Old Mods

[Dogemaster]

Just wondering, what is the policy for resurrecting a mod where the author is no longer online, and you cannot ask them for permission to re-upload their mod? I have some mods I would like to use again, but I realized that the author has been offline for a while, so I am almost certain that if I ask for permission they will not respond. Other people have tried to request permission, but they were never responded to either. In case you were wondering, I was talking about @StarVision and @philotical, and the mods in question are the Sci-Fi Shipyard Mod, and the LCARS mod. I thought it was a great idea, but when I tried to download it, I found out it was too old. 

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

HI it's very much going to  depend on the license that mod has, if it's favorable , allows redistribution remixing ext etc  , then there's a good chance you could bring it back. If it's unlicensed, then without express permission you'll not be able to do anything with it.  

Do note the the LCARS mod is ancient,  ran using a plugin that would need to be remade to current code API.  The sciFi ship yards mod is from before the node overhaul so all the connection nodes are wrong, and the craft in general require a huge amount of work to even come close to being useable in the current game.  You could get away with a lot more in pre 1.05 ksp, and many one part craft mods ceased to be of any use afterward.  Not to say it couldn't be done, though simply updating cfg's isnt going to get anywhere near whats needed today
Also worth a mention, is that I've brought a few mods  back from the dead and without exception the moderators on the forum have required that permission be obtained from the original creator, which involved some major detective work in tracking them down to  wherever they hang out these days.

[Stone Blue]

Just to add what SM said, it looks like SciFi Shipyards would be a ARR (All Rights Reserved license), which means you cant do ANYTHING with it publicly...even rehosting it somewhere. you *might* be able to get away with modifying it to work *FOR YOUR OWN USE*... but that would be a lot of work to put into it, to then not be able to share it.

The LCARS mod looks like it has a very permissible license, so you might be able to publicly share that if you got it working. But make sure you read the specific license, and ask questions about it on the forums, if there is anything you are unsure of, about the CC-BY license.

And even tho others have supposedly tried to contact the authors, and gotten no response, you should still try to do so.
I *always* attempt contact, to ask,  even on fully open licenses... I dont *have* to, but I still think its the *right* thing to do, to try to get an authors blessing, or to at least let them kno I'm planning to mess with their mod. And, besides, if I *do* manage to make contact, even on an open licensed mod, it can possibly open up an ongoing channel between you, so you can ask questions, or even get help/direction from the original author.

Edited May 23, 2018 by Stone Blue