I don't like the sound of this

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

At the risk of starting a new flame war... I just have to let it out of my chest, sorry. But, what happened to the "Curse will be optional" thing?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/82929-Celebrate-the-Kerbin-Cup-with-Official-Mods-and-a-Community-Contest!?p=1210526#post1210526

This is a mod, ok, modders can choose where to upload, granted. But this is an official mod pack.

Is this mod going to hosted somewhere else?

[Ravyne]

It is optional. You don't have to use Curse to download the mod, as far as I am aware.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

That's what I'm asking. Where else is this mod pack released?

[Victus]

Grumble grumble grumble Curse.

...This is pretty awesome... Mun Football stadium?

[Guest]

But this is an official mod pack.

It's an official mod on the official mod hosting site. Much as I don't care for Curse, I don't really see a problem with this.

[cantab]

Naturally Curse are going to want any "official mods" to be hosted only on Curse, whether or not this is a contractual requirement. Equally naturally, Squad won't feel hosting their stuff on Dropbox or Mega would be very professional.

Though it may be legally possible for Squad to in future mandate that third-party mods be hosted exclusively on Curse, I think - or at least hope - they recognise the backlash that would cause. Not to mention suing your mod-makers, which they'd have to do to enforce any such policy, would be business stupidity.

Personally I object to them being called "soccer balls". America might call them that but the rest of the world knows them as footballs

[Guest]

Though it may be legally possible for Squad to in future mandate that third-party mods be hosted exclusively on Curse,

I can't see how that could possibly hold up in any court.

Personally I object to them being called "soccer balls". America might call them that but the rest of the world knows them as footballs

As a US citizen I completely agree with you. Of course we'd then have to rename my favorite sport, but I'm okay with that.

[Duke23]

I kind of get the whole "modders don't want to upload to Curse for X reason" but you can't download something from there? Squad has a partnership with them, why would they host it anywhere else besides maybe the official KSP site? I'm not trying to be an a-hole but it is what it is and I personally don't understand why some people hate it *so* much. For the record I'm indifferent about the partnership, I rarely use it (just like I rarely used Spaceport) and prefer direct links in the mod's thread. Curse isn't exactly my favorite host but it's still better than Spaceport. Then again, the "I'm feeling lucky" button on Google was better than Spaceport.

[cantab]

I can't see how that could possibly hold up in any court.

I'm not a lawyer, but I believe there's two main approaches a software developer might use to restrict the distribution of mods of their software. The first is to claim the mod is a derivative work, and thus as the copyright holder of the original work they have considerable power to restrict the distribution of the derivative. I don't know if there's any case law on whether a mod is considered a derivative work though. The second would be to claim the restrictions are part of the contract, ie the EULA. That might be less likely to hold up since contractual terms can be deemed unfair or otherwise void by a court, but then again I suspect that an outright ban on modmaking and mod distribution would be upheld, and that's more restrictive than an only-through-official-channels rules. Again, no idea if there's been any similar cases in the past.

/armchairlawyering

[AmpsterMan]

Okay fellas, I would like to put out this smaller fire early. Please let us not start discussing hypothetical legal matters over hypothetical scenarios in this thread. As much as I enjoy that type of conversation (I work i a law firm) this is neither the time nor place. Thank you.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Soccer balls? Soccer? What is "soccer"?

I certainly can download from Curse as I couldn't care less about them, never used them. But my point is, after all the (legitimate) complaints and (ridiculous) winning about Curse, and Squad saying it was optional, I find it odd (from the player's POV. Business is business of course) that they just released a mod pack only available through Curse and no other place to download.

I don't want to use the word "lie", but... "candy coated" maybe when they announced they were going with Curse.

[Specialist290]

After taking a closer look at the overview page for the official mod itself, I've noticed that it's listed as licensed to the public domain. That means (based on my own understanding of the term) that users are free to tinker with it, incorporate it into their own mods, or reupload it to any mod database they wish to. Chances are, it'll be available at places other than the Curse site within the hour, though don't take that as a guarantee.

Feel free to continue any further discussion of the mod in the official discussion thread we've set up for the purpose

[Rowsdower]

Soccer balls? Soccer? What is "soccer"?

I certainly can download from Curse as I couldn't care less about them, never used them. But my point is, after all the (legitimate) complaints and (ridiculous) winning about Curse, and Squad saying it was optional, I find it odd (from the player's POV. Business is business of course) that they just released a mod pack only available through Curse and no other place to download.

I don't want to use the word "lie", but... "candy coated" maybe when they announced they were going with Curse.

Because futbol americano still has a following down at Squad HQ, it's easier to use soccer than football, despite it being more familiar globally. I, myself, can go between soccer and football with the same meaning quite often.

It *is* optional, but as I've stated elsewhere, it depends on the mod dev. With Curse being our official partner it's what makes the most sense. That said, you might want to take a look at the license...