I'm curious to know how copyright is while making mods from other sources such as other games, movies, etc. Is it illegal to make something from scratch that is based off someone else's work? Say for example, I wanted to create a sword or a race from another game, if I made the models and did all the work from scratch, would that still be violating copyright laws since the sword and race is based off something that already exists or is this legal?

Theoretically the copyright owner could ask you to remove the mod, but in reality no one cares. Just have a look at TESNexus. You can find remakes for 1000 different games and movies there, ranging from Stormtroopers to Halo armors to Lord of the Rings mods to mods from various anime shows etc etc.

Alright, so I can create a mod then involving something already created, as long as I give proper credit where its due and if they ask to remove it, remove it?

Asking permission from the creator first might save you a good deal of hate and discontent.

Always.

Copyright/trademark infringement is a civil matter. It's not a crime.

Yes it is a crime. In serious cases a person could find themselves behind bars for several years. It's considered a form of theft.

There's such a thing as criminal copyright infringement, but it's big-ticket stuff like making and selling bootleg DVDs, not simple things like imitating stuff from another game in a free mod, or downloading a few songs. "Normal" copyright infringement is a civil matter, as Robynah says -- you get sued by the rights holder for infringement, not arrested and prosecuted by the government.

(Admittedly, this can vary from country to country -- the above is true in the US and I'm fairly sure it's true in most or all other countries frequented by people in this forum.)


One can make the case that infringing someone's copyright is akin to theft of potential revenue from them, but legally they're two completely different things.

Anyway, as long as you're doing your own work and not actually copying meshes/textures/whatever from another game, you're probably OK. The owner of the other game could make a case against you since your art is "derived from" theirs, but it's unlikely, and if they did, it'd probably be just a cease&desist to make you stop distributing your mod.

Edit: However, note this bit from the forum rules:

Presumably this applies to Oblivion as well. It's not clear whether it applies to assets that you create yourself, but that just look like things from other games. Maybe a mod can weigh in on this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work#The_fair_use_defense_in_derivative_work_cases

Lots of reading