Factorio Forums

I created a copy of Earendel's MOD AAI Signal Transmission without paying attention to the license.

But I was just told that I shouldn't discard my mod because Earendel's license says “Factorio Mod Limited Distribution Only Licence” and I'm using their images.

I can change the images so I don't use Earendel's. But I find it strange that this is the case.

I don't know about this, which is why I'm asking.

The license is pretty cut-and-dry, but to make a term more clear, distribution refers to any way shape or form you have the mod or work hosted anywhere for public download.

You may make alterations for your own private personal use only.
You are not allowed to distribute any content from the mod, or anything altered or derived from this mod with the following exception:
You may post partial modified sections of this mod in Earendel's discord https://discord.gg/ymjUVMv for the purpose of providing bug fixes or enhancements.

You can do whatever modification you want to the original mod, but it must be kept private and personal, like on your own PC only. If you do want to publicize parts of it, then only on Earendel's discord. Crucially, however, not on the Factorio Mod Portal.

You cannot distribute any content of the mod separate from the complete mod package.
You can distribute the complete and unmodified mod package with the following conditions:
The mod must not be modified. (Packaging the mod into a larger zip file does not count as modification. It can be used in mod set packs.)
...

You can't subdivide little bits of Earendel's mod, put parts of it into your own mod while discarding the rest and call the mod your own.

What you can do is either, add Earendel's whole mod as a required dependancy, or package the whole physical mod as part of your main mod's zip file, and then write reference code to parts of his mod, e.g. modifiyng the behaviour of the signal telescope from the point of view of your mod.

Meddleman wrote: Sun Mar 01, 2026 11:26 pm

I understand, those seem like good options to me.

I find it strange that an open-source environment would impose those kinds of restrictions.

This has given me a lot to think about: if Earendel removes his mod, all the mods that depend on it would stop working (as happened when Factorio 2.0 came out); or by putting one mod inside another, you could end up with one that is so large/heavy that it couldn't be used. It has left me with a lot to think about.

Thank you for your help and clarification. Have a great day.

I just noticed the license on Deadlock989’s mods, and they haven’t been updated in a long time. I checked the user’s GitHub profile, and it’s no longer active. If I understand correctly, the IR3 mod is “dead”.
I mean, there are mods that are disappearing because of licensing issues, even though the people who enjoy them are willing to make the necessary changes to keep them “alive”. It’s frustrating to see this situation. Maybe the authors intended to do all the work but eventually couldn’t follow through, or they chose the license without realizing what it entailed.
I don’t expect everyone to make ALL mods use the same license; I just want to point this out.

yaim904 wrote: Mon Mar 02, 2026 12:53 pm I find it strange that an open-source environment would impose those kinds of restrictions.

It isn’t the open-source environment that imposed it. It’s simply an author who chose to release their mod with restrictive terms instead of using widely adopted licenses like GPL or the 3-Clause BSD license. Any frustration should be directed at that individual, not anyone else.

Difference between a poor author and a respected open-source modder: No source code, restrictive license, not FOSS. Ideal license, with the source provided immediately. That’s the right approach.

pioruns wrote: Wed Mar 18, 2026 12:10 pm No source code, restrictive license, not FOSS.

FWIW, I don't publish the source code of my own mods anywhere – it's just not necessary! Simply unzip the mod, then you can see the Lua code in plain text. It would be different if mods were precompiled binary blobs, but as Factorio mods basically are zipped packages of the complete source code, what would be the benefit of having a duplicate of the source somewhere else?

Pi-C wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2026 7:42 am

pioruns wrote: Wed Mar 18, 2026 12:10 pm No source code, restrictive license, not FOSS.

FWIW, I don't publish the source code of my own mods anywhere – it's just not necessary! Simply unzip the mod, then you can see the Lua code in plain text. It would be different if mods were precompiled binary blobs, but as Factorio mods basically are zipped packages of the complete source code, what would be the benefit of having a duplicate of the source somewhere else?

Very good. And what is the license you are using for your mods?

pioruns wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2026 4:33 pm

Pi-C wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2026 7:42 am

pioruns wrote: Wed Mar 18, 2026 12:10 pm No source code, restrictive license, not FOSS.

FWIW, I don't publish the source code of my own mods anywhere – it's just not necessary! Simply unzip the mod, then you can see the Lua code in plain text. It would be different if mods were precompiled binary blobs, but as Factorio mods basically are zipped packages of the complete source code, what would be the benefit of having a duplicate of the source somewhere else?

Very good. And what is the license you are using for your mods?

There are several because I've kept the original licenses of those mods I've inherited or forked. Most of those mods are under The Unlicense (Public Domain) or the MIT license, one is licensed under Bob's mods Copyright. Most of the mods I've created myself are licensed under the MIT license, one under GNU GPLv3. If you're interested, here are my mods.

Thank you for your work on modding!
I really appreciate that you’re using the correct licence for your projects.

Regarding the source code, I wasn’t aware of how it’s handled in Factorio, as I’m not a modder myself. In RimWorld, modders have to provide compiled DLLs, which makes things more complicated. It’s great to hear that in Factorio, mods are provided in source code form by default.