US courts. So all this argument is is an exercise in parochialism.

This falls under the fourth consideration, whether or not the use of material in question has resulted in lost sales.

For my part, I don’t think I’ll even uninstall Crusader Kings 2 (unless there is a clearly superior sequel).

In 100 years, I look forward to mind-commenting from my brain tank how your predictions were woefully short-sighted.

“A) how they reasonably expected future modders to do for free what their group said was too time consuming and expensive to do themselves;”

The same could be said over Bethesda, which itself leaves games in a state where modders are relied upon to fix bugs.

“It’s worse if you create an autonomous process to add in the audio, because then they’re using a tool you designed and controlled to infringe the copyright. That’s vicarious infringement.”

Courts have already ruled that copyrighted content may be modified by the consumer, such as in Nintendo’s case against the makers…

Precedent indicates personal use of lawfully acquired content is covered under fair use. This falls under the fourth consideration, whether or not the use of material in question has resulted in lost sales.

In this project, they may indeed have chosen to recreate Fallout 3. That would be unfortunate for them, since they have the means to depend on existing Fallout 3 content.

In terms of my suggestions, the files would simply be ported.

I could, but no lawyer in their right mind would encourage behavior that even slightly appeared to violate licensing agreements.

Morroblivion wasn’t shut down. It is no longer being updated in favor of Skyrim, but you can still get it from the team website:

Bethesda owns the Fallout 3 script and most other content within the game (notable exceptions being voice work & licensed music). We can delve into the various permissions that Bethesda provides users, but their behavior (the article states “has generally looked the other way on unofficial mods that remix its games”)…

U.S. courts have already ruled that “a party who distributes a copyrighted work cannot dictate how that work is to be enjoyed. Consumers may use ... [copyrighted works] in such a way as to make the experience more enjoyable.”

The first option, btw, would be in anticipation that other modders would redo the voice work. Blank audio files are required anyways, and there is no way these modders can prevent others from further modification using copyrighted content.

“That right there is the problem. Longevity means more revenue for Bethesda with Fallout 4 means the voice actors who never licensed their work for that game to begin with see Bethesda making money with their property without getting a slice of the cake.”

Does it though? I believe it will encourage Fallout 3 sales,…

... there is no hope for our country.

?

Anyone who owns Fallout 3 can use content from those games in a personal manner as they see fit. They of course are not allowed to redistribute it. But should they decide to use Three Dog audio files from their Fallout 3 copy as a radio DJ in their own personal Fallout 4 mod, there is no infringement occurring.

In…

I’m not advocating distribution. I’m advocating tools that can automate making audio available between two products the user owns. These already exist, only not in a manner specific to this mod & which require some painstaking manual effort.

“Contributory copyright infringement.”

“In other words, the voice actors could come after the project because they’d want to get paid for having their voice used in something that they get permission in the original contract / licensing agreement.”

I don’t believe that to be the case, if they are only providing a tool to convert a Fallout 3 BSA to a Fallout…