Is it ethical to earn money by modding?
Forget about legal, forget about practical, for now I’m just curious about the ethics.
If there is a game with a thriving mod community, and I have an idea for a mod I really want to make but haven’t the skills to do so, can I pay someone to make the mod for me?
If I want to make a mod, would it be ethical to do some crowd-funding to compensate my time for the creation process? What if the mod is released for free, even to non-backers?
I know at comic-cons artists are constantly doing sketches (of Spider-man or whoever) for commission. Is it different with modding? Is it the same?
If I build something super-cool out of LEGO, could I sell someone the instructions for how to re-create it? Could I sell someone my services to build it for him? Why or why not? What about in Minecraft?
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There’s a whole market for fan-made e-books on amazon. I don’t know how all authors feel about it but at least one, Hugh Howey, loves it. I look at game mods the same way. If someone has created a product they should be able to profit from it, as long as they stay within copyright laws.