>Rent-seeking implies extraction of uncompensated value from others without making any contribution to productivity. The classic example of rent-seeking, according to Robert Shiller, is that of a feudal lord who installs a chain across a river that flows through his land and then hires a collector to charge passing boats a fee (or rent of the section of the river for a few minutes) to lower the chain.

The company is the feudal lord and the chain is their claim on their IP. They made a base game for people to buy, they arranged bits in a very precise order. They sold those bits to consumers. They are not arranging the bits for mods, and yet they get the revenue for it (charging boats as they pass). It's easier to sympathize with game companies because people are indeed doing things free of charge because they like the game.

If you charge money for a mod of a game, you will get a letter from that company's lawyers.

In an effort to make money, they have put clickthroughs to ads that people have to go through to download the mod. Keep in mind that Minecraft is rated 'E' for everyone, the modders are deliberately ignoring the fact that they put children in a spot where advertisers can abuse them.

I am specifically going to point out the 'Feed the Beast' team on promoting this behaviour, and them promoting that modders are the ultimate authority. It's pretty bad that permission has to be obtained from each mod author to include it in a modpack, even if it is just for a private server. It's pretty hypocritical of them, I'm pretty sure they didn't ask Mojang for permission to use the Minecraft game for their mods.

Note that I am not criticising all the Minecraft modders, just the ones who created the current toxic culture that pervades the Minecraft modding community. If you look at other modding communities, say for Skyrim, you will see it is completely different and someone coming from that community to the Minecraft modding scene will be shocked at the awfulness that pervades the culture there.