Skin mod: Illegal?

[-Variant]

I don't want to be a fire starter, so please do hear me out.

While I do love the idea of DS having skins, I'd rather it be official. 
However, there is a mod that does just this, https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1618662390
A friend confronted them about this, and the replies were fair-ish? But in full honesty I want to know if Klei actually is okay with this or not, because this does violate a lot of Klei's rules and TOS.

 

Spoiler

Please do excuse me if this has been posted in the wrong area or if these kinds of posts aren't allowed, but I did want to bring this up.
 

[minespatch]

As someone who use to use the emote and skins mod for a short time period, I rather have users of both games to be able to use them both. This should be a luxury for both games(I'd probably play signle player more if skin waiting queues worked in single player as well).

[-Variant]

18 minutes ago, minespatch said:

As someone who use to use the emote and skins mod for a short time period, I rather have users of both games to be able to use them both. This should be a luxury for both games(I'd probably play signle player more if skin waiting queues worked in single player as well).

And here is where I'll agree! I think that as long as you Legally own the skins, you should be able to use them in both games. 

Like, if you have them in your Steam inventory, they should be accessible in DS.
And I think in this context, you might not even need DST to use skins in DS as long as you own the skin. But I'm not really a fan of the mods myself, (not saying they're bad, but not a fan) and they are breaking a lot of rules in the process...

[minespatch]

I think if the skin queue also applies to single player, this will help me get skins faster(I play together for myself not to get friends, but if someone wants to visit mine or their island I don't mind).

[-Variant]

Update: Want to grab these before they're deleted again.
 

Spoiler

 

[minespatch]

Quote

Okay, this is really them asking for Klei to shut them down.

[Donke60]

11 hours ago, minespatch said:

guys come on there obviously talking about wilbur

[PunkShark]

14 hours ago, Angel_Octoling said:

Update: Want to grab these before they're deleted again.
 

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Hah! i remember seeing the top one. What a response. 

For real though, something needs to happen. it always seemed fishy that these mods have existed for a while and doesn't seem quite right. ESPECIALLY for the fact that they remove anything about the law, or if its right or wrong. I remember i asked about it, then *poof* it was gone as it never existed. 

Scratch that top one i was talking about. It's actually another one but.... its not better. It's probably way worse.

[oCrapaCreeper]

Mod seems fine but the people behind it are sketchy as hell, and not just because I can't understand what they're saying.

[minespatch]

34 minutes ago, oCrapaCreeper said:

Mod seems fine but the people behind it are sketchy as hell, and not just because I can't understand what they're saying.

I'm on the same page as you. As someone who used to use this mod, I will unsubscribe from them. Such actions from modders is just rude.

I'll leave with this quote:

Quote

the rather obvious moral “Never look a gift lion in the mouth.” The point is that there are times where the arrival of a bunch of lions is good news, particularly in a fictional story where the lions are not real and so probably will not hurt you.

For these modders to just flip the bird at such kind developers leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

@JoeW

[minespatch]

[PunkShark]

21 hours ago, minespatch said:

Low and behold, the comment got deleted.

[SpoonyBardIV]

I don't see ANY problem with this mod. AT ALL. You want to know what I say to all these people complaining about the legal aspects of this mod? Maybe you need to pull the stick out of your *** and realize that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Not only is this mod not illegal (it would only be illegal if it were made for DST), but please for the love of Maxwell just BE QUIET and let others play the game how they wish. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean you need to ruin it for everyone who does.

[minespatch]

27 minutes ago, SpoonyBardIV said:

don't see ANY problem with this mod.

My problem is their attitude. They deleted my comment and basically have a bone to pick with klei... For some reason.

The mod itself was okay but it did get buggy at times due to the new Q.O.L. update.

[CarlZalph]

On 1/21/2019 at 9:14 PM, SpoonyBardIV said:

I don't see ANY problem with this mod. AT ALL. You want to know what I say to all these people complaining about the legal aspects of this mod? Maybe you need to pull the stick out of your *** and realize that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Not only is this mod not illegal (it would only be illegal if it were made for DST), but please for the love of Maxwell just BE QUIET and let others play the game how they wish. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean you need to ruin it for everyone who does.

The redistribution of copyrighted works without owning said copyright is an illegal act in many countries.  By publishing any mod onto Steam's workshop the publisher agrees to Steam's agreements which include a statement stating that the publisher owns all applicable copyrights or has prior permission to redistribute.

While the responsibility may lay on Klei's shoulders to take action against it, as they are the copyright owner, I think the users mainly making statements about it on the mod page are doing it in the "Beware you may get into trouble" aspect rather than "Do as I say".

It's only natural for others to warn others if they have a legitimate concern about incoming danger.  Compassion for others is where it stems from, and is nothing to be ashamed of.

 

This all being said, Klei is well aware of such mods and will probably continue to get people pointing them to these works.  They've yet to put a final word into it, but precedent suggests that these mods are fine as-is.

I won't comment on the ethics of the mod creators and how they manage and moderate their mod's comment section.  They're free to do what they want there however they want.

[Maxposting]

Eggstemely salty, deleted like 20 of my comments.

[avilmask]

I like the mod, but I also would prefer some "official" statement (or even support) considering situation. I also don't think it's illegal, really.

I'm not really surprised with that modder makes arrogant statements. It's actually quite common among modders that make very popular mods. Sometimes it leads to deletion of the mod (due to too much heat over it), or when modder breaks all his mods because someone somewhere disagreed with him in public (very interesting case was in Rimworld, where a modder replaced all graphical assets with LGBT symbolic).

Can't really express my opinion about it. That's people for you. Probably he's also very young and encouraged by donations, or something like that.

[Karmattack]

While I don't agree with the modder's behavior in the slightest, this kind of mod fills a niche Klei don't seem interested in filling themselves. 

 

[Pop Guy]

I do not think it's illegal, for several reasons: First, Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together are two different games, although for us fans they seem the same. But Steam sells them as two separate games, the Klei wanted it so, and such are.
So the content they are giving for Don't Starve is not going to undermine Don't Starve Together: if I unload the skins on Don't Starve I have no way of having them on Together and contrary. I will never show them to others in events, on other servers or even on my private server of Together.
Not only that: I have several skins. They are mine by right, I got them with the sweat of the forehead over many years playing Together at every event, making it known to friends and dedicating over a thousand hours. I will have the right to use those same skins in Don't Starve, right?
In fact, I will tell you more: it's all publicity for Klei. Because who does not know them, can to appreciate them, and maybe even to buy them on Together.
I mean, what are you worried, about guys?

[minespatch]

On 2/24/2019 at 3:21 PM, Pop Guy said:

I mean, what are you worried, about guys?

I just don't like their attitudes.

[watermelen671]

Okay, lemme throw my two cents into this flaming mess.

The skins are not made from decrypted .dyn files.

Now normally I WOULD pull up examples to prove my point, but...

Spoiler

Turns out I had actually already have all I need thanks to my obsessive nature with having all of Klei's animations.

If you take a closer look at these you'd find that these are just someone that used the magic wand tool to create.

Spoiler

 

Also! I'd like to point out that those rude comments were not made by the mod author.

That's the mod author, that other person was just a salty defender.

 

 

[Maxposting]

On 15. 3. 2019 at 6:54 PM, watermelen671 said:

 

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If you take a closer look at these you'd find that these are just someone that used the magic wand tool to create.

 

what the heck is that image?

[watermelen671]

4 hours ago, __IvoCZE__ said:

what the heck is that image?

It's an extremely poor quality image of Willow's Roseate glove.

[maradyne]

...that one ragey guy's comments sure were used a lot to hammer this mod down despite not being the author. Can't really translate the author's comments since the mod is gone now due to not being able to copy-paste into google translate, but they weren't posted nearly as much, so I'm assuming those weren't part of the rudeness 'problem'.

With that in mind, just going on the merits of the mod and none of the personal stuff:
I feel like I'd care more about the gray area of a mod like this if there was more version parity between DS and DST, and if the skin system worked between the two.
I own most of the skins in this game, and unless Klei does something absolutely silly to make me stop supporting them within the next few months, I'll own the remainder by the end of the character updates.
Simply switching from one version of the game to another locks out all of that content, while that version is clearly capable of supporting that content...seems logical to have a bridging method until official support comes through.

 

It doesn't help that this is a really grey subject, with that one skin listing topic being entirely based around .dyn rips (with a gray background, but still rips), modding being a thing, and there even being a community-made API for custom skins.

I'm not sure about Klei's stance on the above 'DO NOT USE' textures image, but I know for a fact that older versions have been ripped and used as the basis for character mods. It was pretty common back in Beta, actually. Heck, I still have an old character sheet, and getting the new ones is as simple as opening a file.

Not to mention unimplemented items being used as the basis for mods, or placeholders; some of those items also being implemented officially, later.

Big offender though? The Forge.
Before they came out as skins, some of the Forge weapons/items were added to the base game through modding to perform their actual functions from the Forge...now they also exist as skins, but function as basic weapons like the Spears. The Fire Staff from the Forge was added as a skin, but not with its functions from the gamemode, so the original Forge fire staff was also made into an item.
...does something unique unavailable in the base game, but also uses temporary content to do so. The items in question were regularly available items, but also skins; anything using those items is using exactly what's in the .dyn file for those skins, even if it didn't originate from the .dyn file, and making skins available without owning them.
The Forged Forge mod allows the use of, what, 15 item skins total without owning them? 16 if the fences get added. And the entire gamemode...but it's also a gamemode that doesn't exist more than (possibly) once a year otherwise.

 

If none of that is a problem, then it's troublesome figuring out where the 'line' is.