What Should We Do About kspmods .net?

[njmksr]

So it recently came to my attention that KSP has a mod stealing/mirroring site called kspmods .net. They host many of our mods (though outdated) without, I'm sure, many of our consent or knowledge. 

I found SuperStrongStruts on there, and I have asked for it to be removed.

What really bothers me is this part of their terms of service:

Quote

Our softwares are owned by kspmods .net copyrighted and are the property of kspmods .net. Our softwares have been created to be used on playful purposes. kspmods .Net is not responsible if you use our softwares in another purpose. The use of our softwares in other purposes, which are not the ones that our softwares have been made, is at the own responsibility of the user. All our softwares are free, but we will not be responsible for selling illegally purchase of our software online. When downloading our software, we are not by responsible for your problems and must be used at your own risk.

Do you think that by "softwares" they mean mods?

 

They also claim to pay anybody who submits a mod.

 

Anyway, I see three possible courses of action.

One, the legal route. File a cease and desist or something. That probably won't happen.

Two, the activist route. Do as much as we can to make them into the KSP community's Public Enemy #1. I think we could do that.

Three, the apathetic route. Do nothing.

 

What do you guys think?

Edited September 11, 2016 by njmksr

[njmksr]

For the activist route: 

#STOPMODFRAUD

[JPLRepo]

There is already discussion and activities about this on the spacedock thread

 

[njmksr]

1 minute ago, JPLRepo said:

There is already discussion and activities about this on the spacedock thread

 

I know, but I felt it needed its own thread.

This is kind of a big deal.

[Tex_NL]

Ah, now this topic start to make sense. First version of the OP talked about google.com instead of google.com.

If they redistribute mods with licensing that clearly do not allow it you are completely in your right to file a complaint. If multiple modders join together they might actually stand a change.

[njmksr]

Just now, Tex_NL said:

Ah, now this topic start to make sense. First version of the OP talked about google.com instead of google.com.

If they redistribute mods with licensing that clearly do not allow it you are completely in your right to file a complaint. If multiple modders join together they might actually stand a change.

Yeah, the forums censor out website names as "google.com"

[Superfluous J]

Technically they have the right to use my mods as they see fit, so long as their license doesn't forbid others from doing the same. It's the license I chose and I chose it knowing of this possibility. I don't know, but I don't think they ban the only thing I say they can't ban. Their "license" text is ... poorly written so I can't quite parse it. That makes me think it wouldn't stand up to any form of legal scrutiny anyway.

I'm all for disparaging them publicly but feel no need to take legal action, even if it was a reasonable possibility which - as you admit - it probably isn't.

5 minutes ago, njmksr said:

Yeah, the forums censor out website names as "google.com"

I really wish they censored them to "WEBSITE_CENSORED" or something so it didn't confuse every single person without exception.

Edited September 11, 2016 by 5thHorseman

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

As 5th above says it's all about licenses.

On inspection it's nothing more than an averagely thrown together fan site that links mostly amazingly outdated mods, that's if any of the links still work for mods of such advanced age, and a search will probably throw up a couple more with an equally fantastic use of grammar.

[mikerl]

Is Squad aware of this?  They have acted against certain sites before, and could get the word out to more players than just those on the forums.  Those that click in the game go directly to curseforge and almost every mod on the forums links directly to spacedock.  I say get the word out and let everyone know since modders can do something.  There is a suggestion about readmes having an "If you paid for this..." clause over in the spacedock thread as well as supported hosting services.

[njmksr]

Just now, mikerl said:

Is Squad aware of this?  They have acted against certain sites before, and could get the word out to more players than just those on the forums.  Those that click in the game go directly to curseforge and almost every mod on the forums links directly to spacedock.  I say get the word out and let everyone know since modders can do something.  There is a suggestion about readmes having an "If you paid for this..." clause over in the spacedock thread as well as supported hosting services.

Yeah, I will try to get them notified

@sal_vager you guys know about this site?

Btw, my XKOM license has a clause about if people redistribute the mod as a paid DL. I would recommend that people implement a similar clause.

[ZooNamedGames]

3 hours ago, njmksr said:

Yeah, I will try to get them notified

@sal_vager you guys know about this site?

Btw, my XKOM license has a clause about if people redistribute the mod as a paid DL. I would recommend that people implement a similar clause.

Sadly Sal is nothing more than Quality Assurance for Squad. Normally I'd ping Kasper but with him afk from the picture, the only person near his role might be @Badie...? I know she's Community Lead so I would think she's one of the better people to contact.

I believe the term "KSP" is trademarked (as it's a common acronym), even if not by Squad. So legal action is likely applicable, but unlikely.

All I can say is that this is wrong and borderlines on infringing modder's releases. Some don't want their stuff publically shared throughout the internet. So whatever I can do to help put it down, count me in.

This site is likely one that came about during the fall of KerbalStuff. That's when many many mod sites starting popping up. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the creators of those sites got desperate and actually started falsely adding mods to his site to try to fake being used so others would start using it.

Just one explanation as to it's existence.

[njmksr]

6 minutes ago, ZooNamedGames said:

Sadly Sal is nothing more than Quality Assurance for Squad. Normally I'd ping Kasper but with him afk from the picture, the only person near his role might be @Badie

...stuff...

So whatever I can do to help put it down, count me in.

Thanks. So shoutout to @Badie

And what you can do?

I don't see how we, the modders, can be part of the legal route. But I know that we can start like a hashtag or something. Best thing I could come up with was #StopModFraud.

I'm sure you guys can do better.

Edited September 15, 2016 by njmksr

[ZooNamedGames]

Just now, njmksr said:

Thanks. So shoutout to @Badie

And what you can do?

I don't see how we, the modders, can be part of the legal route. But I know that we can start like a hashtag or something. Best thing I could come up with was #StopModFraud.

I'm sure you guys can do better.

Well you can protest. Having scoped the rules once more I have seen nothing that prohibits users from peacefully protesting a mod site like this. Outside of the forums ofc actions can be different. We can use a group hashtag or widespread message.

[njmksr]

4 minutes ago, ZooNamedGames said:

Well you can protest. Having scoped the rules once more I have seen nothing that prohibits users from peacefully protesting a mod site like this. Outside of the forums ofc actions can be different. We can use a group hashtag or widespread message.

Stirring Speech Time!

Yeah, this is our protest. This is our rallying cry to shout into the dark. This is our call to arms. 

If we do not resist this horrifying violation of our rights as content creators, they may be forever destroyed. You saw what these sites did to Minecraft. You can't look up a single mod for that game without a plethora of sites popping up, virtually none of which were actually approved by the modder to host them. 

I, and it appears many others, including yourself, @ZooNamedGames, will not stand to see this happen to KSP. 

We can win this battle.

We just need to fight it early, before this plague spreads. We can take them down if we work together to stop these unauthorized mod sites--no, not sites--parasites.

We aren't the only modding community that has had this sort of thing happen to them.

But you can be damn sure we won't be the only ones to beat it.

[Slicer]

I've sent a message to Vanamonde about this!

Hopefully we can do this.

[Nils277]

Unfortunately has been up for a long time now. It existed long before the downfall of KerbalStuff.

Aside from the discussion in the SpaceDoch.info thread i posted about this site a long time ago:

A small research at that time revealed that the author of this site also hosts one of the rip-off modding sites for minecraft.

To make it short: 
Squad if aware of this website but KasperVld said that the only thing they can do is to remove/block all links to this website.

One point at our favour is that the site shows adds (and not very small ones) to generate revenue. A lot of the mods are under a license that strictly forbids commercial use. (e.g. cc-by-nc). So we have at least the right to have them removed from there.
Although maybe possible i don't think that a "real" legal action would be a good idea. 

Edit: btw. it would be wise to also keep an eye on planetksp. com. This site does not seem to be functional (yet) but it is registered from the same person (or at least with the same email-adress) and judging from the name it will be something similar. 

Edit2: The intention to use our mods commercially is also confirmed by a phrase the hoster uses in some kind of social network (Archinect). Quote: Hello World! Im ********* from ***********. I just want more moneyy $$$$$

Edited October 4, 2016 by Nils277

[theJesuit]

Squad could take some legal action as they had too not so long ago (as peaceably as possible) to trademark Kerbal. (I can't/don't want to remember the fights around this on the forum and misinformation).

So if the term 'Kerbal' is trademarked and this person is making his own money off it then Squad could take some legal action.  Even a cease and desist letter might be an option.

Peace.

[DuoDex]

The domain is blocked on the forums, so giving them more traffic by evading it will only give them more ad revenue and incentivize further thievery. I suggest that we pretend they don't exist, starve them of ad revenue, and watch them go under.

Spacedock is probably working on their own solution, but this is a good one for now.