Template:Guidelines-InfoFiles-EditingOthersWork

Editing work created by others - permissions, credits, and regarding abandoned creations

MTS maintains carefully-considered policies regarding using creations that others have made as a base for your own creations. Whether you are updating an existing creation or just using parts of meshes or textures, please read these guidelines carefully so you can understand what we require when not making your own work from scratch. Remixing: Remixing is any edit or modification of work by another person that you are sharing. This includes using their textures, alphas, bump maps, meshes, etc., - in whole or in part. It also includes cloning from an item they've made that has special functions. Fixing Broken Content: Another type of remixing is fixing content that someone else has made that may be broken in some way. With TS3, this is often due to later patches messing up what had previously worked fine. Another creator can come along, fix these issues, and upload the fixed creation to a new thread. Providing Proper Credits: No matter what, you must provide full credits to the original creator of whatever your item is based on. This means spelling out exactly what you've used of theirs, giving their name, and linking back to them. For example, a good credit would read something like, "Textures and bump maps based on ones by Simmer123 at http://www.simmer123site.com." That is, it tells exactly what was used (textures and bump maps), the name of the original creator (Simmer123) and gives a link to their website. Permissions and Abandoned Content: You will usually need permission from the original creator to remix from their work, or fix something they've made. This may be as simple as checking their policies on their profile and/or upload threads and seeing that what you want to do is allowed and you can go ahead and do it without needing to talk to them. However, if they don't have any stated policies, their policies don't address what you want to do, or their policies say you can't do what you want to do, you will have to contact them via private message or email to ask permission to do what you want to do with their work. If they say no or don't reply, you cannot go ahead and do it anyway! However, we are aware that sometimes permission is impossible to obtain. When a creator has disappeared from the community for a significant length of time, their content may be considered abandoned, and you may be allowed to edit it without further permission - under certain circumstances. Fixing Abandoned Content: You may post fixed versions of abandoned content under the following circumstances (ALL of these must be true, not just one/some): The original creator must have been inactive for a period of at least 1 month, and has not stated when they will be returning (for vacation or personal reasons, etc.) The original creator cannot have posted policies specifically forbidding updating or editing their mods. If they have no stated policy regarding updating, it's okay. The original creator hasn't said on the upload or in their journal that they are working on an update. Updates to items can be simple bugfixes or updates to work with the new patch(es)/expansion(s), or they can also include new features. When sharing the update here at MTS, the updater must link and credit the original creator by name prominently in their upload, and make it clear that it is an update, not an original item of their own making. Just saying "based on (link)" is not enough. The link and credit should read something like this: "The original version of this mod was by JoeSimmer123, who has been inactive for a while. So I have just updated this mod to work with the new 1.17 patch. JoeSimmer123's original version is here: (link)" Staff will edit the original, non-updated upload to add a prominent message on the top of the main description to link to the new, updated version of the mod so that people will know where to get an updated version. If the original creator returns and the updates made to their creation are simply to fix it to work with a new patch/expansion (i.e. no new features added), they can use the updated version in their own thread (download it from the updated thread, attach it to their old thread, and remove the update notice), with credit and a link to the updater's profile. No sense in doing the same work twice. This doesn't apply if there have been new features added. If the updater has added new features, then they can maintain their version separately, or work something out between the two of them. Remixing Abandoned Content: You may remix abandoned content under the following circumstances (ALL of these must be true, not just one/some): The original creator must have been gone for a period of at least 6 months. On MTS, this will make the orange banner show up on their posts, stating that creator has been inactive and their work is unsupported. The original creator does not have policies (either on their profile or in their posts) stating that you cannot do whatever type of remix you're doing. You must provide a link back to the original creator's profile/creation in the text of your post, and state what you've used. Just saying "Based on this: (link)" is not enough - you need to state the creator's name, the name of what you've used by them and how (mesh, textures, whatever), and a link back to them. Using Others' Creations - No permission, credit, or violation of policies: If it is found that you have used someone else's work without their permission (if required), without giving credit, or in violation of their stated policies, you will be warned for stealing content, giving you 5 points against your account on MTS (10 is a ban). The stolen content will be removed from MTS, and any thanks and achievements you got as a result will be removed as well. You are given one chance - we understand sometimes new creators don't understand this (even though our guidelines explain it) but if it happens a second time, you will no longer be welcome to post custom content on MTS... That is, you will be restricted/barred from uploading. This restriction is permanent. It's very easy to credit and to use items that you have permission for or are allowed to use by the creator's policies. Don't steal content.