Yesterday, Valve announced that modders can choose to charge money for their Steam Workshop creations, starting with Skyrim. While the announcement in itself is worth debate, problems are already starting to arise. A mod featured on the Steam announcement page that adds a fishing animation to characters was developed by Chesko and aqqh. However, Destructoid reports that the mod includes assets from Fore's New Idles in Skyrim, and was used without permission. Fore goes on to state that "making money with mods is totally against my attitude" and that the Steam Workshop's paid mod system would be the "end of a working and inventive modding community."

The fishing mod has since been removed from paid listing, and its developer offered the following explaination:

"I would like to make it clear that I have been under a non-disclosure agreement for over a month, and was unable (not unwilling) to contact others. I asked Valve specifically about content that requires other content, and was told that if the download was separate and free, it was fair game."

Although the developers go on to state that the mod does not require the animations in question to work, they will defer to Fore's request and issue refunds to all subscribers. While this issue may have been resolved quickly, it's the the first in what might become increasingly complex issues.

Source: Destructiod