I don't think EA does care about legal or not (whatever interpretation of any EULA you follow) as long as their core business, which is selling copies of The Sims 2/3 and the expansion packs, is not affected. And sites like TSR etc. do even push the sale of new game copies, as stuff requires new addons, latest mini addons or whatever, so people are motivated to buy the required games, if they would like to use the files in question. Even free sites do help EA to sell their stuff, as all those little custom content creators out there help the large slow giant of a computer games company to keep up with new trends and keep the game being interesting for hundred thousands of users.

I can only speculate, why TSR is one of their favourites, but maybe its because they are a "real" company, too. This means, they are reliable in the eyes of a company that has to publish quarterly reports for the stock exchange and plan for years in advance. A website being run by a private person who does not need to plan for longer periods of time ('I shut down my site whenever I like to', 'I change my policies every day, as it's my site','Oh, did I ever have an opinion about a certain topic? Even if i did, i do not care anymore'), a company like TSR has to care about this. This makes it the preferred partner for EA in my eyes. They can sign contracts, make agreements and much more a private site could never offer, as for example penalties etc. could not be met.

And as long as they stay officially separated from any custom content out there, they are on the safe side concerning "not that suitable" content not fitting into the "perfect teenage sims world, were noone is ever naked or seriously harmed and where is not shittalk etc.". And maybe they do consider it to be too dangerous to enter the sims 2 downloads market and sell their own custom content. As i think this would make them responsible for any damages to the game or a users pc. And they are not a crappy fan site somewhere on the other side of the world, they are EA, which every laywer would like to take to court. Why not demand 100 million dollars for a single hairstyle, as your mental health was seriously in danger after not being able to play anymore after you bought the file from a trusted source like EA.

The construct of independent sites (paysite or not, see above for my opinion, why EA does not care), that do marketing for EA, and EA in the center, publishing as much as they can, is just perfect for them. And i'm pretty sure they did never dare to dream of such a perfect situation for them before released the first sims game.

Greg aka Solander

Hi everyone,

maybe the following sounds somewhat weird, but i did want to post it nonetheless

First of all, i don't do this for any personal honor or whatever. In fact, i don't care, if someone loves, worships or hates me, as long as he/she lets me live my own life. I just would like to support the following site with an idea, that came to my mind yesterday.

So ...  as some of you might know, Pimp my Sims.com does not accept any donations. We do not need the money, so we have no reason to let people donate.

BUT as this thread tells you, Insim needs it.

So, if you guys ever thought "damn, i would like to donate a buck or two for those really astonishing, great, beautiful, overwhelming, top-notch, high-end and just FANTASTIC downloads at Pimp my Sims.com, but they have no donation button" and IF you have some money to spent, walk on to Insim and donate to them. This way, you would make me a happy guy, would help insim AND would help the free community.

So, if anyone did not know, if he/she should donate, but would have donated to my site, you now have a reason to do so

 :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

You should really consider to go pay You could blackmail me with all our stuff hosted at solander.mustbedestroyed.org. I had to buy free all those hostage packages and you would get rich Sounds better now?




I know, that i can not enforce our TOS. In fact, i have to nothing in my hands against anyone, that decides not to respect them. But nonetheless, i count on the fairness of others in this community to respect our TOS, and most of them, even here , do so.

And as pointed out before: If i should decide to quit, all content would be free to use for everyone and no TOS would apply anymore. But until that time, I ask to respect them.

Thank you

But maybe i should explain, why i pay him lots of mind. As he does represent this forum as well as the booty. It's not Hecubus's site, it's not bigtruckgirl's site, it's Pescado's site, if anyone would be asked. And if he does say something, I can't ignore is without taking notice of it.

He's not an every day angry user, who want's to harrass someone to get some relief.

Edit: Maybe he just want's to harrass someone to get some relief from time to time, but he is definetely not a normal user

it's the definition of filesharing in combination with the strictness of you guys, that disturbs me.

As i have read and seen, the donation gift, which is offered by numenor, is included in the booty just for being pay. despite the really, really HUGE amount of work, that he donated to the community and the fact, that everyone can choose, how much he would like to donate on his site.

As someone did post, it's because it is not free available to all and therefor has to be included in the botty. A shame in my eyes, but it follows the logic behind it.

If some people now do focus on "nobody did say, we are not allowed to fileshare" and if this new rule is exactly as strict as the old, this means, that everyone, that does not allow filesharing (and i HATE filesharing for the reasons pointed out above) becomes a candidate for the booty.

It does. But if i do read phrases like "it's just not funny enough" as reason, why our stuff is not also uploaded to the booty, i do ask myself, what saves me from being the next, if someone gets bored and is looking for 2nd class fun.

This didn't apply to pay sites in specific. It was more a general posting regarding respect within a community. And the "threat" to focus on "filesharing is the king, attack anyone, that does not allow it". If this would be the case and anything of our content would be uploaded to the booty, i would be really, really pissed. As this would show, that it's not a community thing but a personal war against anyone, that does not like to accept the rules of a single group within that community.

I'm a german, i have to be fascistic

No, to be serious:

In my definition, a community is a balance of GIVE and TAKE. If you abstract anything around it, everyone GIVES and TAKES the same amount, that's the perfect vision of a real friendly and stable community.

I (or we at Pimp my Sims as creators) GIVE creations to this community. 100% free and if you take our traffic into consideration, lots of people seem to like, what we are doing. And we TAKE (reserve) the right to set up some (in my eyes quite user friendly) terms of use, which you call fascistic, for giving this stuff to the community.

But as we are part of this "oh so good" community, the GIVE and TAKE thing does also apply to our visitors as other part of the community, the players. If anyone thinks, that he likes, what we are doing, and decides to TAKE our stuff, he has to GIVE (accept) our conditions.

This is a fair deal. We GIVE and TAKE, any Sims 2 player TAKES and GIVES. If one site think that he/she GETS LESS, than he/she GIVES, than noone is forced to TAKE and therefore, not to GIVE.

That's it.

If one side decides not to GIVE after TAKING, it is breaking that fundamental rule of any working community in my eyes.

That does not apply, if i should decide to close Pimp my Sims.com, as I would not GIVE anymore, so nobody else would be forced to GIVE, too. But as long as WE do GIVE and TAKE, anyone else has to do so the same. But as long as we GIVE, i also reserve the right for us to TAKE.


Edit:



I just realized, what you did post. It would not be funny enough to upload our stuff? That's, why you are doing it? If yes, you can feel really lucky for having so many really convinced supporters, fighting against paysites to make you feel better when uploading their stuff.

I got a question:

Where do you guys draw the line now?

I mean, as it seems, pay sites have been legalized. So, the "free pay stuff" does not work anymore.

If you now focus on filesharing, what criteria do you use? Is any site, that does not allow filesharing, an enemy? Including free sites like mine, which does strictly prohibit any direkt filesharing or upload on third party sites, if you do not use our creations for your own creations like houses?

As someone did post in another thread, the single numenor donation item was uploaded to the booty, as you could not make differences between "good" and "bad" pay content.

So, in future, you have to copy every single object, that is not allowed to be fileshared?

This is not meant as a kind of harrassment or something like this, i'm just deeply curious, how you will define your "guidelines" now.

Solander

Do you have the permission to post any pictures of Miss Germany 2007?  :wink:

A german reader

I do perfectly agree with you, that one should never use another persons copyrighted content. But lots of free sites (e.g. MTS2 etc.) contain HUGE amounts of obviously copyrighted content. And it's not the problem of the uploader, it's the problem of the site owner, if someone doesn't like this.

The only thing i wanted to say is: If you start something, you should be absolutely sure, that you know, what's going to happen. Including worst case scenarios, which are maybe unlikely, but should also be taken into consideration.

Fighting fire with fire is a really, really stupid idea in my eyes. Nothing personal against you, but you should really consider, if you are able to keep control of it after calling up sleeping dogs.

What makes you guys so certain, that only "pay" sites will be affected? Some underemployed laywers may find it very interesting to check out every single sims page after another? Jonny Depp sending his laywers to this site, as lots of you guys did use his picture as an avatar?

And EVERY single sim site, that displays ads, is a "commercial" site in the eyes of a bored laywer and could be worth a try. As you upload copyrighted stuff to a page to attract visitors, who generate revenues.

Do, what you think you have to do, but there have been lots of people killed while fighting fire with fire.

Just my 50cents or whatever is is called.

Yep, i did But, to answer your edited second phrase in your posting, it's obviously a huge problem for me, that nobody does understand me in the first try

Read all three flipcharts and you will see, that you guys are slammed the same way the pay creators are It's almost the same text. And no, i didn't mean anyone in person or something like this. But as someone mentioned before, check the first pages of the thread. In the first version of the text at my site, you felt offended by, I did state clearly, that i left the contact form and guestbook open, if someone wanted to talk with me. Well, noone of you did, but started to flame here I was really surprised, as it hadn't come to my mind for a second, that you guys could feel offended, and the fact, that i did change the text, shows, that i did not intend to do so. But regarding the first few pages of this thread: Some of it was fun to read, something somewhat less, but i think we should call it quits now.

I do not care about what you are doing and i do not care about pay sites. I run a free site, which is quite enough for me, and i won't bother neither pay nor pirate sites with any missionary statements

It was kind of a Solander joke, which as always offends almost everyone, but well, i do not care  :wink:

Thanks for the link. And thanks for informing them about the clarification of my statement