Due to the complex and varied scope of our modding group (SMD - Sahrani Mod Developers)'s activities, and heavy use of Bohemia Interactive (BI) Intellectual Property (IP) we must release our content with a range of licenses.
Despite the commonality of un-credited/un-requested use, distribution, and even modification of other addon makers and BI's IP, we intend on releasing all our work with the correct relevant licenses we desire other addon makers, modders, and even server hosts to respect.
I have more faith in this community that BI, or veteran Addon makers do, I believe the majority of DayZ users, hosters, and modders are largely ignorant due to lack of information readily available, not malice or knowing dis-regard.
There are some important Threads to read regarding the rights of addon makers in the community, but we are going to focus on the MAIN thread from the CEO of BI Marek Spanel or "Maruk" on the BI Forums:
http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?105256-Why-Licenses-Do-Matter
(Within that thread he links the following by Patrick Roza "Sickboy" on the BI Forums and maker of Play with Six which is also very worth reading)
Often times people in the DayZ Community site the license for BI's Tool sets. The attempt is to say that by virtue of that license ANYTHING packaged into a PBO is property of BI, and only they can "Own" it. I can tell you with 100 Percent certainty that is NOT AT ALL the case. The BI Tools license is a software license for the Tool Software ONLY. It has NOTHING to do with content created with the tools.
- YES BI does have the right to take and use whatever you have created and released in a .pbo (but are literally the least likely company to ever do that in any other way than contacting you and asking nicely and from what I'm seeing, often offering you a job)
- NO without written permission from BI (which they will provide in LOTS of cases) to monitize, you CAN NOT profit off the work you've created and released in a .pbo
- NO you can not create content for another game or game engine (although that is a largely irrelevant concern, it has more to do with selling BI's source models or works based on those to 3rd parties than it does actually using the tools)
However, there is commercial software from BI as well, and with that there is no question about the ability or desire to monetize content created. I will touch more on that subject if there is interest.
In summary as per creative commons and as per the guidelines set out in the BI community, in general terms, regarding 100 percent original content an addon maker has created they can:
- Allow USE ONLY, Block re-distribution of the work, Block modification of the work. The author is allowed to control the ONLY download source to ensure un-fractured distribution of a mod that is getting updated and patched regularly.
- Allow the redistribution of the work but NOT allow modification or derivitives of the work - Other people can mirror the source materials but they can not modify it
- Allow the modification of the work but ONLY if the person who changes it releases their work with the same open license
- Allow the free use and modification of work with credits to the original author
- Allow the free use and modification of work without any conditions at all
There are equally passionate members of the Bohemia Community on both sides of the argument regarding author's rights as well. There are those that think every mod or addon should be totally open for sharing, use and for others to modify. There are those that hope for Arma 3 to allow encryption of pbo's so that no one can modify your work w/o your key, or actively cracking the encryption which shows a clear breach of rights. In truth, the best atmosphere for stimulating development is somewhere in the middle.
One VERY important thing to keep in mind as far as I am concerned is, If you don't have the patience to learn how to make an addon, much less to make the one you want yourself, then you should at the VERY LEAST have the patience to wait for a reply from the original author.
I am hoping this thread, and the coming release and license documentation to accompany our future releases will serve to better inform the DayZ public, players, addon makers, and mod makers.