The Pay for Mods Program Already Showing Growing Pains as First Paid Mod Pulled

One of the first mods released on Steam’s new program for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim released on Thursday has been removed from sale.  There are claims that it contained the work of another modder.

The fishing animation mod developed by Chesko and aqqh contained assets from Fore’s New Idles In Skyrim.  Fore responded to a question in the Steam forums that they did not have permission and that making money with mods was against his attitude.  He said it was the end of the community.

Following this response Chesko and aqqh removed the mod from sale and responding that they had been under a non-disclosure agreement for over a month.  

They were unable to contact others. They had asked Valve about content that required other content, and they were told that as long as the download was separate and free it was okay.

Chesko’s response:

On Valve’s new Steam Workshop, the developer said that anyone who sees their content on sale from another person should issue a DMCA takedown immediately.

Modders are allowed to use someone else’s content in their mod provided they have approval first. There is even a revenue sharing option that allows creators to share portions of their revenue with someone else.

Valve did say that they should ask permission to use content from another modder:

If your creation builds on another mod or utilizes content from another mod, you should first ask permission.

With this new program already showing growing pains, everyone is just waiting and watching in anticipation for another hiccup in this program.  

Fore’s response to this program makes you wonder: will paid mods be an end to the creative modding community or something that will make it stronger and better funded?