use the skyrim creation kit without skyrim

If you want to use the tools, you've got to give up your rights to claim royalties. But both stop short of waiving modders' rights. Modding tools for Unreal Tournament and Crysis 2 contain similar terms with their EULAs which put strict rules on non-commercial distribution, retaining copyright of existing assets, and banning offensive content. While it may seem wrong, this type of agreement is hardly unheard of. We release modding tools because we want the community to be able to create new content within in our games. If you install the Oblivion Construction set or the Fallout 3 GECK, you’ll see the same language in the EULA. We have the exact same language in our previous kits.

NowGamer, who originally reported the EULA, heard from Bethesda who said this:

By using the Creation Kit you are basically giving away all your rights to the mod and would have no way to claim royalties. In short, Bethesda reserves the right to use any user-created content or mods in any way it sees fit – including modifying, adapating, and even selling it. If You distribute or otherwise make available New Materials, You automatically grant to Bethesda Softworks the irrevocable, perpetual, royalty free, sublicensable right and license under all applicable copyrights and intellectual property rights laws to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, perform, display, distribute and otherwise exploit and/or dispose of the New Materials (or any part of the New Materials) in any way Bethesda Softworks, or its respective designee(s), sees fit.

Some digging into the newly released Skyrim Creation Kit's End User License Agreement has revealed that all Skyrim mods made by using it effectively become the property of Bethesda as soon as they're distributed.

Use the skyrim creation kit without skyrim