Vapourware Steam is (NO LONGER) charging for mods now lmao

[sser]

In a world of small modding teams, having someone else do generic scripting library to plug into and someone else produce the assets is invaluable - every modder or small team having to reinvent the wheel over and over will leave very little resources left to actually produce anything worthwhile.

But yes, modders don't have the proper resources to always make their own shit - so they borrow it from others. That's kinda my point, no? That if you give modders lots'o'dosh.

If you give modders lots'o'dosh they still won't magically develop more talent, ability to work 48h/d or inclination to lead and manage the risks of leading large professional teams.
Modding, same as open source development, is built on interdependence and cooperation. If you want to take those away, why not also dependence on existing engines and toolsets? The stuff you want already exists. It's called independent game development.

There might be some benefit to blurring the lines between those, but not at the cost of erasing foundations of modding scene.
Modding scene can do many things indies cannot, for example deliver disproportionally high quality stuff for the size of the teams involved AND for the size of the market. This follows directly from the specifics of modding scene - cooperation allows actual teams responsible for the content overlap and be much larger than individual modding teams themselves, while the scene can't really support numerous competing feature and content intensive mods such as TR so trying to go full capitalism here is a pipedream that will end badly.

Modding is built on nothing more than an individual wishing to change a game. Saying anything more than that is rose-colored nonsense.

Bullshit.

Everything anyone ever does is built on assumptions of some sorts.
Inability to mod for profit was a given and TES modding scene was evidently shaped by this and developed certain qualities it otherwise wouldn't have because of this.

The inability to mod for profit was due to legal constraints and in some part the lack of a way to deliver the product, that's it. Reading anything else into it is pointless, clearly illuminated by just how many modders joined Valve's experiment here. And of course one dynamic produces a unique result. The question is does it produce the superior result? We don't know, and I don't like to willingly throw myself onto an assumption that one system is best thanks to the complete and total absence of another system.

A quick glance at the Skyrim mod store shows a number of mods where there are multiple authors. There is your interdependence and cooperation.

I never said commercial modding precludes teamwork. It does put a hamper on cooperating outside of your team, though.

Okay cool so it doesn't, but I guess we'll keep saying it does...? There's nothing stopping anyone from cooperating with one another. I mentioned earlier that someone with an important script could theoretically withdraw it from the rest of the community. But in a monetary system they would be doing this at their own peril. Nobody and nothing is irreplaceable.

Also, independent game development and modding are not one and the same.

Genius!
Have you managed to glean HOW they differ as well?

This was what you originally said: The stuff you want already exists. It's called independent game development.

No, that's not the stuff I want nor does it exist. The suggestion that, say, a full conversion mod is in line with a full-on indie game development process is asinine.

Injecting cash into any kind of creative process is not a pipe dream, dude, it has an eight thousand-year track record of success. Sure, sometimes the carrot on the stick leads nowhere, and sometimes a blind man can find the way, but more often than not incentivized supply finds its own rewards.

So let the devs inject the cash into this giant machine promoting their games if they really want to?

Paywall is not merely cash injections. It deeply affects the process of modding itself. For starters it enforces competition, and there are basically two facets to competition and only one of them can be argued to be anything positive.
Horizontal competition - competition between similar goods, can be beneficial, it promotes (arguably) superior goods over (arguably) inferior ones.
However, there is also vertical competition - when your average buyer has limited enough funds that he has to choose between completely unrelated goods serving completely unrelated purposes - having to choose between fridge or food to put in it serves neither the producers of food nor the producers of fridges.

And, through years of free modding TES modding scene has developed highly vertical structure with users typically running tens to hundreds of mods and with tall mod dependency hierarchies.
And no, still having option to give your mod away for free isn't really a solution when your mod depends on paid unofficial patches, paid UI fix providing what has become a common standard for mod configuration, and some assets and scripting borrowed from some other mods whose authors now don't want to share either because they are already selling them. Of course, you can avoid this by reinventing the wheel yourself in which case your mod won't have the quality it would have otherwise, whether it's free or paid one.

You do like your assumptions, along with a big bowl of bad comparisons. We're talking about a luxury item here, not food in your fridge, nor someone pointing a gun at your face or any other ridiculousness I keep seeing crop up. We do not know what sort of system would unfold out of mods being paid for. You just said a bunch of things you can't possibly prove.

The argument that competition would be ruinous begs the question, what if it wasn't Skyrim? What if it was Elder Scrolls VI, fresh out of the oven? Would the argument revert to something else, all this verticality you speak of being nonexistent? Because I'm pretty sure the fundamental baseline for this is not the obviously poor mechanics of how Skyrim would deal with Valve's nuclear bomb, but the principle of paying for anything you've already deemed to be forever free.

Once again, if someone sells $10k worth of mods, are you going to sit there and reject the objective truth that there was monetary value to that mod? Because that's what you are doing.

No, I'm arguing that if his $10k costs the mod community of $100k total value, he should get kicked in the face until he fucking stops.

The purpose of restrictions, in this case would be to minimize damage caused by vertical competition, maximize both total and max value of actual content mods and to prevent moribund opportunity for developers to cash in on their own bugs and sloppiness.

Feels before reals with a touch of authoritarianism.

What you've stated is fairly emotional. His $10k costs nobody anything but what they paid. He didn't force people to buy his product, they did it on their own presumably because it is the superior product. "Beat this guy up for being the best around!" Yeah, no, that doesn't really make much sense. Like I said many times, if he can make something you think can be done for free, then go on and do it. If you can't replace him and his $10k product, then maybe his product is worth $10k so keep your jealous little footprints off his face.

Of course, the devs can still inject cash into unofficial patches, modding resources and gameplay improvements - think of it as an investment - the more cash you put down at the common root, the more revenue it will generate at, partially paid, leaves.

I don't know what kind of system you're arguing for here because developers themselves "injecting cash" could be mean a whole host of things that a single sentence couldn't even hope to describe. What I'll say is that the best system, in my own opinion, is something like Patreon where modders are not only rewarded for creating mods, but for sustaining them.

 

[thesoup]

I like how the gaben haters are very proud of their feminist tactics of screaming loud working without a dash of self-awareness.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Hey, my philosophy is "whatever works, man". You think Fat Diplomacy would work here?

Spoiler

fat chance

On that note, you bet the GG fiasco would have been over ages ago if every trannydev tweet and cuckjourno article was just drowned in a sea of EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE DATS OFFENSIVE.

 

[mastroego]

lol entitlement
Modders can try to sell their stuff for all I care but they're acting freakin' "entitled" if they think I'm gonna spend money ON A MOD.
Freakin' lunatics, that just won't happen, period.
Except possibly for the occasional donation, but that's another thing.

 

[cvv]

more bitching

Kid, you're too late with the bullshit. The board filled with modders who have given stuff for free (including me) isn't ashamed to admit there are no higher ideals behind their bitching. They just wanna haz free shit, just as I sad in the beginning.

This thread is boring.

 

[Zetor]

Speaking of entitlement: I know that all modders dream about having to provide unpaid tech support around the clock to hundreds of 'customers' who think that the $0.50 they paid for a mod on the workshop makes them Very Important People. I paid ~good money~, the modder should be at my beck and call to solve my technical issues (most/all of which are going to be unrelated to the mod itself)... or be subjected to righteous cries of "FRAUD! DOWNVOTE! REFUND!" because he's scamming people out of their hard-earned cents!

 

[bylam]

I'm not sure why anyone would think it legitimate for bethesda to take a cut from mods. In any other areas of software that kind of thing would be seen as nuts. Jetbrains doesn't give money to Microsoft for the right to develop Resharper, which greatly extends Visual Studio's functionality. Programmers of Photoshop plugins don't pay Adobe for the right to sell them. There is no difference between your average shitty skyrim mod and, say, a photoshop plugin. They both require another piece of software, but they DON'T distribute said piece of software (unlike, say, having to license a game engine and then redistributing your own copy of it in full).

Bethesda is even more jew than adobe.

This isn't an exact comparison though. If adobe provided a bunch of sample art with photoshop, and then you modified said art and sold it as your own, I doubt they'd be happy. Same if Microsoft provided source code in VS for Halo, for example, do you think they would be cool with people duplicating that code into their own projects? Tools vs content, IMO.

Look at Unity or Unreal - those are toolsets and they provide you with a marketplace for buying assets to include in your own projects. Why should Bethesda not be able to charge for their assets in the same way?

Modding is mostly building on something that is already there. I respect the shit out of it, I was hired as a game dev because of some of the mod work I had done. Which again was built of the back of other modders work on tilesets and scripting (Lilac Soul - I owe that guy so much), so I haven't really decided how I feel about the paid modding thing (except lol at people dumb enough to quit their jobs for it).

 

[Nikaido]

Mods for Skyrim don't duplicate Skyrim's content. They require it.

If I modified some random art sample given by adobe, no one would need to buy the original picture to see my new picture.
Mods = software extensions, a far more apt comparison. I reiterate, there is no difference between a photoshop plugin that removes noise from pictures and some random ass mod adding weather effects to Skyrimjob.

Modding is mostly building on something that is already there.

Which is exactly what are photoshop and visual studio plugins. In the case of a plugin like Resharper it really reinforce the idea of "what's already there++".

In the end what Bethesda wanted is double dipping. They already get the money, by selling the original game. You can't play mods without the original game. You can't use Resharper without Visual Studio. They are the same deal.
You can't compare software extension to something like remixing music samples or taking another's picture and selling it as yours.

Look at Unity or Unreal - those are toolsets and they provide you with a marketplace for buying assets to include in your own projects. Why should Bethesda not be able to charge for their assets in the same way?

Because you're redistributing the assets you fuckwit. You can't make a unity game using said assets without redistributing them yourself. Call me back when I can redistribute parts of Skyrim for an independent / total conversion mod so that it doesn't need the game.

 

[Telengard]

more bitching

Kid, you're too late with the bullshit. The board filled with modders who have given stuff for free (including me) isn't ashamed to admit there are no higher ideals behind their bitching. They just wanna haz free shit, just as I sad in the beginning.

This thread is boring.

Scuse, but you're the one who said if we hadn't made stuff and given it away, we couldn't bitch. Which implies the reverse - if we did give away stuff, then you believe we do have a right to bitch. Thus, lots of people here - by your own definition - have a right to bitch, and you have no right to bitch about them bitching. See?

Because, after all, they fulfilled your arbitrary requirement to talk about the issues at hand. Unless, of course, you care to impose another hurdle to only one side before allowing them to speak?

 

[bylam]

You understand the difference between tools and content right?

Photoshop and Visual Studio provide no content of their own.
Bethesda obviously do.

 

[Nikaido]

Bethesda provides content to the players who bought the game. Modders don't redistribute said content. They add to it. Call me back when modders can redistribute total conversions that don't depend on the original game. Because that's what buying art assets for unity means. You buy them, they're yours to redistribute. Modders don't have the right to redistribute jack shit - mods that want to convert morrowind to oblivion and skyrim engine have to require the original game install.

Bethesda has no business double dipping in this shit. They're not giving anything that justifies it.

 

[bylam]

Bethesda provides content to the players who bought the game. Modders don't redistribute said content. They add to it.

Thank you, that clarifies your point for me.

My take on this though, is that you are building on their IP and owe them a licensing fee. It's not different to any other area of the arts. Games straddle the line, of course. But you can't release "The additional stories of Harry Potter" without paying a licensing fee, nor can you release "the additional lyrics to Stairway to Heaven".

The people who created those works are arguably (I say arguably because I think IP laws are quite poor) entitled to compensation.

 

[Raghar]

Surprised?

The minute the steam workshop was closed I made it my life mission to search out the inevitable fallout from modders.

This shit is literally comedic gold. Surprised? No.. I demand it.

Boy don't by shy, share. Share these links I'd like to see the best of very best. (And you probably should save it for backup purposes in case of moderators deleting that because they are on forums which doesn't preserve totally shameful things to eternity.)

 

[Nikaido]

But you can't release "The additional stories of Harry Potter" without paying a licensing fee, nor can you release "the additional lyrics to Stairway to Heaven".

The problem with comparisons to art shit is that "the additional stories of harry potter" don't physically require you buying the original harry potter books to function, nor do I need to buy Led Zeppelin's album to listen to a competitor's cover of it. Note that there isn't any single specific law that governs all media when it comes to issues like these: doing a song's cover for example, has very specific laws and organizations handling the rights. You literally can't be denied the right to do the cover of a song as long as the author exercised his right of first publishing, and you pay for a license through a specific organization handling the stuff, for example of various oddities depending on the field.

Mods are virtually useless without the original game. They can't exist without it. All mod users have to buy the game.

 

[Lucky]

Probably not for skyrim or with the same mod authors. If people remain vigilant then this shit will never fly. Since massive steam boycott and bethesda boycott probably wont happen then paid mods probably will.

I'm hoping that this little spiel has bloodied the modding community, so that next when Valve tries something like this they'll know better than to play along. Chesko's story will make for a pretty good cautionary tale, though it would have been even more effective if the SKSE makers had decided to keep the mod free, but demand a cut of the profits of all paid for mods.

The problem with comparisons to art shit is that "the additional stories of harry potter" don't physically require you buying the original harry potter books to function, nor do I need to buy Led Zeppelin's album to listen to a competitor's cover of it. Note that there isn't any single specific law that governs all media when it comes to issues like these: doing a song's cover for example, has very specific laws and organizations handling the rights. You literally can't be denied the right to do the cover of a song as long as the author exercised his right of first publishing, and you pay for a license through a specific organization handling the stuff, for example of various oddities depending on the field.

Mods are virtually useless without the original game. They can't exist without it. All mod users have to buy the game.

This. You can't compare mods to fanfics, because fanfics don't require you to actually own the book. You're not building on their IP, but essentially adding to it as anyone who likes your mod will have to acquire the game first. A closer, though still flawed, comparison would be for someone to create an alternate punctuation for the book that makes no sense contextually, but which puts the book in a new light when applied to it.

 

[cvv]

more bitching

Kid, you're too late with the bullshit. The board filled with modders who have given stuff for free (including me) isn't ashamed to admit there are no higher ideals behind their bitching. They just wanna haz free shit, just as I sad in the beginning.

This thread is boring.

Scuse, but you're the one who said if we hadn't made stuff and given it away, we couldn't bitch. Which implies the reverse - if we did give away stuff, then you believe we do have a right to bitch. Thus, lots of people here - by your own definition - have a right to bitch, and you have no right to bitch about them bitching. See?

Because, after all, they fulfilled your arbitrary requirement to talk about the issues at hand. Unless, of course, you care to impose another hurdle to only one side before allowing them to speak?

It was you, the bitchers, who shushed me with "are you a modder? no? then fuck off!1!!". Other arguments were "it's about the community you know" and "it will destroy modding" or "you don't understand modding". When in fact people just flap their gums because someone si taking their bowl of free shit away (and not even that, free mods would still be freely available, that's what makes your silly whining even more hilarious).

You read my comments about your bullshit rationalizations kiddo but didn't understand what that word means? Now you know.

 

[Havoc]

The Bitchers
A new game by Video Game Journalists

"The Entitled Ones are back!" - Polygon
"They were given a hand... now they want your head!" - Gameranx
"All homosex. 10/10" - Kotaku
"Three colored endings are reasonable." - Gamasutra​

 

[markec]

It was you, the bitchers, who shushed me with "are you a modder? no? then fuck off!1!!". Other arguments were "it's about the community you know" and "it will destroy modding" or "you don't understand modding". When in fact people just flap their gums because someone si taking their bowl of free shit away (and not even that, free mods would still be freely available, that's what makes your silly whining even more hilarious).

You read my comments about your bullshit rationalizations kiddo but didn't understand what that word means? Now you know.

Jesus Christ, you have no idea what you are talking about and when people point out it to you you got immensely butthurt, its just fascinating to watch.

You think selling mods would make Skyrim modding scene better off because GABE TOLD YOU SO! You have really spend your entire life living in a bubble if you think throwing bunch of money at few random people standing on a street will make them organize themselves, orderly pick up money and fairly split it among themselves, and not start pushing and kicking each other for a meager buck.


Now lets try in detail explain why monetization of Skyrim mods is a bad idea.

First why it damages modders:

1. Go to Skyrim Nexus and look utilities category, you will see large number of programs that was made free by modders for modders to make their life easier. Now imagine if a newbie modder needs to buy many of them in order to just start modding and to level the playground with modders who use those tools, imagine how many of them would quit before even starting.

2. Go to description of any bit more complex mod and see a list of mods/programs/plugins you need to have before you can run them. Now imagine for you to need to buy all those additional stuff before playing that mod, and in the same time imagine how much money creator of the mod needs to spend to use other modders assets or give royalties. So not only you need to pay for additional addons just to start a mod but also modders will inflate their price in order to get some money back. Take for example SKSE something thats pretty mandatory for modding, what if the creator instead of giving it free wants either a flat fee of 500$ per mod or 30% royalties of sales, maybe its too much, but he can say take it or leave it, then imagine other modders asking similar demands. I bet people would rush into modding scene.

3. Go to Skyrim modding community and ask for help starting to mod, you will get lots of helpful advices and people linking to many tutorials and guides. Now imagine doing the same among people who sell their mods, they will tell you to fuck off because why should they help a competitor who would take a extra slice of already sliced up cake.

4. Go to any more complex mod and see credits list. You will see large number of modders helping out with the creation of the mod. They do it for free to help community get more quality mods and make advancements from which entirety of community will have use from. If the mods are paid why would they waste time helping others make money instead of working for themselves. or should all these people also ask for royalties of flat fee before helping.



Why it damages players:

1. Just to start adding mods to Skyrim (anything but recolors of vanilla items) you would need several different utilities that are mandatory for making a stable modded Skyrim. So right from the start you need to spend money just to make Skyrim moddable. Then if you want to buy a bit more complex mod you would need to get several other mods just to make that one alone work. But modding Skyrim is not about one or two mods, average number goes near hundred since many of them require others to work properly. Now imagine cost of hundred mods, its one thing to ask 1$ for a reskin of a sword but how much would someone charge for large overhauls and different large mods that are considered mandatory. You would realize that you would need to spend several hundred bucks just to make Skyrim into a decent game. So how many players are ready to spend that much money and how many of them will abandon Skyrim, refuse to purchase following game for fear of same thing happening with it or how many will just pirate everything.

2. One of the biggest problem with Skyrim modding and using large number of mods is compatibility of said mods. Installing two mods directly to data folder and starting them up together many times will result with CTD, so modders made utilities, patches and detailed guides to make them work, so get ready to spend money on that too. With people selling mods it will be in noones interest to make its competitors mods work, especially if you can make money of it.

3. One of the most popular mod on Nexus is Unofficial Patch made by modders. Modders have for a long time been fixing the game Bethesda left buggy as hell, they did it for free for community. Now imagine you need to buy a patch for the game.
Tell me about any game where people need to buy patches and that its a good idea. Will Bethesda use all this to release shitty buggy products in hope modders will fix it and they earn extra money, well im sure they are nice people who would never do such a thing.



You will have a splintered community in half, one that sells mods others who do it for free only thing in common they will have is refusing to work together in fear someone will steal their work for profit. And that kind of community would not be able to produce half as much of quality mods as we have now. But hey few people will make some money and thats a fair price to pay for destroying a community with which almost everyone except few nutjobs were happy for years. And you will have large number of players abandoning both Skyrim and future Bethesda games.

Also Im sure you think all this is nonsense because GABE TOLD YOU SO!

 

[Dreaad]

Incoming "ad homiem" cvv meltdown.

 

[bylam]

But you can't release "The additional stories of Harry Potter" without paying a licensing fee, nor can you release "the additional lyrics to Stairway to Heaven".

The problem with comparisons to art shit is that "the additional stories of harry potter" don't physically require you buying the original harry potter books to function, nor do I need to buy Led Zeppelin's album to listen to a competitor's cover of it. Note that there isn't any single specific law that governs all media when it comes to issues like these: doing a song's cover for example, has very specific laws and organizations handling the rights. You literally can't be denied the right to do the cover of a song as long as the author exercised his right of first publishing, and you pay for a license through a specific organization handling the stuff, for example of various oddities depending on the field.

Mods are virtually useless without the original game. They can't exist without it. All mod users have to buy the game.

I'm not arguing the mechanics though. The point of original discussion (your point) is "Do Bethesda deserve a cut of revenue for mods?"

"The additional stories of Harry Potter" wouldn't exist without Harry Potter, nor would "the additional lyrics to Stairway to Heaven". That is why it is a cut and dried legal situation that if you wanted to charge for something new in those universes, you gotta pay. Focusing on the "Harry Potter" example, fanfic in that universe is free. But if someday a publisher said "Let's start charging for Fanfic" you can bet your ass the original creator gets a cut.

All I am saying is, mechanical complications of software ownership aside, I absolutely understand why Bethesda expect a cut. If someone did duplicate the assets and create a new game in Unreal using those assets, they'd be legally obligated to pay. Owning the game, doesn't mean you own the assets in any meaningful way.

 

[Lucky]

Again, that's because a fanfic is not reliant on the original work to be read or comprehended. You might not have any context for it, but you can still read it. Whether it would exist or not is a separate matter. The point is that these mods cannot be used without the game. They don't do anything. If you want to use them you have to acquire the game.

 

[Raghar]

If you read my previous post in this thread, you'd see something about outdated and crapy copyright law, and how modders are legally supposed to have 1. unwriten understanding with developer called "I don't give a fuck as long as it's not for money, and it doesn't cause me problems." or 2. written agreement about legal stuff.

 

[bylam]

Again, that's because a fanfic is not reliant on the original work to be read or comprehended. You might not have any context for it, but you can still read it. Whether it would exist or not is a separate matter. The point is that these mods cannot be used without the game. They don't do anything. If you want to use them you have to acquire the game.

If you charge money for a fanfic, you will be expected to pay a royalty.
If you charge money for a mod, it is understandable that the company who owns the IP will also expect a royalty.
I feel like you are getting caught up in the mechanics of how the project is created and distributed (be it mod, fanfic, etc.)

Reverse the situation.
Take a new engine. Remake an old game in a new engine using some part of the original assets. You require the original game to be able to play the new game. Those kind of projects get shut down all the time See - http://www.projectvaulderie.com/

 

[cvv]

You think selling mods would make Skyrim modding scene better off because GABE TOLD YOU SO!

You know what bro, you're getting awfuly boring with your silly PLANT!1!! bullshit. Be a grownup and try to accept people can disagree with you on internet without trying to be mean to you.

And your wall o' text is a hodge podge of legitimate concerns, fearmongering and narrow mindedness. If your underlying motive is the childish "moneyz spoilz everythingz" Occupy Wall Street hippie tosh, voiced by some of your palls itt, then there's no point arguing with you. If it's a concern about the cooperation between modders, then all I can say to you is - trade doesn't destroy cooperation. People can and do freely cooperate even in commercial sphere. Even big developers help each other all the time. Just read some of Dan Vavra's comments about their close relationship with Larian, CDPR and others.

And third, and probably most important - this wasn't supposed to be just about your stupid Skyrim. The reason I'm disappointed the entitled welfare queens didn't let that experiment to go on is because I don't give a fuck about the AAA production. I play mostly smaller games with much smaller player base. And googling mods for those can be real pain, especially if they're Russian or other non-English. Because even if you find a few modders putting some work into improvements, they sure as fuck can't afford to translate them.

As I said over and over - this was an interesting project that could've fallen flat in a year or two but it could've also exploded in something truly great. Sadly, it was quashed by stupidity, greed and entitlement of spoiled brats. That's all there's to it, all the bullshit rationalizations notwithstanding.

 

[rezaf]

"The additional stories of Harry Potter" wouldn't exist without Harry Potter, nor would "the additional lyrics to Stairway to Heaven". That is why it is a cut and dried legal situation that if you wanted to charge for something new in those universes, you gotta pay. Focusing on the "Harry Potter" example, fanfic in that universe is free. But if someday a publisher said "Let's start charging for Fanfic" you can bet your ass the original creator gets a cut.

This is an extremely fine line to tread, though.
For example, one could argue that Harry Potter itself relies on an array of previously established fiction (let's say they "inspired" the HP universe) - why don't any of these factions get a cut?
If one were to write "The additional stories of Barry Botter" and changed all names, the resulting book would not infringe any copyright, but STILL be entirely built upon the HP premise.
A total conversion mod changes virtually everything - storyline, characters etc. - and only uses the underlying engine (should be no issue as the player of the TC HAS to own the game), so it doesn't build upon the underlying game's fiction at all - why should the developer of said game get a cut?

That said, I think the developer DOES deserve a cut, just not the 50% Bethesda was aiming at. If Steam weren't a monopoly, they probably couldn't get away with their 25% either.
But if Bethesda had limited themselves to taking the same cut as Steam did, I bet the uproar (if you want to call it that) about this would have already been significantly less loud.

Modding has traditionally been a field where copyrights are basically ignored as long as the holder of those doesn't come down on mod makers with a cease and desist. Polite modders will (try to) credit the work of others to a degree (these models have been taken from game xyz, this texture was from CrazyMofoModder155), others will not. Some people will try to ask for permission, but use stuff anyway if they get no response.
As time passes, it's also often the case that projects are dropped by their devs and then salvaged by others, only to be dropped again and picked up once more ...
In such muddy waters, charging for a mod is often the equivalent of those shovelware CDs full of freeware or - more recently - the books offered up on Amazon consisting of printed Wikipedia articles.