NEW TSR LEGAL THREAT!

[Paleoanth]

Copyright infringement report - Urgent


Dear Sir or Madam:

We represent The Sims Resource (www.thesimsresource.com). A wholly owned
division of IBIBI HB, located in Sweden.

We? Is this the royal we? I only see one name at the bottom.  We are not amused.

A brief description of our business model can be found here:
http://www.thesimsresource.com/helpcenter/about

BUSINESS!

It has come to our attention that a few domains using your host services
have waged a war against our company. Your customer, hosting the domain
"mustbedetroyed.org" has as its sole objective the destruction of our
site: http://paysites.mustbedestroyed.org/mission.html . Upon further
research it is apparent that this activity is in direct violation of
your TOS, specifically where copyright infringements are concerned.

As Pescado stated, this does not go to where you think it goes. Moron.  Plus, note bolding done by me.  It does not state that the sole objective is to destroy TSR.  Reading failure.

Your customer has self-appointed himself to defend the position of
Electronic Arts, Inc., (EA) and its End User License Agreement (EULA)
for the Sims Label. Your customer maintains that our company and others
with similar business models violate the EULA listed here:
http://paysites.mustbedestroyed.org/. Yet it has been confirmed by EA
that the EULA listed is limited to the game software, and there exists a
separate EULA that applies to our business model:
http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?threadID=17989d983b8aa06886b13273b94f2387&directoryID=2&startRow=1&openItemID=item.2,item.43,item.61,item.104,item.41,item.127,item.23

No, it doesn't.  EULA NOT CHANGED.  Announcement from some BBS drone doesn't count and besides, distribution is NOT ILLEGAL. LEARN. TO. READ.

Despite this clarification, your customer continues his defamation. In
short, EA states that our business model is NOT in violation of their
EULA. Your customer has a selective interpretation of the situation, and
on that basis alone, has mounted an army of disillusioned miscreants
against us.

Defamation?  You keep using that word.  I do not think that word means what you think it means.

I am a disillusioned miscreant? Excellent.

We have also contacted your customer's previous hosting companies. He
boasts about "beyond the law" and hiding behind Asian hosts to thwart
our attempts. An example of our ongoing battle is listed here:
http://paysites.mustbedestroyed.org/legal/tsr.txt . Your customer has a
startling lack of regard for authority and continues to bounce from
hosts and providers. He is still using a combination of different
companies to hide his illegal activities:
http://www.robtex.com/dns/mustbedestroyed.org.html .

Pescado, shame on you! You don't respect authority!

As listed on this page http://abuse.dreamhost.com/copyright/ , your
customer violates this policy by redistributing content without
authorization: http://paysites.mustbedestroyed.org/booty/ . Please note
that the attack is not limited to our company. In addition to this
violation he further condones software piracy and his forums propagate
discussions about redistributing content on other external sites as well.

But I thought you stated above that the SOLE OBJECTIVE was to destroy TSR?  Moron.

We trust now that your customer's activities have been brought to your
attention you will find him in violation of your rules. Please contact
us if we can be of further assistance in clarifying any of the nuances
regarding the ownership of the contact your customer is redistributing.

You sure are being the helpful little elf lately, Thomas. 

Sincerely,
Thomas Isaksson
The Sims Reource

Moron.

[justso]

Roflmao@ miscreants.

Mind you Pescado and his band of merry miscreants has a certain ring to it.

[Darqstar]

They should have hired a professional to write that.

I think Thoma$$ did.  He had Atwat or DOT write it 

Yes, but I don't think they meant "Professional idiot." 

Edit to add:   Nice response, Paleo!

[sleegee]

True.  Very true, Darqstar.  They did have a professional idiot write it tho...need i say more.  Still, that is my laugh of the week.


Paleo, your response is full of win.

[Missbonbon]

Just to echo what Darqstar asked, was the letter sent directly to Pes? Because it would be rather humorous for Thomas to ask Pes to remove himself.   We should write a letter back. Just for shits and giggles.

[dietofworms]

ROFLMAO even more at "disillusioned miscreant."  Thom must have asked someone to read Oliver Twist to him.

That's going to be my new sig.

[Sarafina]

Oh Thomas, thanks for giving us a little chuckle in the morning.    Keep it up buddy, we aren't going anywhere!

[Anouk]

Probably sent to the host, the host lol'd and sent it to Pescado. Same old same old.

Also:


Except there's no copyright violation going on from PMBD's side... but still funny.

[Lowell]

So... now we're Pescado and his band of disillusioned miscreants?

In all of this, I'm still wondering how they think that it's, you know, legal to be selling fan content (and thus how they feel that can claim copyright over it, let alone make legal threats over people sharing it legally). On top of the EULA stating that user-created custom content isn't for commercial gain, there's the whole issue of (last I checked, anyway) having to disclaim fan content for just about anything and point out that, "Hey, the copyright belongs to those guys over there. Not for profit here." If people have to do that for detailed artwork, then believe you me, TSR's floodfill pixels fall right into the same category. It's fan work. It's a fansite. That shit's not supposed to be a business.

[Sigmund]

Oh, TSR. Yet again, you fail miserably, both in your attempt to shut down PMBD and in your constant struggles to be seen as "professional". I do not think you have a full grasp of the vocabulary you are using, and I've read essays written by seventh graders that contradict themselves less.

Either way, Thomas is always good for entertainment value, I suppose, although it could also be a lame attempt at distracting us from the Buggybooz/Shakeshaft drama.

[Pescado]

In all of this, I'm still wondering how they think that it's, you know, legal to be selling fan content (and thus how they feel that can claim copyright over it, let alone make legal threats over people sharing it legally). On top of the EULA stating that user-created custom content isn't for commercial gain, there's the whole issue of (last I checked, anyway) having to disclaim fan content for just about anything and point out that, "Hey, the copyright belongs to those guys over there. Not for profit here." If people have to do that for detailed artwork, then believe you me, TSR's floodfill pixels fall right into the same category. It's fan work. It's a fansite. That shit's not supposed to be a business.

The fact of the matter is that the legality or lack thereof that TSR's operations have is completely irrelevant to what we're doing. WE do what we do because the EULA specifically GRANTS us that, therefore, WE CAN DO IT. That is what the noncommercial section REALLY says: It says that we CAN put it on our noncommercial site, and since this site is noncommercial, we can do it. It's as simple as that. Strictly speaking, we can put up ANYONE'S work, whether they are a paysite or not, because it says we can. We just lack any particular motivation to do such a thing.

[kazoona]

Either way, Thomas is always good for entertainment value, I suppose, although it could also be a lame attempt at distracting us from the Buggybooz/Shakeshaft drama.

I second that.

Still, if I had handed in that lame attempt at writing an official-sounding letter at university, they'd have given it back to me laughing. TSR's lack of logical thinking, let me show you it.

[Lilwen]

Well, I would rather be a disillusioned miscreant then a blood sucking twat/s like Thomas and his conies.

[raebchen]

ROFLMAO even more at "disillusioned miscreant."  Thom must have asked someone to read Oliver Twist to him.

That's going to be my new sig.

I had to laugh so hard when I read that, I thought about making it my sig too.

Edit: I also love how he says there is a separate EULA for their business model pointing to Drea's statement because all legal statements end with I'm not posting this without the permission of our Sims team. Just to be clear, this statement is coming from our Sims team which includes all management for all of our games and our Sims legal team. ZOMG1!! I also don't remember agreeing to it, so it doesn't matter to me.

[kenmtl]

Either they are just trying to distract us again or Thomas really does believe that his " I'm telling your mom" letter will have some effect. Ha ha you fail. Again.

On a more positive note. What a great drag name, Miss Creant.