Mods discussion, links, etc

[MicroWave]

Originally Posted by WWFlybert

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In USA, to sue you must show monetary damages, so while if anyone were to take 1C or UbiSoft copyright material and resell it without permission, 1C and Ubisoft would certainly be damaged .. if anyone were to distribute the core game and it's files, even for free, that would indeed be theft and damage 1C and Ubisoft

Mods as distributed, do not work without the player having a copy of IL-2 1946, presumably legally purchased .. if anything, an argument could be made that many more copies of IL-2 1946 have been sold because of mods, than if the game had not been cracked and modded
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I would just like to comment on this part. One could argue that mods are damaging 1C/UbiSoft profit because distribution of even new content for free in form of mods hurts sales of potential patches/addons with same or similar content. Furthermore, mods (could) negatively reflect on user perception of the official product by creating incompatibility between different versions, bugs unrelated to official product, etc. Finally, I'm pretty sure that re-distribution of software in whole or in parts without permission is illegal in good ol' USA too.

I just want to make clear that I think that those legal arguments are purely academic in context of Il2. I don't think that there is money left in Il2 worth more than a cup of coffee for everyone involved. Mods for Il2 are out there for quite some time. Most users understand what they bring in terms of content and risks. The situation is more complicated because Il2 was not designed to absorb mods while the game is still being officially developed. However, installation of Il2 is very simple and there are 3rd party tools which enable switching between different versions (including the official one). DT cannot guarantee that mods will work after new releases of the official product. I think this is understandable, because AFAIK different mods are not compatible between each other either.