Important Notice...UKF have recently stopped public modding for various reasons. Well RKSL may also stop public releases too, but for a different cause. A situation has arisen that will prevent us from releasing any more models. It seems someone has been MLODing (converted to an editable format) our Lynx and Puma Helicopter models handing them out to anyone and everyone. I know who that was. To go further than that someone, I don't know if its the same person, has then been selling our models on various 3D model sites making a profit from our work. This presents a problem because the models used by RKSL are nearly all made by me for commercial ie Non ArmA or VBS2 purposes. In 95% of the models I am contractually obliged not to make the editable formats available for public use. Now, while it wasn't me that tried to sell the 3DS and Maya versions of the models I would still legally be liable since I chose to use derivatives of these models for public ArmA addons. As such we can no longer use the models I had planned to use for ArmA/ArmA2. I make part of my living making 3D models for simulations and I cant afford to jeopardise my business if people in the ArmA community are going to exploit my goodwill. The current situation in the community is not one I particularly like. Its been going on for years but the theft of my IP isn't something neither I or my business can tolerate. What happens now? Internally for RKSL; business as usual. After discussions with both UNN and VXR we will release updates for the currently released Lynx and Puma addons. And we will release new versions of the cargo system and a new addon that applies the RKSL Flare system to all BIS and ACE aircraft. After the next updates I'm not sure. We wont be releasing any new models soon. I don't know if that will change in future. A lot depends on which direction the community heads. We will continue to make addons for our own enjoyment and that of our trusted friends. We may even switch to the VBS2 community all this has happened so quickly we're still undecided. I suppose the best way to think of this is an "operational pause". We are going to sit on the sidelines for a while to see what, if anything changes in the community's attitude. We are watching, with great interest a new Community led project suggested by Foxhound, I44_John and Deadeye to ensure that theft isn't swept under the carpet as it has been in the past. I just want to say that I am genuinely sorry to disappoint anyone. I know it may sound petty to some, or what has happened is just the risk you take making addons. But I cannot jeopardise the business that pays my mortgage. The BackstoryWhy should i tell you this? Well frankly I'm pretty damn angry and I feel that other addons makers should know what has happened to me. Just like PUKF I'm sick of people taking the piss and stealing my work. A lot of mods and good addonmakers have been drivenout of the community by theives and unless something changes it will continue to happen. I don't think the current method of deleting threads and ignoring the problem is the right way to deal with theft in the community. The truth needs to be seen. So here are the facts of my situation as I know it: Immediately after our Christmas release I was contacted by 3 separate people telling me that Frandsen/Raven DK had MLOD'ed the helicopter to get back at me for outing him about trading other people's addons. He had been trying to trade other people's private BETAs for access to our unreleased addons. I've had various confirmations of this from existing RKSL Team members and former Beta testers. He's threatened or more correctly implied he would get his revenge on the old RKSL forums (which are just shut down not erased) and via the new site's comment system. At his point I should also stress that while I know he was passing out MLOD versions of our models and had made repeated threats to do so again in future I don't know that he has a hand in what happened next. Two weeks ago I got an email from a former customer suggesting I take a look at a website selling 3d Models. I came across my Lynx AH7 model. I started looking around at other sites and found both the Lynx and Puma offered at prices ranging form $100 to $400. At this point I contacted the sites hosting them and informed them they were selling "stolen goods". The Police became involved at that point - it was the only way several of the sites would take the content down. All the models have now been taken down and the accounts on those sites suspended. After the last week talking with the Police and since the "damage" has now been limited this incident is now closed. But if the person or persons that did this are reading this I hope you are happy. I hope you don't see a penny from the sale of those models. And I hope you realise you are helping destroy this community. So the future?I don't know. This entire situation has de-motivated me completely. We're still discussing what to do within the team and no really solid decision has been made. But its hard to continue when you can't trust that your hard work will be respected. Some will ask "can't you just remake the models?" Yes we could. But the time required to remake all the mature models we have would mean we'd be releasing them when ArmA 5 comes out. And honestly right now I don't want to make addons if I know someone is going just steal them to sell. Again being honest I really am so disappointed with what's happened I am not sure I want to continue modding in this community anymore. It really upsets me to say that, especially when we've had such fantastic support from various people in the community and we wouldn't have continued this long without them. Regardless of what happens next I'd like to say a big thank you to: - UNN and VXR - best team mates and friends you can find.
- Foxhound and the ArmAholic guys - especially Foxhound for paying for such a great community resource out of his own pocket.
- PUKF guys - Chris, Dan/Messiah, Jeff and all the others.
- Dkraver - never to be confused with Frandsen - for all the vocal support.
- Everyone who posted, emailed and shouted support.
There are so many others that I just cant name. Again I am so very sorry its come to this. All the best Rock
22 April 2009 IF you want to ask questions please do it on the RKSL forums. | 
Comments
i hope that day comes soon..i wa sooooooooo looking forward to your harrier and apache =[
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oh how a wish we could ..some one must know
Might be better to wait for the weekend, hopefully we will have an update for the Cargo System that will fix some A.C.E compatibility problems, other general bugs, add some extra features and perhaps make life a little easier for mission makers.
We will continue to support and develop the addons we've already released, and perhaps if BIS allow for encrypted pbo's, be back with a vengeance at a later date.
Go for it mate. You dont need to ask permission to use the addons in a mission - just if you are going to edit the addon itself.
This pisses me off. I was just getting on today to ask if our server could put your cargo system in some missions on our server. But, fuck it. I'll come back later when I'm not so pissed.
All thieves should hang.
To stick with the stolen car analogy. It's more like a percentage of the street cheering on the thieves, another percentage saying it's his own fault for having a car. Yet another percentage, not saying anything and the rest offering their support.
and we as a community should try to stop this happening
All i can say is i hope you can find some way of still creating for Arma,Arma2, as no addons i've seen come close to your attention to detail
As I said in the reply to Obmar. If someone comes up with a way to secure the model I'd love to continue. I've asked a few knowledgeable people about it and had some limited success but sadly I don't think it will be enough to satisfy the legal issues. But the prospect of remaking all the models, UV mapping and texturing them again isn't one I can face right now.
As for payment/donations that's definitely forbidden by the BIS Eula. I was going to approach BIS about the OK for a donation box for Help for Heroes just to make sure its "legal" from their point of view. I'm happy with the idea of people using the addons for free providing they don't profit from them but i thought if someone wanted to show their appreciation they could donate to a charity on our behalf. We'll maybe do that if we can return to public modding in the future.
Im not trashing the community in general i'm describing that portion of it that breaches the EULAs and terms of release stated by the creators of the Mods. You are reading too much into what i have said.
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Apologies for choping and rearranging your post but the answer is the same no matter how the question is phrased.
No one's models are open source unless you state that you freely give them as such. BIS made a very clear statement about the rights of the addon maker in their forums sometime ago. Nowhere in BIS' eula does it mention open source. If you want to freely allow the modification and distribution of the content you make its up to you. But its not how we work as stated in all our EULAs and readmes.
The models were created for commercial purposes in 3DS Max and other tools, the contracts negotiated so that I could exploit the models for the use in "public non commercial applications where the content is in an encoded non editable formats." (which binarised P3D is considered as)
Now as Dyslexic has already pointed out I have been perhaps overly idealistic. I had, wrongly assumed that people would appreciate the effort I've gone to give them quality models. Doing it this way meant everyone won. I got my mortgage paid and the ArmA community got some decent British kit. I freely admit i didn't foresee someone attempting to sell them. Edit them without permission, include them in "their" mod yes but not sell them.
This is where it became a problem. When an employee of my biggest single customer emails me to tell me my models are up for sale. Then his Boss formally writes to me saying in very nice legal language "we are concerned about the integrity of our contract" given that he found various models for sale where they expressly shouldn't be then I'm forced to do something. Now my customer have bought some 41 models under our standard contract. 1 of which was released the basic Puma. They gave me a very nice but still very legal warning at that with a clear statement of their position. The other 40 models they bought are all key to my current Project list. Given their concerns and the clear intent to sue if another accidental release in "publically available editable format" were to occur what am i to do?
And besides, how would you feel if someone that you generously provided MLODs to start selling your work?
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There is difference between poking around to see how someone did something to taking their models and selling them.
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Here's the thing, with one exception we've never turned down a reasonable request. You've received help from us as have a lot of other people. We've been very honest and open that we don't want people editing our stuff. But if they wanted help or want to know how we did something we've always helped. We've even offered to go out of our to make specific versions for people.
What I am trying to say my friend is that if someone steals your car do not damn your neighbors and destroy your house. No law stops theft… it only punishes it.
What I am saying my friend is that I am taking steps so that no one else steals my car. A car which I rely on to feed and house my family. If that means i have to park it out of sight then i have the right to do that.
As I have repeatedly said both in the original post and to the various people that have taken the time to either email, post, IM or phone me. I am really sorry that I've had to take this course of action. Given the situation I've been forced into a corner and been left only one route out.
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Oh my god you are a conspiracy theorist! You know after some people's posts today I wish id lied just saying my PC blew up and I cant be arsed to buy another one. I have been as open and honest about this as I could be. I've not hidden anything and believe me I have no other motive than wanting to preserve my business.
If someone came up with a way that I wouldn't get my ass sued off and I could release our addons to the community I would do it. If you aren't willing to take my word, talk to Foxhound, DM or any of the other 30 or so people that I've spoken to about this today. They will tell you the same thing ive been saying all along "i really didn't want to do this but ive had no choice." Short of remaking every model, UV and texture set in our catlog this was the only option I've been left with.
I know several people have floated the idea that PUKF have withdrawn form the community to carry out more VBS2 contracts but that really isn't what's happened. And I can tell you I don't have any VBS contracts outstanding either.
I however don’t understand why you would thrash the community and completely halt the development of your mod due to the above mentioned problem. I for one have held you guys up to good standing within the community and even had some serious help with a script from your member UNN.
Don’t misunderstand me, I do not agree with theft or even the selling of opensource content without author approval… but that does not give you the right to trash the community like we are some sort of a hooligan gathering.
Firstly that modding is considered a sort of a hobby and that all the content is considered opensource. We all do it as a pastime and for the love of it. So we are bound to have this type of occurrence happen. There are thieves everywhere and the net is no exception. So theft is bound to happen. That is the risk we all take making our work public especially opensource work.
If we are going to discuss theft and ripping off other people’s work, then we are all guilty, one way or another. I for one have looked at other people’s models, configs, scripts etc. and have copied them or used them to learn from through the years. So don’t tell me you have not done the same.
I have had similar problems to you, but I have realized that everybody wants to mod an add-on for their own purpose or mod needs. So to stop that kind off occurrence. If I am asked for the models, I send them my MLOD models on the condition that they mention our mod as the authors. This way everybody is happy.
I also don’t know why you would and I quote “In 95% of the models I am contractually obliged not to make the editable formats available for public use.” Release these models as ArmA opensource .p3d models. That does not make sense.
What I am trying to say my friend is that if someone steals your car do not damn your neighbors and destroy your house. No law stops theft… it only punishes it.
SO HERE IS MY 2 CENTS WORTH…
You have come this far and put a lot of effort into your mod If you say you are a community member like you say you are then show us by continuing your good work. I will also add that if you do not continue it’s for other reasons that you have not mentioned and are only using this one as an excuse…
I kind of agree with Dslyecxi, not as a whole..But maby we shouldnt jeopordize our "civilian" life to easy..
Ive been watching RKSL from OFP and loved your work ever since the start, now, hmm..I still love it, but
ArmA without RKSL, thats a shame...
Hope you figure out a way to keep working for us honest gamers, maby its time for serious creators
to start selling their work instead of givin it away fro free. I tried to give a donation for OGN and their
Australian map, but they refused. This will be a loss for ArmA as a game that for sure...
I had expected people to continue doing what they have being doing ripping off other people's addons to make their "own" versions but i hadn't expected someone to start trying to sell them. And that's where the issue arises and firmly sits.
I think you actually have to make addons to really appreciate situations like this. I know a lot of others think the same way I do.
As for the community, well we sit at opposite sides on that one. I think its an indicator of something wrong with it that its been allowed to go on for so long. Its been happening for years and all that ever happened was someone swept it under a rug, locked the topic and wandered off. Recent years have seen a few people stand up and complain only for them to either be shouted down or ignored. Things need to change.
Ignoring the situation isnt going to fix things.
So, yeah. Sounds like the inevitable has happened. I don't think it damns the community, though. Far from it.
Wow. I don't know what to say to that.
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