Wags has announced a paid-for content section on the DCS website here:

http://forum.lockon.ru/showthread.php?p=1394756#post1394756

That's cool is there any content available already? I tried taking a look but when I click on the paid part it seems nothing changes. Maybe operator error on my part?

EDIT: NVM Got it!

Nice to be able to filter out which mods need payment.

Nevada is getting close?

Nevada is not 3rd party

Is this exclusive to mods hosted by Eagle Dynamics ?

or can anyone now charge for their mods ?

^
I'm curious to that as well. I've been wondering if ED has to approve the content before a price is attached. Hopefully not everyone can charge for mods because that could lead to a flood of content hitting the site where quality control might become an issue.

I was thinking of us @ Lockonfiles charging a fee of US$ 0.99 for each download - lets say, we get some 45-60,000 downloads a month ... that would be 540-720k a year ... of course I would keep all that money ... and then retire comfortably in a few years ...

dreaming is cheap ...

back to work, bye

I thought, per the license, that all content is DCS property, including mods that are made with DCS tools or made to work with the sim.

WC

all your mods are belong to us

ED may or may not have exclusive rights to all content generated off of their products, but that includes the right to let 3rd parties charge for them. You just have to go through ED to get that approval, hence the ED-hosted pay site.

I'm not going to paste the whole license here, you can read it (or your lawyer can ) but I was told that any mission generated by anyone is the property of DCS. Seems to me that would extend to 'mods' as well. I don't have too much of a problem reading that into the license (I am not a lawyer).

Here is a link to the license.


So if I make a mission and then try to copyright it or even sell it and DCS revokes my license then how can anyone else make something for sale to work with this software?


WC

I'm not sure which paragraph in that entire user's guide you're referring to, Wreck, but the difference is that the mods here are being sold through ED. If they have exclusive rights then they have the right to do that, don't they?

exactly right, ED has exclusive rights to profit from a mod, which is the idea behind this thing.

but they don't own the copyright to it , the author does.

Tom, is Lockonfiles a DCS company?

See how this can get convoluted?

WC

no we are not

besides, it is my intention never to go payware or ask for fees - I rather have people donate to keep us open.

and I would never charge money for my Mods ... unless it was for more than $.99 ... let's say $15 per download ... you see ... I am getting greedy ... I'll give you a discount $10 for one skin, $18.99 for 2 skins

I was forced...


2. OWNERSHIP
2.1 The Program is licensed, not sold, for your use. This Licence confers no title or ownership in the
Program and should not be construed as a sale of any rights in the Program. This Licence shall also apply
to any patches or updates you may obtain from TFC for the Program.
2.2 All title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to the Program and any and all copies
thereof (including but not limited to any titles, computer code, themes, objects, characters, character
names, stories, narrative, locations, artwork, animations, sounds, musical compositions, audiovisual
effects, methods of operation, any related documentation, and add-ons incorporated into the Program now
or in the future) are owned by TFC, affiliates of TFC or TFC’s licensors.
2.3 You acknowledge that you have no right to have access to the Program in source code form or in
unlocked coding or with comments.
2.4 All rights are reserved. This Program contains certain licensed materials and TFC's licensors may
protect their rights in the event of any violation of this Agreement.
3. LICENCE CONDITIONS
3.1 Except as expressly set out in this Licence or in clauses 4.1 and 4.2 below, or as permitted by any
local law, you undertake to use the Program for your own personal use, and you shall not:
(a) use the Program, or permit use of the Program, on more than one computer, computer terminal, or
workstation at the same time;
(b) make copies of the Program or any part thereof, or make copies of the materials accompanying this
Program except where such copying is incidental to normal use of the Program or where it is necessary for
the purpose of back-up or security;
(c) use the Program, or permit use of the Program, in a network, multi-user arrangement or remote access
arrangement, including any online use, except as otherwise explicitly provided by the Program;
(d) sell, rent, lease, sub-license, distribute, loan, translate, merge, adapt, vary, modify or otherwise transfer
the Program, or any copies of the Program, without the express prior written consent of TFC;DCS A-10C
41
END-USER LICENCE AGREEMENT
(e) not to make alterations to, or modifications of, the whole or any part of the Program nor permit the
Program or any part of it to be combined with, or become incorporated in, any other programs;
(f) not to disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer or create derivative works based on the whole, or any
part, of the Program nor attempt to do any such things except to the extent that (by virtue of section 296A
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) such actions cannot be prohibited because they are
essential for the purpose of achieving inter-operability of the Program with another software program, and
provided that the information obtained by you during such activities:
(i) is used only for the purpose of achieving inter-operability of the Program with another software
program; and
(ii) is not unnecessarily disclosed or communicated to any third party without the TFC’s prior
written consent; and
(iii) is not used to create any software which is substantially similar to the Program.
(g) remove any proprietary notices or labels from the Program or otherwise modify the Program without the
prior written consent of the TFC; and
(h) exploit this Program or any of its parts commercially, including but not limited to use at a cyber cafe,
computer gaming centre or any other location-based site. TFC may offer a separate Site Licence
Agreement to permit you to make the Program available for commercial use; please refer to the contact
information below


So, is my curiosity about this warranted?

WC

this means that I could not set up a shop and sell DCS mods - and that only ED can, so I would need to upload it at DCS to do it.

but ED can't go at LOF download then upload my A-10C skins at their website and sell them without my permission, I own the intellectual copyright to it even though I cannot sell it.

Tom, not from what I've been told - I am under the impression the *you* don't own anything - the DCS (or is it TFC as in the license?) company owns anything created with their tools or for their sim software.


I think the idea of charging for third party add-ons through the DCS site is a bad idea and will open up problems like what you were joking about. I'm simply pointing out something that is interesting to me in this regard.

WC

Is anyone charging for DCS apps through Apple?

???

If ED wanted to include a skin I made in DCS A-10C they would need my written permission to do it, they own all commercial rights but that is all, otherwise no one would make a mod.

in fact, they profit from my free work on their behalf - for which I can't charge a fee as I relinquish any such rights the moment I downloaded the template or tools, this is the same for any mod made by any game.

Just to clear up a few misconceptions - all ED have done is allowed a section of the user files site list 3rd Party Mods\Campaigns the Creators want to charge for. There is no money going to, or through, ED.

This concept of 3rd party Pay-ware has been around for years, the first noticeable offering being the VERGEEV Group campaign which, Tom has, as well as hosting the demo for the pay-ware campaign, given a glowing review here.... http://www.lockonfiles.com/index.php/blog/10/entry-52-ka-50-campaign-vergeev-group-un-boxing-review/

Surely by offering the opportunity of hosting on the official User files site, giving the Creators more exposure, can only be a good thing?

Nate

What is the control factor here? Can anyone just ask for payment for their mods? Or does the mod have to pass a certain quality level?

Other than running it by ED first (See 4.2 in Licence.txt in your DCS folder) I think so. No Idea about quality level - leave that for the market to decide, ie they can ask for payment, but if it isn't worth it, it won't sell.

Nate

Has ED released any IOS apps? I know 3rd party apps are out but thats different I would think. I mean iPadpit is a paid app not sure how many others are out there I've stuck to the free ones so far like iWarthog, there is another app Touch Control which can be used to make your iphone a UFC. That app costs money but the custom files to make it work were given freely by the creator.

Just to clarify a point - I have absolutely nothing against people selling their mods, see my vote in our own poll:

http://www.lockonfiles.com/index.php/topic/37252-a-poll/

if it is OK with ED and there are people willing to buy it , I am absolutely fine with it.

I personally am not interested in doing it - I run LockOnFiles as a community site and am not interested in making money out of my own hobby.

of course, if someone wants to donate money to support our site, that is something we are in need because otherwise it comes out of our own pocket, and I don't think that that is fair.

Well I can say www.lockonfiles.com has provided me with lot of great mods over the years and your efforts as well as everyone who contributes there are very much appreciated by the community and myself. Everyone who's used LO files should donate a little bit to keep a great community asset chugging on.

This was very much needed. See, given the way this sim is built, it requires A LOT of different missions in a campaign -- I mean at each level of the campaign, for variety of mission tasking based on the previous mission. Not bashing here, on the contrary, there is a helluva lot that can be done with random settings and variables in this mission editor. It is quote good. But to get to something that is approaching a quality campaign, not a linear sequence of missions, then it requires a bunch of missions, with different objectives, different briefs, different FLOT, etc. So the real beauty of this sim is not being realized thus far.

I am one that is very much interested in building a large and extensive campaign for A-10C, or even several of them, but it would mean a great deal of work. Hundreds of hours, this is not to mention the testing involved. I've built campaigns for free and it's a damn thankless task. So to really commit to this, and hold myself to a higher standard, I would've wanted to charge for it. That could not be done, until now. Now maybe this will open the door to some really good, quality, well-considered and thought-out content. I tihnk it will.

Well done Wags and team.

Ripcord

Edit: clarification of first comment.

HA HA I love that.

All your bases are belong to us.

IT NEVER GETS OLD.......... NEVER

Having been in the software development industry for ~20 years I am a stickler for IT rights. In the November Fly In we posted mission briefings with a (c) copyright notice and a few weeks later another server was running the same mission, renamed. When I raised a flag, turned out to be that a mission maker did not 'own' it. To The Best Of My Knowledge.

It is interesting to me to push the thought on this subject. I do not tolerate software pirating.

Folks, *do* contribute to your favorite site.


WC
SimHQ

Like most legal mumbo jumbo it means nothing in the normal day to day happenings. It's only when some lawyer wants to make a fuss about it or someone does something so blatantly wrong that the terms will be enforced.

So modders keep modding and now it'll be clearer to us if you wish to make a buck out of it. Nothing wrong with that ofc... so long as it's quality.