Ray writes...

People do make money with there (stolen) mods.
Decide for yourself, im not gonna stop you but I think that
decompiling or stealing assets is wrong.

I respect your opinion and stand by mine. We agree to disagree on this.

Tally writes...

"“PROGRAM” INCLUDES THE SOFTWARE INCLUDED WITH THIS AGREEMENT..."
Source: http://store.activision.com/store/atvi/en_US/Content/pbPage.eula_black_ops?resid=UBWAjgoBAlYAAAYxxpUAAABo&rests=1343586446054 or license.txt in the CoD4 Docs folder or the CoD4 manual.

They never say Program, nor software, refers only to the game executable.

Furthermore, if Program did refer to game executable... there are two of them (MP + SP) and they used a singular noun to describe them, so the EULA only applies to one (1) of game executables?

paulix90 writes...

That's rubbish. Activision owns the xanims found in Black Ops. If I then get them to work in COD4, which Activision also owns, I am only making one thing that Activision owns work in another program that Activision owns. How can I be "stealing" something which Activision already owns? No copyright is being infringed here. Activision has copyright over both games and all its assets.

BTW - Please link me to a modder who is making money out of modding. I have been in the game for 9 years, and never seen anyone make money out of selling them. If you can't, or wont, link me to someone doing it, then it didn't happen.

SparkyMcSparks writes...

Program = software
Software = executables.

As to the use of the singular "program" to refer to both executables, you answered your own objection by pointing out that "Program refers to ALL Software included with this game". That is, it refers to both executables. Legal documents often use a single word to refer to multiple/plural things.

But above all, you are missing the main point: the EULA has a purpose: to stop COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION. That isn't just its main purpose, it is is SOLE purpose. It isn't designed to be used by killjoys to stop people having a bit of fun.

No one is infringing copyright here; no one is making any money out of these mods. If we didn't do this backward porting of game assets from the latest COD games, modding in the community would dry up completely. At the moment it is the only thing that is keeping things going. If you want to see modding stop dead, then please go ahead: wage war on those of us who are just trying to have a bit of fun without hurting anyone. Not Activision; not Infinity Ward; not Treyarch; and certainly not you. Just turn it in.

Tally writes...

Yes, activision indeed has the copyright over both games.

You dont.

This means, you have no right to copy the xanims from codx to cody, no matter how hard you try.

Of course, as long as you have a license for both games and dont distribute the files, its ok (heck, the copying of the xanim from codx to cody is even legal if you have an illegal copy of cody, though the install of cody is illegal then)

Most players connecting to your modified server however (cody server) will not have the codx license and thus you will be distributing a copyrighted work.

Not that I care btw.

I made the exporter for the modding community, no other motive.

I also don't allow people to upload exported model assets from my XMU's for people to download on my modding site so that then only people that own the game can use the assets in another version of cod.

I will also release xAnim extraction from fastfiles along with xmodel export from fastfiles soon.

Just finishing up my BO sound converter that creates sounds that work for BO mods, both streamed and no streamed sounds as well as converting BO wav's directly to 16-bit PCM wav's.

<- win smiley

IzNoGoD writes...

I don't agree with that, and I also know you don't either. Because if you did, you would not have ported all those COD4 assets over into your Modern Weapons mod for COD2, would you?

Anyway, I'm done with the discussion. As I see it, at the moment, tools like this new one that Tom has done is keeping a DYING community of modders interested enough for us to inject a bit more longevity into the community. That's because the majority of activity in COD modding at the moment is making assets from games like Black Ops, MW2, or MW3 work in COD4 or COD2. So, without tools like this, the community will die even quicker than it already is. I don't want to see that. I want to see the community live on as long as it can.

BTW - we created a "decompiler" of COD assets back in 2005/2006 when the first IWI2DDS converter was made. Neither Grant Collier nor Jason West had a problem with that little program because in a conversation I had with Grant and Jason, I asked if they could make a similar "official" one for COD4. Jason replied that we had done a great job with the COD2 one, so we should just make another one for COD4 - which we did! So, the developers don't have a problem with decompilers when used in the spirit of modding - which is non-commercial and non-exploitative. To me, that speaks volumes about just what the legal big-wigs at Activision would say: "Oh, go right ahead! As long as you don't make money out of it, and don't exploit the game in anyway, we're fine with you all having a bit of fun".

OK. I think we're done here, people have had their say on the matter. Topic closed.