Sims 3 mods and the EULA.

[blue35e]

Looking at the EULA it almost appears that if you share content/mods for sims 3 you give rights to the mod to EA. Not only that other users can use, and modify and even use your work. Is that right or did I misread that? (clause 2b.)

 

 

http://eacom.s3.amazonaws.com/EULA_THE+SIMS+3-Retail.3.22.09.pdf

 

Clause 1a does state that you can not use sims 3 for commercial use would that include "for pay" mods?

 

[Fleurra]

I don't think resorting to legal attacks (whatever this is) is the best thing to do now even though you are 100% right. I personally would prefer this to be resolved amicably without bloodshed.

 

Modding is supposed to be a hobby to be shared with other people. Threatening creators even when they're morally bankrupt will just shun people out of modding all together.

[Yotix]

Gaming companies have resorted to this kind of thing, as far as I heard mostly to avoid lawsuits from angry users.

 

There were several cases where someone sent a huge bundle of paper filled with tiny hand writing to some publisher. The publisher threw it in the trash, the user later sued claiming that they had abused his godlike design skills to create their latest games. So publishers now tend to return design ideas unopened, unless they include a tech demo.

In case the design idea does include a tech demo, they will make you sign a paper that basically says "you can't sue us" simply to prevent more fraudulent, bogus copyright lawsuits from angry nerds.

 

Similarly, most sane MMO developers state that everything on the server belongs to them, and you don't get to own shit -- like, WoW does it like that. Simply to prevent lawsuits like the first generation of MMOs got, "OMG you can't shut down the server, my character owns 10000 gold and that's MINE FOREVER".

Second Life with its tradeable currency (which a few criminal users abused for money-laundering) is the big exception here, it'll be fun to watch what happens when they shut down.

 

I guess the publishers' main interest is to prevent anyone from suing them for shutting down a game, or breaking mods, and their legal departments tend to be extra careful. 

 

[JoshQ]

Looking at the EULA it almost appears that if you share content/mods for sims 3 you give rights to the mod to EA. Not only that other users can use, and modify and even use your work. Is that right or did I misread that? (clause 2b.)

 

 

http://eacom.s3.amazonaws.com/EULA_THE+SIMS+3-Retail.3.22.09.pdf

 

Clause 1a does state that you can not use sims 3 for commercial use would that include "for pay" mods?

 

You're right. The problem is EA doesn't enforce that rule, except for a few cases like The Sims Resource where you can download anything without paying, you only pay a subscription to get rid of the ads / waiting time.

 

They have their own CC exchange and store and pretend nothing else exists, of course they know but it would be impossible to check every single mod or community so in a sense we're on our own, and that's fine except for the "occasional" controversy

[Nezumi12]

as a general rule of thumb, as long as you're not making a ton of money, distributing what is effectively a pirated copy of the game, comprimising the security of the developer's servers, or making mods that are blatant violations of certain laws, you're fine.

the game company isn't going to give two wet farts about you downloading a nude mod, sharing bed recolours, or using screen captures of your character as facebook profile pics. but yes, doing those kinds of things are technically illegal and could get you banned/fined/jailed.

but then, there's a law in Arkansas that says you're not allowed to hunt whales within the state's borders.