Was there a Virus in one of RD's posted mods?

[Spinelli]

There was an AMS1 mod added yesterday in the AMS1 mods section here: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/rfactor-original-tracks-to-ams.265773/

You can still see the title and click on it and read the first post

Automobilista Mods

Forum to release game mods for AUTOMOBILISTA such as tracks, cars, skins, sounds and various other modifications. Upload your mods to our resource manager and an automatic thread will be created for discussion.

www.racedepartment.com

I went to reply to thank the author but I can't as the thread's been closed for discussion with no explanation anywhere to be seen.

I clicked on the mod's RD link in the thread's OP but that now takes me to an "Oops! We ran into some problems. The requested resource could not be found." page.

So does that mean the mod was removed? If so, does that mean it contains viruses? Is RD's website just glitching? Did the user remove it? What's going on?

 

[Benutzername]

It says "rFactor tracks converted to Automobilista". I'm pretty sure that this isn't allowed here and therefore was removed from a moderator.

You most certainly have nothing to worry about, but be more aware of what exactly you are downloading.

 

[Spinelli]

It says "rFactor tracks converted to Automobilista". I'm pretty sure that this isn't allowed here and therefore was removed from a moderator.

You most certainly have nothing to worry about, but be more aware of what exactly you are downloading.

Oh OK. Can an official RD member/employee confirm this since I already downloaded it and want to be sure?

Any reason why it's not allowed? Aren't tons and tons of mods converted between all ISI engine sims like F1C, RF1, GTL, GTR2, R07, etc. I've been downloading ISI engine games' mods for almost 20 years. Never heard of a conversion between 2 ISI engined games not being allowed. I also just downloaded RF1's famous GP79 mod for AMS1. RF never took that down or a ton of other RF1 -> AMS1 conversions.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Oh OK. Can an official RD member/employee confirm this since I already downloaded it and want to be sure?

Any reason why it's not allowed? Aren't tons and tons of mods converted between all ISI engine sims like F1C, RF1, GTL, GTR2, R07, etc. I've been downloading ISI engine games' mods for almost 20 years. Never heard of a conversion between 2 ISI engined games not being allowed. I also just downloaded RF1's famous GP79 mod for AMS1. RF never took that down or a ton of other RF1 -> AMS1 conversions.

I don't handle mods and that part.
However, there is a difference between converting a mod, like the 79 mod, and the original ISI-made content.
Exactly what's happened here, I have no idea about. Maybe @Kenny Paton or @Neilski knows.

 

[Neilski]

In this case there were multiple potential reasons for deletion but the most immediate one was that the mod was simply a link to an external download, which is not permitted by our site rules.

 

[RasmusP]

Oh OK. Can an official RD member/employee confirm this since I already downloaded it and want to be sure?

Any reason why it's not allowed? Aren't tons and tons of mods converted between all ISI engine sims like F1C, RF1, GTL, GTR2, R07, etc. I've been downloading ISI engine games' mods for almost 20 years. Never heard of a conversion between 2 ISI engined games not being allowed. I also just downloaded RF1's famous GP79 mod for AMS1. RF never took that down or a ton of other RF1 -> AMS1 conversions.

If you create something (that doesn't need licensing), you're the owner of the "art" and only you can give the permission to others to modify it.
The issue is that no one spends the money for the force of lawyers needed to actually do something against it if someone simply steals your creation.
Especially when there's no money involved.

But even if money is somehow involved like someone modifying F1 2023 content and putting it into rF2 or AC, then you probably won't get sued.
If you sell that ripped content though, you might be.

It's similar to when someone steals your wallet + phone and the police basically tells you that it's not worth it to do anything apart from creating a case file that will never be touched again so you can call your insurance company to get compensation.

But you won't create a place and tell people that it would be okay to steal from others at that place.

If the author of a mod gives the permission though, it's happy sharing

However RD can't research every single upload so it relies on the users keeping an eye open for the sake of our community.
So if you see an illegal mod: report it and explain why it's illegal. If it makes sense, the mod gets taken down and the uploader is given the chance to explain why it wouldn't be illegal.
Depending on the outcome, the mod gets online again or will remain offline.


Sure, it's nice to get all the nice stuff for free but maybe it's not cool if someone else worked very hard and doesn't even get appreciation for his work.
Most authors do give permission if you ask them nicely.

And if it's a rip from official content of another sim, then it will only be a matter of time until modding won't be a thing for future sims.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

But even if money is somehow involved like someone modying F1 2023 content and putting it into rF2 or AC, then you probably won't get sued.
If you sell that ripped content though, you might be.

Unless e.g Ferrari starts snooping around. Did you ever play BATRacer in it's top days, pre-Ferrari clampdown?

 

[Kenny Paton]

Exactly what's happened here, I have no idea about. Maybe @Kenny Paton or @Neilski knows.

In this case there were multiple potential reasons for deletion but the most immediate one was that the mod was simply a link to an external download, which is not permitted by our site rules.

Bram said several years ago(on the back of the demise of No Grip) that legit mods from the older games could be up loaded but that if the original creator objected they would be removed.
All our ToS remain in play.

However RD can't research every single upload so it relies on the users keeping an eye open for the sake of our community.
So if you see an illegal mod: report it and explain why it's illegal.

Exactly this. I'm often on my phone so can't check the download so rely on reports, hopefully with some proof as well, we do get spurious reports so normally some evidence is required.

 

[Spinelli]

However, there is a difference between converting a mod, like the 79 mod, and the original ISI-made content.
Exactly what's happened here, I have no idea about. Maybe @Kenny Paton or @Neilski knows.

And if it's a rip from official content of another sim, then it will only be a matter of time until modding won't be a thing for future sims.

Oh, that makes sense. It's official RF1 content. I forgot about that.

In this case there were multiple potential reasons for deletion but the most immediate one was that the mod was simply a link to an external download, which is not permitted by our site rules.

Yes, I believe it was from Google drive. Thanks for the explanation. I remember a year or so ago a mod was removed as it contained malware so I was worried if this was another one of those cases.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Oh, that makes sense. It's official RF1 content. I forgot about that.

Ye. The days where SimBin accepted conversion of their own material from their own older games to their own newer games are long gone.