Does anyone know where the original author of the mod is? In general, I am grateful that such a project appeared at all, because before the release of Factorio 2.0, it was my favorite mod. And it's just sad that because of the license and the fact that the author has disappeared, we have to create such roundabout ways to play this mod on the new version of Factorio.

simply deadlock declared that he no longer had any interest in factorio and abandoned the community, leaving his work blocked by a license that prevented anyone from reposting it updated. He also closed all parallel channels such as ko-fi, thank goodness shemp came to our rescue ;p

For the project I've been operating on the principle of "It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission", since I don't know of any way to ask for permission.

I have no doubt that Deadlock probably doesn't consent to me doing this, and that I've carved out a grey legal loophole with regards to the original license. I saw what 0n0w1c had done with their IR3 Assets mods, and thought to myself "Why can't I just do that with the entire mod?". If Deadlock ever returns, I'd be happy to share this work with him.

Since the angry mob hasn't turned up yet and yelled "This belongs in a museum!", I'm assuming that I have the tacit approval of the community. Heck, maybe I could upload the entire patched mod and get away with it. I can't argue from a preservation standpoint because the old IR3 is still playable on 1.1, but after working on this project, I recognise the immense amount of effort that went into IR3 (coming from previous iterations too), and I'd hate to see it consigned to history, for players to ignore it because it's outdated.

For the project I've been operating on the principle of "It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission", since I don't know of any way to ask for permission.

I have no doubt that Deadlock probably doesn't consent to me doing this, and that I've carved out a grey legal loophole with regards to the original license. I saw what 0n0w1c had done with their IR3 Assets mods, and thought to myself "Why can't I just do that with the entire mod?". If Deadlock ever returns, I'd be happy to share this work with him.

Since the angry mob hasn't turned up yet and yelled "This belongs in a museum!", I'm assuming that I have the tacit approval of the community. Heck, maybe I could upload the entire patched mod and get away with it. I can't argue from a preservation standpoint because the old IR3 is still playable on 1.1, but after working on this project, I recognise the immense amount of effort that went into IR3 (coming from previous iterations too), and I'd hate to see it consigned to history, for players to ignore it because it's outdated.

I would personally argue that at this stage of IR3 is that its abandonware and no longer maintained, if Deadlock wanted to update it to 2.0 then their has been a long time to complete this or at least start. Even making a post saying I will do this one day would be something.

I think you've done enough to personally satisfy the owner of IR3 & I'd like to believe he would prefer someone keeping it alive, rather it being stagnant in a long ago patch.