Where to go?

[legacy-ZeroGeo]

Sorry if I sound noobish or whatever for asking this (I'm new to all this level designing stuff) but all I'm wondering is what are some good Unreal Tournament sites to put some maps on for download? I have like 3 Deathmatch maps ready and I want to put them up to the public.

[legacy-Ryandar]

You can upload to (amongs others) unrealplayground, mapraider, nalicity and UTHQ.

[legacy-ZeroGeo]

Thanks I'll try those sites.

[legacy-CAWeissen]

Doesn't that also mean that you willingly give your map to mapraider, nalicity, etc., because you are giving it to them to host on their site? I read in the mapraider policy somewhere that you give the map to them.:bulb: Ah well, it's all politics :p

[legacy-Ryandar]

I've never read these policies, but I've also never heard of anyone having trouble with these sites.
Authors receive full credit on all these sites, and as far as I know, authors still retain all rights over their own work.

[legacy-CAWeissen]

This is directly from the Mapraider Terms of Use

"You agree that any materials submitted to or provided to Mapraider by you, its visitors and members ("Content"), whether through the use of automated online tools or direct communication with Mapraider becomes the property of Mapraider. By submitting the content, you agree and give consent to Mapraider, its properties and associates to copy, reproduce, republish, post, transmit or distribute in any means for any purpose desired without reimbursement.

Explanation: If you submit or rate a map, moderate a rating or post a message, etc. the content you provided becomes the property of Mapraider and we can use it as we see fit."

But whatever :D

[DGUnreal]

This is directly from the Mapraider Terms of Use
-= snip =-

I wouldn't worry too much about that.
Talk to a digital media copyright lawyer.
Their "Terms of Use" isn't a legally binding contract, and won't stand in court under certain circumstances. Did you sign anything releasing copyright, licensing, or distribution to them? If not, they are limited on what they can actually do with copyrighted content (the maps).

And in some cases they also go phish other maps onto their site, in which case the author did not agree to those Terms of Use for those specific maps.

These types of online "terms of use" are more for protection of the site's content, which in this case would include the map file, screenshots, description, ratings, etc.
This will give them rights/license to display your map and its screenshots etc., with protection against other sites or individuals taking that content without authorization.

If they reproduced your map screenshots for a calendar, mugs, t-shirts, or other similar thing, then who really cares as you normally release screenshots anyway. And if they charge sufficient money for that item to also cover their operation costs, then the benefit is still to you since they host your maps at no charge.
I have no problem with this whatsoever, and anyone who does should simply not post their maps there.

However, if they took a pile of the maps and placed them onto a DVD that they tried to retail distribute online or through stores, they would find themselves in court so fast the site would be gone forever.
Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights always favor the author, even in the case of "supposed" legal terms such as this, especially where no contract has been legally signed.

They should perhaps re-word their Terms to be a bit more clear on this.
If they simply usurped all rights to your map, then you wouldn't be able to host it anywhere else, nor would you have any rights to it at all.
If someone from Mapraider has told you otherwise, they need to consult a lawyer first to get it straight because they can't simply take full and complete legal ownership of your map by this.
But they do need to protect their site and content, which includes maps and screenshots, etc., for which this Terms of Use is given.

If someone from Mapraider disagrees with me and believes that they do have the right to usurp my rights, then please PM me, as in this case I will be pulling all of my maps, which I have a legal right to do as the Intellectual Property owner.

[legacy-CAWeissen]

:eek2: hehe, I haven't actually posted any maps on their site, I was just stating that that was in the terms of use, and I myself wasn't clear :D Thanks for clearing that up hehe wow :up: My dad, who is an admin at overclockers.com said that I would be giving the map to the site, so I was iffy about posting a map up :bulb:

[DGUnreal]

Don't take any of this as me arguing with you, I definitely am not... :)


My dad, who is an admin at overclockers.com said that I would be giving the map to the site, so I was iffy about posting a map up

That is to a large extent how their Terms reads (they should clear that up on their page).
You will be giving them the right to post the map onto their site and other sites (they take care of mirroring to a bunch of other map sites for you), among other rights.
The "file" that you upload will effectively become their property, but they can't usurp Intellectual Rights and Copyrights unless you actually sign those over, which requires legal contracts. Even verbal and "hand-shake" contracts are not legal these days, so clicking on an "I Agree" button means little in this specific case of copyright/intellectual ownership.
Pretty much every hosting site has similar terms though, just worded differently depending on how high-priced their lawyers are. :p

For them to do much else with the maps would be pretty pointless (beyond advertising their site via cool screenshots or making some money with calendars, mugs, t-shirts and similar items), for example a Bonus Pack that cost money, since people can go to the Mapraider site and simply download them for free, so who would buy it.

Digital Copyright becomes real messy if either us mappers or the host sites like Mapraider try to go too far with personal or corporate profit anyway, as Epic owns the bottom-line copyright on many textures, meshes, and other items that are contained in most maps also. Epic may also have copyrights on the .ut2 file format for all we know...

If you don't feel safe placing your maps there, then I'm sure that's no problem, there are a number of other sites such as FilePlanet, UT200xFiles, etc. However... if you read the terms on pretty much any site...

FilePlanet actually has a more legally clear User Agreement (http://corp.ign.com/user-agreement.html), of which the User Content section partially reads:

By submitting any User Content ... you hereby irrevocably grant to IGN, its affiliates and distributors, a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, and fully sub-licensable license, to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, create derivative works from, transfer, transmit and distribute on the Services, in connection with promotion or elsewhere, such User Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate the User Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

So uploading to other sites like FilePlanet also grants them permissions beyond what some mappers would perhaps like (including their right to sub-license and even create derivitive works from!). But after all it is a free community, and most people are honest and don't rip off other people's work.

Most hosting sites will only use any User content simply for advertising and such. If they tried ripping off every good map that was posted onto their site, they would lose hosting clients real fast as all mappers would instantly boycott them.

Anyway, questions above this should be asked of a real copyright lawyer. :)
And if you have any direct concerns with Mapraider, I would suggest emailing them, and maybe posting back here what their reply is. :up:

[legacy-Ryandar]

Umm, yeah, what DG said.

[legacy-CAWeissen]

Haha, VERY well said DG :D And I understand it was not an arguement, just a clarification :P

After all, isn't the point of putting maps up is to make them popular?

Thanks a bunch :haha: