Question about models

Post » Wed May 29, 2013 10:59 pm

The games I'm asking a question about are the games TES3: Morrowind, TES4: Oblivion and TES5: Skyrim.(and their dlcs and plugins) If the answer varies from game to game, I would like to know all the answers. :smile:

In all three of these games Bethesda has provided a program that allows players to (relatively) easily create mods for the game, like the Creation Kit for Skyrim.

If a player were to create a completely new model, let's say...a new dragon, and this player would then make the model completely from scratch, including the animations,

sounds, textures and other things. (and the player doesn't use anything from the original dragons of Oblivion, Skyrim or Morrowind (I'm uncertain whether morrowind even has dragons

since I haven't played the game past the first village yet)) And the player would then proceed to use the creation kit (or any of the other official mod creation programs for

Oblivion or Morrowind)to put this model in any of the three games, would this model still belong to the creator of this model or would it become property of Bethesda or

anyone else? (Also, if you do use sounds from a creature made by Bethesda for your own model, would this change the answer?)

I hope my question was complete and clear enough and I thank you in advance for answering it. ^^

(If this is the wrong place to ask this question then I apologize. I also sent this same question to Zenimax but so far they haven't answered yet, so I'm hoping people could answer it on this forum.)

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Jessica Nash
 
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Post » Wed May 29, 2013 7:07 pm

No doubt you'll get a lot of answers, but for what it's worth, here's my opinion.

The model itself would belong to you, the creator. I think the end-result mod (esp and bsa, or loose files) as a whole would belong to Bethesda, as it's an adaptation along their game files (which happens to include your model), but you would still be the owner of the model, and hence have all the rights that entails.

I don't think using their sounds changes the answer, the model is still yours and the sounds are just another part of the overall mod (which belongs to Beth).

I welcome corrections.

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Brian Newman
 
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Post » Wed May 29, 2013 6:15 pm

You own the model but by including it in a mod you grant Bethesda/Zenimax and in the case of Steam Workshop, Valve, an indefinite, transferable, royalty-free license to it.

If you use pre-existing game assets it becomes a derivative work and is the property of Bethesda/Zenimax.

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yessenia hermosillo
 
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Post » Thu May 30, 2013 2:44 am

Thank you for the answers so far. ^^ More people are welcome to answer this question but I guess it has already been answered now :)

I don't really mind that anyone else besides myself will have the right to use this model as they see fit, as this was my intention anyway.

All I wanted was to make sure that I would be able to still call it my model and that no one else would be able to claim that they were the ones who made it.

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Heather M
 
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