TheUnbeholden Putting Mods on ModDB Without Permission

This might get helled, but I thought I needed to spread the word.
I recently got a PM on ZDoom forums from a user named "TheUnbeholden", requesting that I put my Strife mod on ModDB. He said that he "put all the maps he could find" on there too.

I sent PMs to Kaiser and Khorus recently for their Strife maps, letting them know about this. It turns out, however, that he has an entire ModDB group dedicated to "sharing all the best kinds of Doom WADs out there". Most, if not all of these mods are uploaded without the author's permission. Why he asked me out of all people, I don't know, but I wanted to spread the word so that the original authors may request for him to take their mod or map down if they wish.
The group is called "DoomDB - The Official Doom WAD Sharing Group!".
Here's the link (said mods are in the addons tab for those very few who do not know of ModDB):
http://www.moddb.com/groups/doomdb/

Ditto for Mordeth (ep 2), which apparently also got a page reserved by the same guy. To be fair, he gives due credit and does not pretend the stuff is his. Haven't gotten around mailing the admins yet.

I don't see how that is a problem in anyway. He's just providing another host from which the mods can be downloaded for free. He's not misrepresenting authorship, claiming credits, or shovelwaring them for quick bucks from idiots.

I could understand the problem if, say, you put in your readme something like "CAN ONLY BE UPLOADED TO THE COMPUSERVE ACTION FORUM" or "EXCLUSIVE TO GEOCITIES.COM/ULTRADOOMLORDSKULL666/" because then indeed it violates author intent, but otherwise?

Ye, this is just a database of game mods, what's the problem? You don't want people to know about your work?

Well, if he's uploading say, unversioned betas\private files\works in progress I can see some issues. It doesn't seem that way though, and ModDB seems like a good place for high-profile mods to promote themselves to people outside the Doom community. Doesn't the standard copyright text state that you can upload files to whatever site as long as they aren't modified?

Marcaek said:

Well, if he's uploading say, unversioned betas\private files\works in progress I can see some issues. It doesn't seem that way though, and ModDB seems like a good place for high-profile mods to promote themselves to people outside the Doom community. Doesn't the standard copyright text state that you can upload files to whatever site as long as they aren't modified?

He has done so in the past, though. My mod, ww-doomnukem.pk3, had an unversioned beta uploaded by him to the Brutal Doom group. He did, however, remove it when I asked him to. In my honest opinion, though, I really wish such a step was not even necessary. I'll put my own mods on ModDB when I actually want to, and I don't abide by other people doing it for mods that aren't technically finished - especially not when ModDB attaches the uploader's name to the file as well.

Indeed, most folks whose mods have been uploaded have probably giving explicit permission for TheUnbeholden to do exactly this:

You MAY distribute this file, provided you include this text file, with no
modifications. You may distribute this file in any electronic format (BBS,
Diskette, CD, etc) as long as you include this file intact. I have
received permission from the original authors of any modified or included
content in this file to allow further distribution.

This isn't the first time this has come up before, and I'm not sure if I voiced my thoughts last time 'round, but I don't really see anyone at fault here since it doesn't appear that TheUnbeholden is claiming credit or being a dick about this. I think I recall some discussion about being able to transfer ownership of mods/pages on ModDB as well; if that's indeed a thing and not something I'm making up, then folks are probably best off contacting him and requesting said (hopefully-not-imaginary) transfer instead of a removal. Why not spread the word?

[EDIT] Having said that, I wouldn't mind /idgames links where possible instead of ModDB direct downloads, but that's a courtesy thing and probably a limitation of the site itself. I doubt it takes offsite links for the "Download" button, though that would be megacool if it did.

[FUTURE-EDIT (jan.2016)] I've since reversed my opinion on this situation due to various reasons, not the least of which being that two of the assumptions made above (namely: being able to transfer accounts easily and having offsite /idgames links) have since been proven false. More details available on request I suppose.

I think we're talking about two different things here. A 'Doom group' (non-commercially) hosting people's favorite wads is (of course) fine, but he's also putting up project home pages that might easily be confused for the 'official' ones despite credit given.

So that is the reason Doom is the most updated game in my ModDB Updates section?

I think he is doing both good and bad:

Uploading wads that are finished and crediting the authors is a great thing to do, although I don't know if he asks for permission.

However, uploading WIP mods and wads and making project pages that are not monitored by the original developers of the work can cause un-wanted headaches such as not receiving important feedback and alienating people from the work (By uploading WIPs that don't really represent the wad/mod all that well)

He doesn't ask for permission. Russian Overkill, Guncaster, and WW-Doomnukem just to name a few were uploaded without the permission that comes with most idgames wads like Xaser said. He did for some reason give me a choice, I dunno why.

OT: Xaser, I just realized that your avatar was another one of those fish.

He already did this with my release candidate version map edit Brutalized Doom and Doom 2, I got ModDB to remove it so I can upload it (which I did) and to update it when needed.

I do not have a text file for this nor did I give Unbeholden any permission to upload a work in progress to ModDB.

Mordeth said:

I think we're talking about two different things here. A 'Doom group' (non-commercially) hosting people's favorite wads is (of course) fine, but he's also putting up project home pages that might easily be confused for the 'official' ones despite credit given.

Hmm, the wording of the group as the "official" ModDB page does make it confusing, for sure. Something probably ought to be done about that and also the download issue if possible.

Now the part where he's uploading unfinished mods and ones without explicit distribution permission is troublesome, though, no lie. Carry on, folks. ;P

Someone point him to this thread, so the issue can be settled?