YouTubers earning tons of money on our mods, without giving credit...
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Hi all,
I have something to say about YouTube videos showcasing mods created by other people (modders).
This problem has been going on for a long long time, and I feel like there's not much we can do about this. The image speaks for itself. YouTubers with a lot of subscribers are earning (a lot of) money with mods created by us, modders. This topic is not only made to focus on my mods, but on EVERY mod from ANYONE experiencing this.
Recently I made a mod called 'Las Venturas & San Fierro DLC' for GTA 5. This project took me another month, while I have other mods taking me more than a few months. I mostly don't get a single penny for all this work, except for my one GTA: Dubai Islands premium version which costs 1$. 7 people have downloaded this, which means I got 7 dollars. But I don't care about the money, that's really NOT my issue, please believe me on that.
Though, there are some people who do care about money. And sometimes, they are earning it the wrong way. They make a video on your mod and earn lots of money from donations/advertentions/YouTube partnership or whatever, WITHOUT GIVING PROPER CREDIT. Often those YouTubers don't tell anything about the mod creator and don't give any link to the mod download page, author,...
This is happening a lot on various mods from a lot of modders.
Yes, you could say: "Then create your own video." My answer to that: Firstly, yes I do. But I don't have the amount of subscribers or power on YouTube to get lots of views and so on. Secondly, this is not my point. They can create a video all they want, the video belongs to them! The problem is there is often absolutely NO CREDIT and they are earning tons of money on something I put months of time in, and the YouTuber only a few hours or maybe less. I feel like this is not fair to any of the mod creators. Unfortunaly, there is nothing much to do on this as far as I know. If someone has any tips, I would be very thankful.
Here an image showing some YouTuber his video on my mod. This is just an example! He earned more than 500$ only halfway the video. Beneath is my reaction in the video comment section. Apparently, my comment didn't slip through or got deleted. Other accounts don't seem to be able to see my comment (anymore?).
My comment says:
"Hi, thank you for this nice video. But I have something to say. Since I am te creator of this mod, I feel like I need to say this.
Isn't it a little wrong some large YouTubers are getting tons of money from donations from others, while they only made the video but NOT the mod? You don't give credit in the description, and you don't give the link to the mod. Don't get me wrong please, I really like to see people enjoying my mods and showcasing them. But i feel we - modders - (so not only me but a lot of modders), are been taken advantage from. We don't get a single penny for our creations most of the times, and it often takes MONTHS to create them. I have just over 100 subscribers and 1700 on my partner account. I don't have the power you, big YouTubers, do have. I see you receive big donations and just wanted to state this. I feel mod creators are left behind in comparison to YouTubers that create videos but NOT mods. Sometimes YouTubers even act like the mods are theirs... This is so wrong and I just needed to let this out. Sorry if this comes over like a rant. I'm not mad and you didn't do anything wrong (except from not crediting me or mentioning me, or link the mod).
Cheers and happy modding/gaming/content creating
GTA Belgium"
What are your thoughts on this? Sorry for all the negativity, again, I love seeing people enjoy my mods. But when they don't give any credit and earn lots of money, while sometimes even almost acting like it's their own mod, I feel the modding community is being left behind.
Happy modding,
GTA Belgium
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TL;DR: Not much you can do about it.
I am not a lawyer, but it might be possible to create/find a license for the mod that requires the linking of the mod when showcased. Then you might have a legal basis for making sure you are properly credited. But I'm willing to bet that YouTube or the video creator wouldn't care about your license, so it wouldn't change anything unless you went to court with the video creator.
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@Jitnaught said in YouTubers earning tons of money on our mods, without giving credit...:
TL;DR: Not much you can do about it.
I am not a lawyer, but it might be possible to create/find a license for the mod that requires the linking of the mod when showcased. Then you might have a legal basis for making sure you are properly credited. But I'm willing to bet that YouTube or the video creator wouldn't care about your license, so it wouldn't change anything unless you went to court with the video creator.
Thank you for your answer! Yes, I thought so, there's not much we can do
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Only if Rockstar Games would support mods officially this would change. Rockstar Games would put some strict rules for content creators and, in case of ilegal uses, Take-Two would send their lawyers to them. Sadly that's not gonna happen, and if it happens someday, probably mods would become something boring or not really creative.
We're fucked anyway, so there's not much to do.
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@Reyser said in YouTubers earning tons of money on our mods, without giving credit...:
Only if Rockstar Games would support mods officially this would change. Rockstar Games would put some strict rules for content creators and, in case of ilegal uses, Take-Two would send their lawyers to them. Sadly that's not gonna happen, and if it happens someday, probably mods would become something boring or not really creative.
We're fucked anyway, so there's not much to do.
Yes indeed... It's sad but true
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@GTA-Belgium yeah uvr right we should get credit so that people should notice us that this person made that mod n of course our subscribers n followers will increase they will ask us to make their choice mods I think everyone should mention in their description that credit me is commpulsory if not done so found your videos with my mods I will strikes that video using my mods without giving me credit as before download it was clearly written in description of mod giving credit to me is important to use my mod
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@Reyser said in YouTubers earning tons of money on our mods, without giving credit...:
Only if Rockstar Games would support mods officially this would change. Rockstar Games would put some strict rules for content creators and, in case of ilegal uses, Take-Two would send their lawyers to them.
Oh, that would be sweet indeed. Frankly, I have heard about just one company and one game where modding has been officially supported and the devs have even offered gamers a proprietary tool to make modifications.
There are also many (older) games, where users could exert a decent level of control over what they could do and change in the game. I fondly remember my days with the Delta Force series where you could edit maps, scenarios and missions using official tools provided. Or Sim City 3000? When some guy wrote the "3K Pak Tool", nobody at Maxis took an offense!
Having T2 legal teams on our side would be an ultimate weapon against illicit use of mods / videos and theft thereof. That would be a power used for a good purpose. Unfortunately, publishing companies can't see beyond their own wallets, so they don't care at all. I know I sound a bit like some commie-rebel socialist, but I'm sure some of you will agree with me that greed is the only motivation and value these people have.
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LOL, you guys are putting my cuddles at risk from my BF, you're making him swear so much. He's worked for some of the companies that made the models you have on your front page and now he's just seen this post. I'll post a brief and polite version of what he said... wish me luck.
He said:-
Companies that provide a support network to modders, generally do so with strict copyright rules in place. There's one of the racing sites that won't allow any ripped content from other games to be used as mods. That's a rule that most games that have a mod-supporting developer behind them will have in place. They won't allow that, because it would make them appear to condone the theft of another company's copyrighted content and that would be commercial suicide. I think SCS might have the same policy with ETS2 and ATS, not 100% sure on that though.But take a look at the main page of this site and count how many games have been the source of the vehicle/ped/weapon mods you see. Not only does this site appear to allow copyrighted content to be used, it does nothing to actively discourage it and it also monetises it itself, by placing ads on pages with copyrighted content taken from other games. That's as well as the modders monetising it with Patreon and PayPal, so is it really just Take Two and Rockstar that are driven by greed? There seems to be a lot of money-demanding going on here, for things that have been ripped from other games. It's hard to argue against the illicit use of mods, when the mods are illicit in themselves. Could you live with 100% copyright-free mods, no cars, weapons or peds from other games? Think about how few mods you would get if that happened.
No publisher or developer with any sense, is going to associate themselves with that kind of community though. It's not greed that dictates that, it's common sense, or more appropriately business sense. You never put your business on the wrong side of a legal/ethical line and this site is way over the line. I get the impression that if Take Two tried to put any rules in place, the modders would tell them to F*** Off and they'd carry on as normal. In fact, didn't that exact thing happen with the modding tool OpenIV? Take Two put out some rules and everyone pretty much said "F*** You we'll make whatever mods we like". I'm sure I have seen YouTube videos of the map which caused the problem in the first place, wasn't it from the previous GTA game? In fact, I think there's something for it on the front page right now, One WTC & 432 Park Avenue.
Okay LOL, I'm cutting him off there because he won't stop talking and I'm probably gonna get the grief for what he said... and I'm far too nice to be getting grief.
I'm going to bed now and so is he. 
L
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@LeannaRed - If you could be so kind, tell him the following:
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How WTC is a part of the "previous GTA game?" Does your BF want to copyright New York or something? How about Rockstar paying a penalty to the city of Los Angeles for creating a video-game lookalike?
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We said %^&# off to "Fake Two" because they wanted to destroy the tool completely. Not just "put some rules in place". Do your research. If the rules put forward were reasonable and we both shown some respect towards each other then, I think, that could work. I am an idealist though... so I might be wrong on how the world works.
What I'm certain though, is that yelling and cussing is never a good way to get things done. -
You are not being billed for downloading a mod. You don't pay for author's products but just may support them personally, so the mods cannot be qualified as an "illicit" use of copyrighted material, since no copyrighted material is being sold here. Still, this is a "derivative work" discussion, which I am not willing to continue here. There are people out here who may explain it better.
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@LeannaRed said in YouTubers earning tons of money on our mods, without giving credit...:
"...it also monetises it itself, by placing ads on pages with copyrighted content taken from other games." - What do you even mean by that? Tell it to most every channel on YouTube that places adverts during video.
If he has issues with that, make him talk to the moderators, instead of putting you between us as a shield. Cheers!
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