When a 3rd party site closes ...

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cascaderailroad

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If you download TheGreenery trees and tracks, or VMD assets, or SPORBUST loco's or RomanianTrainzStudio Sine: CFR Track 2.0 ... etc ... etc ... and create a route using their fabulous assets, and the website decides to go "belly-up" ... You are askrewed' !

The DLS is the safest, and most reliable place to host content for Trainz ... Why don't all creators think so ? They seem to hate hosting their assets on the DLS, like it is an insult to their assets ?

I love TPR, and all the other 3rd party websites ... but when they go down permanently ... then we are all Askrewed' !

If your stuff is Freeware ... Host it on the DLS ...what is there to lose ? Fame ? ! ? !

What if USLW, RRMods, VMD, EastCoastTrainz, WestCoastTrainz, RomanianTrainzStudios, TheGreenery, HPTrainz, all went south, into cyberspace ... then we would all be lost, and assets would be gone forever !

Why do creators shy away from hosting their assets on the DLS ?
 
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One of the major reasons for it is that some content creators do not like N3V's Download Station EULA, which one of the things it says is that content uploaded to the Download Station can be used in future N3V payware.

Shane
 
One of the major reasons for it is that some content creators do not like N3V's Download Station EULA, which one of the things it says is that content uploaded to the Download Station can be used in future N3V payware.

Shane

I dont' see this as a bad thing. I see this as a nice little advertising. I have one small shopping plaza and a few RubyMX converts up there on the DLS. I'm actually proud that someone felt my asset shopping plaza was good enough for them to use in a payware route. The other thing too is once it's included in a payware route, or even with the purchased Trainz program, there is a better chance for the asset to survive than if I hosted it myself :)

As Cascade says, once a site goes off to the ether, the content is long gone and this causes all kinds of issues when having to reinstall. This is why backups are a good thing. :)

John
 
I agree, but I know that some creators don't like the idea and as a result will not upload to the Download Station.

The other thing N3V did that has caused issues is when they decided to stop allowing uploads of trainz-build 2.6 and earlier content to the Download Station.

Shane
 
One of the major reasons for it is that some content creators do not like N3V's Download Station EULA, which one of the things it says is that content uploaded to the Download Station can be used in future N3V payware.

Shane

In some cases (like mine) it's not that I don't like it (although I don't) it's that legally I cannot. Not being a decent photographer I have to rely on other people for photo-textures, often times those come with a non-comercial license If I upload them onto the DLS & N3V uses them in something their selling, I've now broken the license I signed for the textures. I would upload stuff to the DLS if I could op-out of that part of the license.

The other part of the DLS EULA I don't like is that by uploading your item to the DLS you allow N3V basically have full right on it. They can say if someone wants to modify it or not.

peter
 
The old versions is another issue, but then again people do have to move on.

I'm not going to start this ball of wax rolling down a hill again, but do we still see Windows 1.0 programs around anymore, or how about MSDOS program? Technology changes and so do programs.

As has been said before, older content can still be made to run in the new versions, and people can still create content the same as they did before with new build numbers. The only time they run into problems is with scripts and some formatting. The new versions are just more strict in the error reporting, and if people paid attention to typographical errors in config.txt files, then have the errors wouldn't exist.

I say this from experience with repairing 1,000s of assets.

John
 
One of the major reasons for it is that some content creators do not like N3V's Download Station EULA, which one of the things it says is that content uploaded to the Download Station can be used in future N3V payware.

Shane

Not quite right! Anything on the DLS can be used in ANY payware, not just N3V's and the creator's wishes, license etc is utterly irrelevant. Any content creator who does not want his/her freeware generating revenue for some anonymous route-builder has no choice, his/her content MUST be distributed otherwise. Also as Peter says the N3V/Payware policy means that any content containing an image protected by a non-commercial license or any asset created with a non-commercial version of any software simply can't be on the DLS either.....
 
Pros and cons are all over the place, I personally use DLS or nothing simply because it's the most dummy proof for the end user. Leaving out the EULA thing, they don't make it easy - constantly moving goalposts with no examples provided, after X date the DLS won't accept build 2.7, build 2.9 has a bug where a bridge spline won't accept more than 2 tracks. I found that build 2.8 will do 3 tracks so I uploaded my triple track bridge with that build, but what if I want to do another one in the future or a KUID2 replacement after they stop accepting 2.8? Options are update to 3.6 so it can no longer be used in TS2010, which would break my TS2010 route, or make it 2.8 and host on a 3rd party website. They're not gonna patch TS2010 any further so a 2.9 build of that asset will never work.

Then there's the DLS foulup project, create, test to destruction and make sure everything works perfectly out of the box, then some idiot uploads a "repair" to remove TS12 warnings without testing to see if it actually works in game, now the spline is invisible or the loco won't move in CAB mode or the industry/freightcar that depends on a commodity is flagged as faulty and there goes the session I spent months creating and testing.

3rd party websites are a pain, the download station is a different kind of pain, so it all boils down to choosing the lesser of evils.
 
Another issue, is if a 3rd party site gets hacked, which has happened, and you download some content from them, you could be also downloading some Malware.
 
Not quite right! Anything on the DLS can be used in ANY payware, not just N3V's and the creator's wishes, license etc is utterly irrelevant. Any content creator who does not want his/her freeware generating revenue for some anonymous route-builder has no choice, his/her content MUST be distributed otherwise. Also as Peter says the N3V/Payware policy means that any content containing an image protected by a non-commercial license or any asset created with a non-commercial version of any software simply can't be on the DLS either.....

A correction - N3V recently stated on another thread that that part of the EULA is so they can use the content in a newer version (as a built-in) or an addon pack. Anyway, other creators could include an asset from a third party site in payware as well.

Shane
 
This subject again....

I believe if a search is done, the other multiple threads brought up about this will be found.

Talk in the past of forcing creators to upload their stuff to the DLS has caused more than one creator to declare that they will quit if it comes down to it..

Bottom line is that it is the creators choice.

Best not bite the hand that feeds lest thou starve.

Additional: As for Westcoast Trainz, Frank has allowed me to repair and upload his content to the DLS...
 
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I've a feeling the subject is going to keep coming up...

Anyway, the biggest issue I can see regarding third-party sites is that the content on them cannot be used for Multiplayer, and as a result someone is bound to illegally clone the assets and upload them to the Download Station just so they can use them for Multiplayer.

Shane
 
The DLS is incredibly slow unless you want to pay, takes hours to get all the dependencies off the DLS versus a few minutes to get them off third party sites
 
There's a reason it's like that. How do you expect N3V to be able to finance the servers without people buying First Class Tickets?

Shane
 
On the flip side, is it right to expect people who create content and upload it to the DLS to pay to access their own creations if they lose said asset due to a disaster at home?

Also, Don't be surprised if East Coast Trainz content becomes available again.................
 
I wouldn't expect them to, but that would be a matter for N3V to deal with. Anyway, a good backup should prevent that.

Shane

Life happens.

I would think that creating content and uploading it to the DLS WOULD count as supporting the DLS.... Unless the almighty (insert local currency here) is more important....... In which case all that means is your efforts are for naught..........

Ah, hello there slippery slope.......looks like we are going to be going down you................
 
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A correction - N3V recently stated on another thread that that part of the EULA is so they can use the content in a newer version (as a built-in) or an addon pack.

No, it's not a correction because I didn't say they couldn't! It has always been the case that Auran/N3V could use DLS content in a future Trainz release.

Anyway, other creators could include an asset from a third party site in payware as well.

Yes, they could (and probably do!). The difference is that if the content is downloaded from a 3rd party site then the payware creator is in breach of the asset creator's license. Setting aside whether or not the content license is strictly speaking 'legal', the payware creator who breached the asset creator's wishes is at the very least morally and ethically without defense. If the asset is uploaded to the DLS on the other hand then the person without defense is the asset creator who either failed to read or failed to understand the small print they clicked past while uploading....
 
Not quite right! Anything on the DLS can be used in ANY payware, not just N3V's and the creator's wishes, license etc is utterly irrelevant. Any content creator who does not want his/her freeware generating revenue for some anonymous route-builder has no choice, his/her content MUST be distributed otherwise. Also as Peter says the N3V/Payware policy means that any content containing an image protected by a non-commercial license or any asset created with a non-commercial version of any software simply can't be on the DLS either.....

What you're claiming doesn't jive with the Download Station License Agreement which specifically states, "The grant of the license in clause 2.1 ("Grant of license") is not and cannot be deemed to be a sale, transfer or any other conveyance of your intellectual property rights held in the New Works."
 
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