Are we aware of redistribution practices on some mod sites?

[ARBusMods]

Hi everyone,

First of all, I want to make it clear that I'm not trying to stir up drama—but the topic I’m about to bring up often causes just that. I'm genuinely interested in hearing the experiences and opinions of users, and especially of other mod creators. The purpose of this post, in addition to exchanging opinions, is to inform those who are unaware of the matter.

The topic I want to talk about is mod download sites—particularly those that aren’t community-driven and exist solely to mass reupload content to monetized hosting services which, conveniently, ignore copyright claims, leaving us with practically no room for action.
(Out of respect for the space and the discussion, I won’t name specific pages or hosts, though I understand that some people may prefer to expose them.)
I understand that moderating these types of sites is extremely difficult, especially given the number of people trying to profit off others’ work. So I’d like to focus more specifically on platforms that are structured from the ground up to monetize what this community creates, while presenting themselves as if they’re “just helping to spread the word”—all without contributing any added value.

A bit of our experience:
Less than a year ago, we released our first "major" mod (the kind that took us hundreds of hours to create). We tried to keep it off mod-sharing sites, knowing things could get out of hand—but someone beat us to it. They reuploaded a version with a fake description, even crediting themselves as the author. Apparently, the monetized link wasn’t enough for them, so they also added a donation account in the preview image to receive direct payments.
So we had to give in: to avoid losing control over the mod, every update since then has required manually sharing links across multiple pages. The funny thing is, on some of these sites, the admins will kindly take the time to download the file and reupload it to their own monetized accounts. In the end, things were worse than I had imagined.

It’s absurd that, as creators of free mods, we have to spend time policing the internet just to prevent others from profiting off our work. And as I mentioned earlier, some sites are so precisely designed to make money from the productivity of this community that they’re practically immune to takedown efforts: they use hosting services that ignore copyright complaints, offer no way to report uploads, and actively moderate any comments that call them out.
To top it off, they simulate legitimacy with messages like “Need help or want to thank the author? Leave a comment!”, even though no mod author voluntarily uploads their content there (there’s not even a submission form). This charade helps reinforce the community’s passive attitude—most users have no idea these practices are happening.

And it’s not just creators who are affected. Because of this behavior, users often end up with outdated mods, mods of unclear origin (with no credited author), mods that don’t function properly, and uncontrolled duplicate versions. (Anyone remember trying to pick between 6 different reuploads of the same mod?)
Even worse, this entire situation can be incredibly discouraging for anyone who devotes their time and effort to creating something meaningful—often leading to burnout and people leaving the scene entirely.

While I’m still new to ETS2 modding, I’ve been part of various modding communities for nearly 20 years—and honestly, I’ve only seen this problem getting worse.
There’s a lot more to say, but I’d really like to hear about your own experiences, strategies, or ideas for dealing with all this. More heads are better than one—and if we can at least inform the community (or get people to care a little), maybe something can improve.

To wrap up, here’s a list of things we currently do to try and reduce the damage:

-File locking (to prevent theft of models and textures)
-Version locking (to avoid losing control of the mod via permanent links—even if it’s a bit inconvenient for users)
-Hidden blacklist embedded in visible parts of the mod (so if people decide to share it however they want, they also help spread a message against that behavior)
-Creative Commons license (to support copyright claims with file hosts)
-Taking a break from these types of sites for a few months and pretending none of this is happening


Salud!

[Etrusan]

If you don't want your mod on those sites, don't release it at all.

[Some newbie driver]

Hard take for sure, but unfortunately what Etrusan said is is the raw, plain truth. People taking undeserved profit from others work will exist always everywhere so either you accept it as a fact and move on. If that weights too much to your soul, then stop distributing any mod, do them only for yourself or the very trustworthy friends you could have.

The only way to cut wings on those mod leeches is a system that prevent the game to load any mod obtained from unofficial channels. That is impossible without SCS actively creating it and that opens a can of worms on lots of other problems and controversies that will be derived from it . Also, it would require active support thus manpower continuously assigned to that system (so, it would become a cost for the company with a hard to measure return). So it's just something we cannot expect ever happen.

Regards

[Mohegan13]

-File locking (to prevent theft of models and textures)
-Version locking (to avoid losing control of the mod via permanent links—even if it’s a bit inconvenient for users)
-Hidden blacklist embedded in visible parts of the mod (so if people decide to share it however they want, they also help spread a message against that behavior)
-Creative Commons license (to support copyright claims with file hosts)
-Taking a break from these types of sites for a few months and pretending none of this is happening

-Everyone and their mother knows how to unlock locked files.
-Does nothing.
-I made a hanging toy in the shape of a hand flipping the bird with the names of dodgy mod re-uploaders along with pirate themed trailer skins. Does nothing useful other than give me a giggle.
-Always helps.
-Just do that. You'll never win, so ignore the sites completely.

At the end of the day, this community is one of the worst for mod thefts that I personally am part of. It's either live with it, or keep the mods to yourself and those you trust.

[Smaen]

This is the main reason why I quit public modding.
The community doesn't appreciate modders, thieves keep stealing and nobody really cares to do anything about it. The community keeps using these sites as well... In once case, a stolen version of my mod even got more downloads than my original upload. It's that bad...

If anyone is wondering why my Box Liner isn't updated anymore, you can thank the reuploaders for killing my will and motivation.

[justheretolurk]

Now, about this topic, this will be just my personal opinion and feelings toward this.

I have only made one mod, it's a very small one as well, but I'm already aware some sites have my mod, and of course, without my permission, basically stolen. Do I feel upset about it? Yes, of course, I believe any other modder will. My mod isn't complicated when it's just a modification around game files at the moment, but it is still my preparation and research for a couple of weeks before release, and then monthly research to maintain that mod and keep it up to the expectation. It would be undeniably frustrating to see your work after weeks, months, or even years being published on some random website.

However, does this make me want to abandon it ? Well, the answer is no either, because I try to look at the positive side, with people using my mods, and supporting/motivating my work, then I try to direct people using the official source instead. Another reason that this mod is also basically my "child", and I can't just simply abandon that, not after weeks or months of continuing research to maintain it. I will accept that those "parasite" websites will never disappear - one after another will keep popping up either way, and focus more on updating the mods for people who are enjoying my mod, motivating it, and still waiting for my mod to get updated.

At the end, this is just my side. For people who abandoned their mod due to this, it is unfortunate, but I believe we shouldn't blame them because I know some mods would take even more time and effort than mine to start with, even spending on it to keep the mod at high quality. Therefore, it could easily kill their motivation to continue it further.

[plykkegaard]

Most of the priate sites also distributes malware, anything goes
Use at your own risk

[Some newbie driver]

and nobody really cares to do anything about it

Just a detail, because I've seen this argument LOTS of times (and not only talking about mods for SCS games). There's ONE and ONLY ONE way to really prevent that kind of problems and that's the expedition by SCS of a digital signature for mods in order to be able to load into the game.

And that way of doing things, as I said before, would open a lot of new problems. For example, it could be leveraged by companies that would enforce SCS to ban certain mods that contain copyright /brand infringements. So, potentially, the very same method to prevent mod theft could cause the ban of any mod with brands on it starting by any mod with realistic vehicle models (no, the most popular ones)

There's no discussion possible here, technically speaking that's the SINGLE ONE thing SCS can do to prevent the mod theft problem. Any other "solution" you could find on any corner of the Internet, even if written under death oath by your most beloved person, it's a lie, it will NOT work, it will be at most a crude botch that will prevent moders from stealing your work... for less than a week if not just hours.

So, the question isn't if there's somebody willing to do something. The question is: will the player community accept the consequences of doing that something?

Regards

[plykkegaard]

Sorry but I am not sure a normal digital signature (certificate) can work in this scenario
Nornally you have a private and a public key
The certificate tells someting about the creator but nothing about the publisher or distributor
Yes repacking can be made a thing of the past

[Some newbie driver]

Indeed, I was simplifying because I didn't want to burden with to much techno-voodoo, plykegaard

The system should be like any other DRM, some kind of double signature. On one side, the original files are validated by SCS. Then to download the files, another signature identifying the computer that's going to use those files must be procured to final users by the platform the modder has chosen to distribute the mod. That's the only way to limit who can use a content that, otherwise, is digital thus infinitely reproducible and copyable.

But at the very least, that's a mess for a lot of people whose only willingness to learn about mods is in which folder have they to mode the downloaded files for them to work. Also it requires an active platform at two levels, maintained and curated (so, a cost somebody has to pay for). And then, the presence of all of this structure opens the path for consequences like the one I mentioned before (among others). A big bulky problematic and cumbersome system that would endanger lots of mods themselves.

Regards