A couple of thoughts:
- The idea that a car maker should be *paid* to advertise their cars in games is ridiculous. If anything, the car makers ought to support the developers who advertise their wares to an eager audience.
- People want their favourite cars and tracks in their favourite racing title. Quelle Surprise.
- I see no problem with putting one car from a game I've legitimately bought into another game I've legitimately bought. I've already paid for the privilege, haven't I? Why should I be at the mercy of the whims of some development and art director I don't even know? I bought a toy, which means I get to decide how I derive fun from it. Suggesting that I shouldn't be allowed to is as ridiculous as suggesting that I can't play with my collection of brand X's matchbox cars on brand Y's toy gas station or car park. As a corollary to that, if I want to play with a really cool model from game X in the updated engine of game Y, why shouldn't I be able to do that or pay someone to do it for me with a beer (assuming that I've bought legitimate copies of both titles)?
- Conversely, I see no problem with putting a cool track from game X into game Y -- again, assuming that I've bought legitimate copies of both titles.
What I AM fairly adamant about is that modding ought to be about sharing recipes, not copyrighted content. Sharing a recipe (either in the form of written instructions, video or in the form of software) which shows how to copy car A out of game X and converting it into the format of game Y while taking advantage of game Y's features (provided the software checks for legitimate copies of game X and Y) is a pretty cool thing to do IMHO.
Similarly, creating a mod which tweaks some existing car A in game Y into an improved version of car A (like many people do in the real world) and sharing it with the world is cool to. Bonus points for making it high quality.
In general, creating assets/software from scratch and sharing them in the spirit of the "
Cathedral Modding Concept" under a "Modding Resource" like licence is a pretty cool thing to do in my book, too.
But sharing copyrighted assets (i.e. exporting a model from game X and offering it up on the internet either gratis or for payment) aka "Ripping" is not OK IMHO.
The salient point here is that it is important to respect those who make a living taking the risks associated with producing commercial games by rewarding them financially. That's how and why the market works.
It is also important to state that the model for modding I outline above, where amateurs share their labour of love in a manner that rewards original content creators economically, is in no way a threat to said content creators in an economical sense. If anything, it paves the way for showing what people legitimately want and thus creates incentive for professionals to create better content to an eager audience willing to pay for it.