The internet police are strong in this thread.
I know a lot of people out there grew up with the internet, but the reality is that people who create content do so for many reasons--chief among them are fun, recognition, and compensation.
The difference here is the entitlement that comes with children raised on the internet--they think the world is free to them.
I think the OP did good work with these mods, despite the art direction being infantile and completely destroys the world of Skyrim--it's still extensive and looks very nice. The porblem here is that he not only refused to give credit to the texture work when asked to do so, refused to take down his links at other sites when asked to do so, but he also feels that he has no duty whatsoever to credit the content creators.
This isn't about internet policing--it's about teaching little children how to properly engage in a creative content setting. How to work with others. This could have been "free" for the OP, but he acts like a child and simply assumes he owns everything. He doesn't.
And in the professional world (let's say research) put the OP in the exact same situation: his ass is ostracized from the field and he would have to find a new line of work. period. And yes, simply because he refuses to credit the fact that his work was built on others'