General modding question - open source development policy?

[TheCheeseMaster]

Hello. There seems to be a persistent rumour in the modding communities that you aren't allowed to open source your modding efforts (i.e. hosting it on GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket and accepting community suggestions) because Paradox Interactive doesn't allow it. Is this actually true? Is this policy written down and clarified anywhere? Couldn't find anything on the forums or on the Mod Policy. Thanks.

 

[KeoniPhoenix]

I can't answer for Paradox, but I am not aware of that being an issue. In 2021, I moved SuperStates Mod to Github as it was eating up the space for my Dropbox account and it was causing other problems with ensuring proper versioning. I have a policy that anybody can fork it and help work on SuperStates Mod but I do not offer any version of the mod for download and install on Github and have made it stated policy on the matter.

 

[SeekTruthFromFx]

Hello. There seems to be a persistent rumour in the modding communities that you aren't allowed to open source your modding efforts (i.e. hosting it on GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket and accepting community suggestions) because Paradox Interactive doesn't allow it. Is this actually true? Is this policy written down and clarified anywhere? Couldn't find anything on the forums or on the Mod Policy. Thanks.

If you read the new User Agreement, it says that modders licence their copyright over their work to PDX. That's a change from earlier rules which were written as though PDX was giving modders permission to make changes. I'm not a lawyer but I haven't noticed anything in the new UA that prevents you using GitHub etc. The issue is more whether the GitHub rules are compatible with what PDX allows. Given the wide variety of licences that GitHub hosts, that seems unlikely, but I haven't checked.