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Let's just go through the extreme logical end to a "permissions" fight.

  • ModAuthor does not give permission.
  • PackDistributer distributes mod without permission.
  • ModAuthor DMCAs PackDistributer's webhost, webhost takes down content.
  • PackDistributer counters DMCA, because fuck everyone.
  • PackDistributer is still now distributing ModAuthor's mod without permission.

Here's where things start to get stupid.

  • Lawyers get paid massive sums from those vast amounts of money that mod authors and pack distributors make. (Yeah. Sure.)
  • Lawyers lawyer, spending money, until finally a court date occurs.
  • Judge takes one look at both sides, asks exactly how much money they're making off of this legal/illegal content, discovers amount is roughly $0, makes monetary judgement of $0 in favor of ModAuthor and/or PackDistributor (depending on how they interpret the Minecraft EULA).
  • ModAuthor and PackDistributer are now bankrupt because lawyers cost money they never actually had.

"Permissions" restrictions are only worth the legal might behind them. Until someone's actually willing to go to court over a free mod they essentially lose money on developing in their free time as a hobby, permissions mean nothing.

And that's all assuming they're both US-based entities. If we're discussing international conflict that's a whole hell of a lot messier.

There's also the legal quagmire of most of these mod authors fucking up their EULA agreements so that they're not actually legally binding and probably wouldn't even end up being material to the case in question.

(I've often fantasized about diving back in to Java and making a mod, just so I could slip some obscure agreement into a correctly-done legally-binding EULA that says something along the lines of "the author of GregTech and any mod author that professes to deny permission to distribute/modify any Minecraft-based work they've produced may not download or use this mod", and then just have code inside it that monitors for known authors who would be in violation of that EULA using the mod in question.)

/r/feedthebeast Thread Link - minecraftforum.net