With the Feed The Beast Launcher now getting to the point where the distribution of mods is getting close to stable; we are ready to move onto the next stage of our plans for the launcher. From day one, we planned to have the launcher useable not just by the FTB Mod Packs, but also by the community. Over time we want to enable server admins and other people to create their own mod packs, and provide them with the infrastructure to distribute and install these mods for their communities in a safe and secure manner.
With this in mind; we expect these packs to adhere to the same standards that we have for ourselves. Specifically mod packs must have full consent for each and every mod included. However I do not wish to swamp Mod Developers with requests for consent to distribute. My plan to alieviate this is the Central Permissions Repository. This central repository will be hosted on the Feed the Beast website. Mod pack developers can draw on this database when creating a pack, secure in the knowledge that these mods are pre-approved for distribution.
I would ask that any mod developer that is willing to add their mod to this repository join the website at:
Please leave the details of your mod, along with any conditions you wish to add with regards to distribution (this may incude limiting the use of which mods may be distributed alongside your mod, or how far your permissions extend). From this, your mod will then be added onto the Central Permissions List, which mod pack makers can use. Please do not post anything in the thread that is not related to mod pack permissions.
Hey there, you will get absolutely no flak from me with regards to this point. I consider this to be a perfectly legitimate question. So to answer it, can I say that in the design of the code I had very specific guidelines laid down to the team with regards to this. We have actually gone several steps beyond what you are asking for.
So as to what you ask for, we are looking at number 3 being our answer. Our launcher connects directly to the mojang servers.
(the relevent information for those that understand it is here.) https://github.com/S...oginWorker.java
and this is called by https://github.com/S...aunchFrame.java
(on line 347, to show that the information is only stored locally)
However we know that 99% of people will not understand what they are looking at. So in between the beta and going live, the entire code will be checked and analysed By Lex Manos from Forge. He has been asked to verify that the code is safe and free from anything nasty. He will then provide the launcher with a digital signature, verifying this.
Furthermore whilst the launcher is custom built, it is an entirely open source piece of software. It is free for anyone to download and check that there is nothing malicious contained within. Extending on from this, The Launcher does not just cater to FTB packs and maps but also to third party packs, maps and texture packs. Every single one of these will be verified in house and checked for potential problems. Does this mean we will guarantee the integrity of the pack, this is a different manner as I am not sure if that is even possible. However I can promise you that every effort has been and will continue to be made to ensure the security of your accounts and your PC's.
Hopefully this will help to answer some of the questions you may have.
Hopefully there is someone around who can help with an issue, when logging in for the first time and each time one sleeps, rei's minimap is outputting a message that contains the entire ip address for the server. Is there any way to disable this from happening as it is a serious inconvenience for youtube videos.
Progress? The launcher is currently being written. The forums are being finished off and about 3 of the 30 plus mods that are in the pack are updated to 1.3.2. So yeah the launcher needs to be finished off. Around 30 mods still need to be updated. Then they all need to be updated to bukkit ports. After that we then need to get them all together and working correctly. Set up the server side, organise the texture packs etc etc.
So over the last few days and weeks there has been a lot of comments made about mod packs, the pack we are producing and the obvious comparison to technic and tekkit. My own personal feelings are reasonably public as to those packs. However I am endlessly reading statements from players on both sides which contain inaccurate statements. This post is mainly going to be focused on clearing up some of those innaccuracies. So if anyone reads stuff in the future from people who dont really have a clue whats going on, maybe you can point them towards this.
Before I start, I would like to make absolutely clear that I do not speak for any mod maker in this. These are my own personal observations and parts of them may be inaccurate. Feel free to correct me IF you can provide a substantive source for your correction.
OK lets start with the first most obvious question. Is technic and tekkit legal.
I am not a legal expert by any means and I have had different people tell me different things. However I have always sought to find out for myself what the truth is. In this regard, it boils down to something called derivative copyright. I have tried looking up information on this and the only real semi reliable posting I have found is on the unreal wiki
Whether the copyright is valid seems to be decided on whether or not Mojang implicitly gives permissions for modder to actually mod minecraft. The Minecraft terms and conditions are slightly shaky on this, but overall it appears yes it does. As referenced under the what you can do rule of the terms and conditions
So unless someone can show me otherwise, I have to believe that modders hold a derivative copywrite on their work and that includes
the exclusive right to reproduction,
the exclusive right to derivative works,
the exclusive right to distribution and
the exclusive right to public performance and display.
In the case of Mod Packs, the important part obviously is the exclusive right to distribution.
So now we have this information, are technic and tekkit legal. Well again I havent just taken other peoples words for this. I have literally gone through every single mod in the mod pack and in the cases where general permissions for inclusion in mod packs isnt given in the respective threads, I have approached the actual mod authors for their views. So the answer to the question is No they do not have a full set of permissions, however they are REALLY close to it. From the best of what I can gather, they are at most missing permissions for 3 maybe 4 mods. All the other mods in the pack either give general consents to all packs or the author doesnt care enough about technic or tekkit to say yes or no.
So what is the big huge problem. Well from my own personal point of view the legalities aside its down to pure respect. I want to very quickly reference something here.
This isnt hearsay or anything like that, these are Kakermix's own words. This is one mod maker very clearly stating in public that technic does not have consent to use the mod and yet they continue to do so. I see no possible valid excuse for this. Whether or not it is legal, it is damn sure disrespectful to the creator. The following line from post number 65 is very informative
'I did not get permission from anyone and I didn't even bother asking. The Minecraft modding community is terrible and the egos some of the modders themselves have is incredibly terrible. I simply made this pack because I love these mods and want other people to experience them as well with as little work on their part as possible.'
And yet just 3 posts earlier we see a post that contains the line
'Nobody knows that we are friends with Eloraam, or that Ablaka was the first to give us permission, or that Xenophobe has always been thankful for us, or that Technic and the Yogscast is directly responsible for Thaumcraft being created.'
They are right in one thing nobody does know any of the information in that sentence, because quite frankly (and yes I have spoken directly to the Mod Authors) that sentence belongs in the Fiction Section of the local library.
Now having said all this, there are a few other things that I believe need to be made clear. Technic and Tekkit are really good ideas, there was a time a while back Where some of the modders tried to talk to the guys behind technicpack to resolve the issues. Attempts were made and they got nowhere. At the time this was no huge surprise because they still had one major hurdle to get over and that was the policies of Risugami with regards to the re-distribution of ModLoader. I have no idea if Technic had consent. However I can tell you that the response that we were given is that it is or was Risu's policy that you could re-distribute ModLoader as long as you did not ask permission to re-distribute it. As soon as you asked for permission, those implied permissions were revoked (unless you happened to catch Risu on a good day. I do know a couple of people who were given permission.) This was fine but this information wasnt conveyed anywhere. This meant that pretty much all mod packs that used launchers were breaking at the very least the minecraft forum rules which state that you have to have clear written permissions to promote your pack on the minecraft forums.
Getting back to the point. Technic and Tekkit as a pack are good idea's they are just implemented by people who generally dont care about the makers of the mods. They hide behind the line of 'We dont advertise permissions because it is pointless and if you dont believe us then well whatever.' This however does not apply to the users of the Techniclauncher. At the end of the day they just want the same thing as everyone else in this thread. An easy way to play Minecraft with mods without having to mess around. Further, when they play on servers, they want to be able to just give their friends a link say run this and let go screw around on a server. Thats what technic and tekkit provide and until now they have never really had anything serious in the way of competition. But we are not out to Get technic or have them burn in the fires of hell. We are just here to provide an alternative. Primarily I built a mod pack so people could easily play my maps. Now the mod pack is there so people can just enjoy playing minecraft the way I like to play it.
Before I finish off there is one other important point I would like to make here. Maybe correcting the biggest misconception there is with regards to the users of Technic and Tekkit. and that is adfly links. The reason mod makers dont want to see their mods in technic and tekkit is not because of some obscure belief that they want to protect and preserve the incomes they derive from these links. Whilst those incomes are helpful to some, it is not the be all and end all. However I can tell everyone this which should hopefully prove this point. I have spoken to a lot of the mod makers that are included in the FTB pack. Not just over the last week, but over the last several months. In that entire time with only one exception, every modmaker has not only granted me permission to use the mods in the mod pack but a lot of them have also been completely supportive in actually helping to add features needed.
My assumption is that if what the technic people say has been true all along, then they would be in full support of this mod pack and what we are trying to achieve. After all we all want the same thing, we are just going about it in different ways.
Anyways this is already FAR to long. However I hope it is slightly informative to at least a few people.
Just for the purposes of clarification with regards to the inclusion of various mods and updates. My intention is to release the initial pack once it has enough mods for it to be viable to actually release it as a mod pack. In other words. if 3-4 of the mods are lagging behind for whatever reason. I can and will still release the pack and add further mods in later.
As to updates, my intention is to make this pack the most up to date pack possible. In other words expect regular updates oh and of course it will have an auto update feature.
4
20
With this in mind; we expect these packs to adhere to the same standards that we have for ourselves. Specifically mod packs must have full consent for each and every mod included. However I do not wish to swamp Mod Developers with requests for consent to distribute. My plan to alieviate this is the Central Permissions Repository. This central repository will be hosted on the Feed the Beast website. Mod pack developers can draw on this database when creating a pack, secure in the knowledge that these mods are pre-approved for distribution.
I would ask that any mod developer that is willing to add their mod to this repository join the website at:
http://www.feed-the-beast.com
and then go to this thread:
http://forum.feed-th...y-mod-packs.48/
Please leave the details of your mod, along with any conditions you wish to add with regards to distribution (this may incude limiting the use of which mods may be distributed alongside your mod, or how far your permissions extend). From this, your mod will then be added onto the Central Permissions List, which mod pack makers can use. Please do not post anything in the thread that is not related to mod pack permissions.
2
6
So as to what you ask for, we are looking at number 3 being our answer. Our launcher connects directly to the mojang servers.
(the relevent information for those that understand it is here.)
https://github.com/S...oginWorker.java
and this is called by
https://github.com/S...aunchFrame.java
(on line 347, to show that the information is only stored locally)
However we know that 99% of people will not understand what they are looking at. So in between the beta and going live, the entire code will be checked and analysed By Lex Manos from Forge. He has been asked to verify that the code is safe and free from anything nasty. He will then provide the launcher with a digital signature, verifying this.
Furthermore whilst the launcher is custom built, it is an entirely open source piece of software. It is free for anyone to download and check that there is nothing malicious contained within. Extending on from this, The Launcher does not just cater to FTB packs and maps but also to third party packs, maps and texture packs. Every single one of these will be verified in house and checked for potential problems. Does this mean we will guarantee the integrity of the pack, this is a different manner as I am not sure if that is even possible. However I can promise you that every effort has been and will continue to be made to ensure the security of your accounts and your PC's.
Hopefully this will help to answer some of the questions you may have.
0
Thanks.
0
http://www.feed-the-beast.com/forum/index.php
7
0
0
2
F.A.Q.
Q.: Can I include your mod in my modpack?
A.: I'm sorry, but no. Please do not PM me about it. The answer is still no.
So safe bet it wont be in the pack.
0
0
0
16
Before I start, I would like to make absolutely clear that I do not speak for any mod maker in this. These are my own personal observations and parts of them may be inaccurate. Feel free to correct me IF you can provide a substantive source for your correction.
OK lets start with the first most obvious question. Is technic and tekkit legal.
I am not a legal expert by any means and I have had different people tell me different things. However I have always sought to find out for myself what the truth is. In this regard, it boils down to something called derivative copyright. I have tried looking up information on this and the only real semi reliable posting I have found is on the unreal wiki
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:Mod_Copyright
Whether the copyright is valid seems to be decided on whether or not Mojang implicitly gives permissions for modder to actually mod minecraft. The Minecraft terms and conditions are slightly shaky on this, but overall it appears yes it does. As referenced under the what you can do rule of the terms and conditions
http://www.minecraft.net/terms
So unless someone can show me otherwise, I have to believe that modders hold a derivative copywrite on their work and that includes
the exclusive right to reproduction,
the exclusive right to derivative works,
the exclusive right to distribution and
the exclusive right to public performance and display.
In the case of Mod Packs, the important part obviously is the exclusive right to distribution.
So now we have this information, are technic and tekkit legal. Well again I havent just taken other peoples words for this. I have literally gone through every single mod in the mod pack and in the cases where general permissions for inclusion in mod packs isnt given in the respective threads, I have approached the actual mod authors for their views. So the answer to the question is No they do not have a full set of permissions, however they are REALLY close to it. From the best of what I can gather, they are at most missing permissions for 3 maybe 4 mods. All the other mods in the pack either give general consents to all packs or the author doesnt care enough about technic or tekkit to say yes or no.
So what is the big huge problem. Well from my own personal point of view the legalities aside its down to pure respect. I want to very quickly reference something here.
http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Thread&postID=28356#post28356
This isnt hearsay or anything like that, these are Kakermix's own words. This is one mod maker very clearly stating in public that technic does not have consent to use the mod and yet they continue to do so. I see no possible valid excuse for this. Whether or not it is legal, it is damn sure disrespectful to the creator. The following line from post number 65 is very informative
'I did not get permission from anyone and I didn't even bother asking. The Minecraft modding community is terrible and the egos some of the modders themselves have is incredibly terrible. I simply made this pack because I love these mods and want other people to experience them as well with as little work on their part as possible.'
And yet just 3 posts earlier we see a post that contains the line
'Nobody knows that we are friends with Eloraam, or that Ablaka was the first to give us permission, or that Xenophobe has always been thankful for us, or that Technic and the Yogscast is directly responsible for Thaumcraft being created.'
They are right in one thing nobody does know any of the information in that sentence, because quite frankly (and yes I have spoken directly to the Mod Authors) that sentence belongs in the Fiction Section of the local library.
Now having said all this, there are a few other things that I believe need to be made clear. Technic and Tekkit are really good ideas, there was a time a while back Where some of the modders tried to talk to the guys behind technicpack to resolve the issues. Attempts were made and they got nowhere. At the time this was no huge surprise because they still had one major hurdle to get over and that was the policies of Risugami with regards to the re-distribution of ModLoader. I have no idea if Technic had consent. However I can tell you that the response that we were given is that it is or was Risu's policy that you could re-distribute ModLoader as long as you did not ask permission to re-distribute it. As soon as you asked for permission, those implied permissions were revoked (unless you happened to catch Risu on a good day. I do know a couple of people who were given permission.) This was fine but this information wasnt conveyed anywhere. This meant that pretty much all mod packs that used launchers were breaking at the very least the minecraft forum rules which state that you have to have clear written permissions to promote your pack on the minecraft forums.
Getting back to the point. Technic and Tekkit as a pack are good idea's they are just implemented by people who generally dont care about the makers of the mods. They hide behind the line of 'We dont advertise permissions because it is pointless and if you dont believe us then well whatever.' This however does not apply to the users of the Techniclauncher. At the end of the day they just want the same thing as everyone else in this thread. An easy way to play Minecraft with mods without having to mess around. Further, when they play on servers, they want to be able to just give their friends a link say run this and let go screw around on a server. Thats what technic and tekkit provide and until now they have never really had anything serious in the way of competition. But we are not out to Get technic or have them burn in the fires of hell. We are just here to provide an alternative. Primarily I built a mod pack so people could easily play my maps. Now the mod pack is there so people can just enjoy playing minecraft the way I like to play it.
Before I finish off there is one other important point I would like to make here. Maybe correcting the biggest misconception there is with regards to the users of Technic and Tekkit. and that is adfly links. The reason mod makers dont want to see their mods in technic and tekkit is not because of some obscure belief that they want to protect and preserve the incomes they derive from these links. Whilst those incomes are helpful to some, it is not the be all and end all. However I can tell everyone this which should hopefully prove this point. I have spoken to a lot of the mod makers that are included in the FTB pack. Not just over the last week, but over the last several months. In that entire time with only one exception, every modmaker has not only granted me permission to use the mods in the mod pack but a lot of them have also been completely supportive in actually helping to add features needed.
My assumption is that if what the technic people say has been true all along, then they would be in full support of this mod pack and what we are trying to achieve. After all we all want the same thing, we are just going about it in different ways.
Anyways this is already FAR to long. However I hope it is slightly informative to at least a few people.
Slowpoke.
5
As to updates, my intention is to make this pack the most up to date pack possible. In other words expect regular updates oh and of course it will have an auto update feature.