conquer game happened around 1997 or 1998... and it was with Red Alert 1. At that time, I didn't enjoy it at all. My English skills were far more limited than today and I had no clue regarding what was going on with the story of the campaign. I've started to become a Command & Conquer fan about 1 year later with C&C 95. My first internet access came later than that. So, I'm one of those people who never had a clue when Command & Conquer started and I am trusting Jim Vessella on this anniversary date (September 26th).
The same Jim Vessella has posted that, as a celebration of this memorable 25th anniversary of the franchise, they have released a Modding Guidelines that explains how they authorize (or not) the usage of assets from any Command & Conquer game in mods/games, as long as they follow their guidelines.
I won't post Jim's message on reddit, I will just skip it to the modding guidelines itself:
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The whole idea of these Guidelines is to clarify how EA legally handles user-created content created with C&C assets. The implied message here is that they want you to create mods, but they don't want to have legal problems with them, they don't want users being forced to pay to play mods on their best experience, and EA does not want to have any sort of association with any mod. Regarding their sudden aggressive instance with the distribution of music, EA was once sued by a singer of a song featured in Tiberian Dawn because a community member has made a fan patch for the game that enabled it in the Jukebox. Fortunately, the singer has lost the process. I don't think Frank Klepacki would do what this singer did, taking into account his history, his own passion for the C&C franchise, and his own contribution to the C&C community mods. It is not clear, however, if this event is their sole motivation for this sudden change of attitude regarding music distribution.
Take these Modding Guidelines with the same consideration that you have with the end-user license agreement from these games when you mod them. Focus on the points from the previous paragraph and always credit EA for their assets, even if you (and someone else) modify them. This is our informal advice, really. It is impossible to have legal terms that validate mods in the way we do here (and anywhere in the world). There will always be grey areas in these cases and situations where some terms might eventually be violated. Derivative works are something that always falls into grey areas. Who has ownership of what? What are the minimum requirements to consider some work as a derivative work of something and not simply a copy? The impossibility of writing legal terms that takes into consideration all modding activities seen in the internet is a problem without a solution, due to maths restriction which I will not go into details here. That's why being orthodox and radical about manners is dangerous. Another fact that must be taken into consideration when Guidelines like this one are created is that most mods will not be updated to follow these Guidelines because their authors are gone for good. For these reasons and the lack of human resources to be proactive, PPM will have a reactive instance on this matter. If EA lawyers consider one or more mods hosted here to be problematic or harmful for the company, please, contact us and we will take their downloads down as soon as possible.
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If you take the whole text by the book, letter by letter, we will have to place most of our mods offline, because they will certainly violate some random term.
- The use of some game extensions may interfere or disrupt with EA content protection measures. Some people may interpret that standalone mods could do the same thing. Although the games they were released on were eventually turned into Freeware, they are still sold on Origin.
- Some mods distribute or modify music from other C&C games. Stripping down this ability from them might ruin their experience. And developing utilities to extract these assets not necessarily is something that is done in a night since modders are not necessarily good programmers nor have necessarily have music creation skills to recreate alternative interpretations of these songs.
- A myriad of mods has no message explicitly mentioning that they are not affiliated with EA and they won't have it because their authors disappeared... some of them are no longer among the living people.
- Many mods use EA artwork for their logos and Command & Conquer on their names.
- Intellectual property restrictions are something that we apply when whoever owns the assets has explicit politics to legally hunt those who use them illegally, but it is very hard for us to track these things. We have even seen C&C games created by Chinese companies and officially endorsed by EA to use intellectual property from third-party companies, like Blizzard, without their consent and monetizing it.
- Words like "Your Mods must not jeopardize the integrity of the gameplay" are probably focusing on the creation of mods with cheating purposes. But would badly balanced mods be interpreted as mods that jeopardize the integrity of the gameplay? And even if someone makes mods for cheating purposes (which I have seen a bunch done for the Remastered Collection already), what would the problem of distributing it for offline usage only? Or even for multiplayer, as long as all players involved have access to it and are aware of its contents? Personally, I don't download this kind of thing, but I have no prejudice against those who do it.
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And I could go on and on and on about the problems that we could have with these terms, but I will go straight to the point: Modding is all about having fun and provide a fun experience to the community. And regardless of any awkward term in these Guidelines, we should keep this spirit.
The same Jim Vessella has posted that, as a celebration of this memorable 25th anniversary of the franchise, they have released a Modding Guidelines that explains how they authorize (or not) the usage of assets from any Command & Conquer game in mods/games, as long as they follow their guidelines.
I won't post Jim's message on reddit, I will just skip it to the modding guidelines itself:
Quote:
Command & Conquer™ Franchise Modding Guidelines
EA appreciates the passion that our players and community members have for our games. In particular, we celebrate the Command & Conquer community Mods that have helped fans engage in our C&C games for decades. Members of the C&C community have asked us what community Mods they can create and distribute. This Policy applies to all modifications, alterations, or extensions of the C&C video games and universe, including add-ons, modified UI and new levels, maps and updates. EA does not object to your use of the C&C video games, including the C&C Remastered Collection, in your community Mods, provided you comply with the following guidelines.
Not for commercial profit: Community Mods are just that, Mods focused on coming together over a shared passion, not a money-making venture. Your Mods must be non-commercial and distributed free-of-charge at this time. Therefore, Mods cannot be sold, licensed, rented for a fee, nor can the Mod contain features that would support monetary transactions of any type. Mods may not be used to advertise any goods or services.
In addition, your Mods must not be used to solicit donations, except as follows: EA recognizes that the time and resources needed to create Mods can sometimes be substantial. Accordingly, Mod developers are allowed to fund their development costs through donations, subject to the following restrictions:
- Requests for donations must be limited to the Mod website or distribution site and not appear within the Mod gameplay itself.
- Donors may not be provided with any in-game special advantages, such as private access to a Mod, special levels, graphical markers, special text, abilities, units, maps, etc. That is, all users must be able to play the same Mods without having to pay extra to do so.
- Donors that are corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, etc., cannot be listed in the credits section of a Mod; only individuals may be listed.
Respect the rights of others: Your Mods must not infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property right of any third party and will not include content that is unlawful, tortious, defamatory, obscene, invasive of the privacy of another person, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful, racist or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate. EA requires that Mods not include any material that would not be allowed under the age ratings for any applicable C&C game(s). The C&C franchise usually has an age rating of ESRB T (Teen) and PEGI 16+, and similar ratings from other ratings boards around the world.
No EA affiliation: You must include the following statement prominently at the top of your website and in at least one root-level license file in any source-code repositories for your project (e.g., a README file or equivalent): “EA has not endorsed and does not support this product.” Do not promote your Mod in a way that suggests that it’s endorsed or approved by or affiliated with EA in any manner. Do not use EA artwork, logos or trademarks (including game logo treatments, the names Electronic Arts, EA or “Command & Conquer” or the logos or names) to promote your Mod. However, you may state that your Mod is for Command & Conquer and/or for a specific C&C game or expansion pack in the franchise (e.g., “Command & Conquer,” “Tiberian Dawn,” “Red Alert,” “Renegade,” “Generals,” and/or “Kane’s Wrath,” as applicable).
Safety & integrity/b]. Your Mods must not jeopardize the integrity of the gameplay or harm the experience of others and must not interfere with or disrupt any of EA’s services, servers or networks, such as by introducing malware or by circumventing any of EA’s content protection measures for its services. To maintain the integrity of C&C and ensure the best possible gaming experience for our players, EA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to revoke permission to use, distribute or make Mods at any time, to disable any Mod within C&C and to take disciplinary action against players who take part in any of these activities.
[b]Intellectual property ownership; license from EA: C&C assets, including game code, art, music, and all other content, are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of EA (the “C&C Assets”). To the extent any C&C Assets are used in Mods, EA grants the Mod creator a revocable, limited, non-exclusive, non-commercial license to use the C&C Assets solely in connection with, and as a part of, the Mod and subject to the terms of this Policy. Your Mod must not include any music files from any C&C games. EA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to revoke this license at any time.
Abide by all other EA rules: These guidelines supplement and don’t supersede any other EA rules that apply to your Mod, including the GPL license terms and conditions under which we have distributed our C&C Remastered Collection DLL source code and the EA User Agreement, which are specifically incorporated into this Policy. In the event that the terms of this Policy are in conflict with the terms of these other EA rules, the terms of this Policy will supersede and govern. For clarity, Mods constitute “UGC” as that term is defined in our EA User Agreement.
Please remember that EA does not pre-screen, endorse, or specifically support any C&C Mod. Please use Mods with caution and understand there may be a risk.
Thank you for your interest and we hope you continue to enjoy our games. Any requests or questions regarding these guidelines and the topics they cover may be submitted to PermissionRequests@ea.com.
EA appreciates the passion that our players and community members have for our games. In particular, we celebrate the Command & Conquer community Mods that have helped fans engage in our C&C games for decades. Members of the C&C community have asked us what community Mods they can create and distribute. This Policy applies to all modifications, alterations, or extensions of the C&C video games and universe, including add-ons, modified UI and new levels, maps and updates. EA does not object to your use of the C&C video games, including the C&C Remastered Collection, in your community Mods, provided you comply with the following guidelines.
Not for commercial profit: Community Mods are just that, Mods focused on coming together over a shared passion, not a money-making venture. Your Mods must be non-commercial and distributed free-of-charge at this time. Therefore, Mods cannot be sold, licensed, rented for a fee, nor can the Mod contain features that would support monetary transactions of any type. Mods may not be used to advertise any goods or services.
In addition, your Mods must not be used to solicit donations, except as follows: EA recognizes that the time and resources needed to create Mods can sometimes be substantial. Accordingly, Mod developers are allowed to fund their development costs through donations, subject to the following restrictions:
- Requests for donations must be limited to the Mod website or distribution site and not appear within the Mod gameplay itself.
- Donors may not be provided with any in-game special advantages, such as private access to a Mod, special levels, graphical markers, special text, abilities, units, maps, etc. That is, all users must be able to play the same Mods without having to pay extra to do so.
- Donors that are corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, etc., cannot be listed in the credits section of a Mod; only individuals may be listed.
Respect the rights of others: Your Mods must not infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property right of any third party and will not include content that is unlawful, tortious, defamatory, obscene, invasive of the privacy of another person, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful, racist or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate. EA requires that Mods not include any material that would not be allowed under the age ratings for any applicable C&C game(s). The C&C franchise usually has an age rating of ESRB T (Teen) and PEGI 16+, and similar ratings from other ratings boards around the world.
No EA affiliation: You must include the following statement prominently at the top of your website and in at least one root-level license file in any source-code repositories for your project (e.g., a README file or equivalent): “EA has not endorsed and does not support this product.” Do not promote your Mod in a way that suggests that it’s endorsed or approved by or affiliated with EA in any manner. Do not use EA artwork, logos or trademarks (including game logo treatments, the names Electronic Arts, EA or “Command & Conquer” or the logos or names) to promote your Mod. However, you may state that your Mod is for Command & Conquer and/or for a specific C&C game or expansion pack in the franchise (e.g., “Command & Conquer,” “Tiberian Dawn,” “Red Alert,” “Renegade,” “Generals,” and/or “Kane’s Wrath,” as applicable).
Safety & integrity/b]. Your Mods must not jeopardize the integrity of the gameplay or harm the experience of others and must not interfere with or disrupt any of EA’s services, servers or networks, such as by introducing malware or by circumventing any of EA’s content protection measures for its services. To maintain the integrity of C&C and ensure the best possible gaming experience for our players, EA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to revoke permission to use, distribute or make Mods at any time, to disable any Mod within C&C and to take disciplinary action against players who take part in any of these activities.
[b]Intellectual property ownership; license from EA: C&C assets, including game code, art, music, and all other content, are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of EA (the “C&C Assets”). To the extent any C&C Assets are used in Mods, EA grants the Mod creator a revocable, limited, non-exclusive, non-commercial license to use the C&C Assets solely in connection with, and as a part of, the Mod and subject to the terms of this Policy. Your Mod must not include any music files from any C&C games. EA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to revoke this license at any time.
Abide by all other EA rules: These guidelines supplement and don’t supersede any other EA rules that apply to your Mod, including the GPL license terms and conditions under which we have distributed our C&C Remastered Collection DLL source code and the EA User Agreement, which are specifically incorporated into this Policy. In the event that the terms of this Policy are in conflict with the terms of these other EA rules, the terms of this Policy will supersede and govern. For clarity, Mods constitute “UGC” as that term is defined in our EA User Agreement.
Please remember that EA does not pre-screen, endorse, or specifically support any C&C Mod. Please use Mods with caution and understand there may be a risk.
Thank you for your interest and we hope you continue to enjoy our games. Any requests or questions regarding these guidelines and the topics they cover may be submitted to PermissionRequests@ea.com.
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The whole idea of these Guidelines is to clarify how EA legally handles user-created content created with C&C assets. The implied message here is that they want you to create mods, but they don't want to have legal problems with them, they don't want users being forced to pay to play mods on their best experience, and EA does not want to have any sort of association with any mod. Regarding their sudden aggressive instance with the distribution of music, EA was once sued by a singer of a song featured in Tiberian Dawn because a community member has made a fan patch for the game that enabled it in the Jukebox. Fortunately, the singer has lost the process. I don't think Frank Klepacki would do what this singer did, taking into account his history, his own passion for the C&C franchise, and his own contribution to the C&C community mods. It is not clear, however, if this event is their sole motivation for this sudden change of attitude regarding music distribution.
Take these Modding Guidelines with the same consideration that you have with the end-user license agreement from these games when you mod them. Focus on the points from the previous paragraph and always credit EA for their assets, even if you (and someone else) modify them. This is our informal advice, really. It is impossible to have legal terms that validate mods in the way we do here (and anywhere in the world). There will always be grey areas in these cases and situations where some terms might eventually be violated. Derivative works are something that always falls into grey areas. Who has ownership of what? What are the minimum requirements to consider some work as a derivative work of something and not simply a copy? The impossibility of writing legal terms that takes into consideration all modding activities seen in the internet is a problem without a solution, due to maths restriction which I will not go into details here. That's why being orthodox and radical about manners is dangerous. Another fact that must be taken into consideration when Guidelines like this one are created is that most mods will not be updated to follow these Guidelines because their authors are gone for good. For these reasons and the lack of human resources to be proactive, PPM will have a reactive instance on this matter. If EA lawyers consider one or more mods hosted here to be problematic or harmful for the company, please, contact us and we will take their downloads down as soon as possible.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you take the whole text by the book, letter by letter, we will have to place most of our mods offline, because they will certainly violate some random term.
- The use of some game extensions may interfere or disrupt with EA content protection measures. Some people may interpret that standalone mods could do the same thing. Although the games they were released on were eventually turned into Freeware, they are still sold on Origin.
- Some mods distribute or modify music from other C&C games. Stripping down this ability from them might ruin their experience. And developing utilities to extract these assets not necessarily is something that is done in a night since modders are not necessarily good programmers nor have necessarily have music creation skills to recreate alternative interpretations of these songs.
- A myriad of mods has no message explicitly mentioning that they are not affiliated with EA and they won't have it because their authors disappeared... some of them are no longer among the living people.
- Many mods use EA artwork for their logos and Command & Conquer on their names.
- Intellectual property restrictions are something that we apply when whoever owns the assets has explicit politics to legally hunt those who use them illegally, but it is very hard for us to track these things. We have even seen C&C games created by Chinese companies and officially endorsed by EA to use intellectual property from third-party companies, like Blizzard, without their consent and monetizing it.
- Words like "Your Mods must not jeopardize the integrity of the gameplay" are probably focusing on the creation of mods with cheating purposes. But would badly balanced mods be interpreted as mods that jeopardize the integrity of the gameplay? And even if someone makes mods for cheating purposes (which I have seen a bunch done for the Remastered Collection already), what would the problem of distributing it for offline usage only? Or even for multiplayer, as long as all players involved have access to it and are aware of its contents? Personally, I don't download this kind of thing, but I have no prejudice against those who do it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And I could go on and on and on about the problems that we could have with these terms, but I will go straight to the point: Modding is all about having fun and provide a fun experience to the community. And regardless of any awkward term in these Guidelines, we should keep this spirit.