A second dstar: I check your site every day and I love that there's always something new to look at! While not everything you post is my style, I still love browsing through ALL your screenshots in the same way I'd browse through a real art gallery. Your work is wonderful!

Welcome, to PMBD!

Okay, here's my issue. This tool (while I won't use it), can run on Macs. I refuse to play my game in Bootcamp of other windows emulator (for both practical reasons and out of principle). I would prefer over anything to use Delphy's tools--however, her stuff is never mac friendly. In fact, there are very few mac friendly tools available. The two installers available (by Marhis and Echo) either won't work on my system and/or are rather glitchy/finicky/awkward--so I'm pretty "feh" about what's available so far. I hate to say this, but TSR's tool (and subsequently, TSR) is going to be very popular for mac users.

To be honest, if I didn't know better (and a majority of Sim gamers fall into this category), then I'd be downloading TSR's tool in half a heartbeat. I'd be all over TSR like a 14-year-old is to Edward Cullen.

For serious, if the free community keeps back-burnering the mac community, then paysites will just keep gaining momentum and popularity because they're making attempts at being appealing to the widest audience. It's a damn cryin' shame, is what it is... 

Could you also send it to me? I have a formal complaint pending and I would like to attach these links to it if it's okay. Thanks

Likewise! That's the first thing I've seen on TSR that made me go "Grhjkjkflyiagjsdfgujvh!!!!!!" Yes, I have seen ugly stuff before now, but only the eyeliner has thus far received an audible noise from my talky wordhole. UGH! LOL!

OMG, I'm all a'drool! Thanks for sharing these, I didn't even know about this site (just some of kitty's stuff on MTS)! Total simsgasm. Ungh!

Well, people do it when creating fonts all the time--it's one of the things we learned in my graphic design program about what constitutes fair usage. You can take a copyrighted font, shift a few vector points on each character, rename it, and then do whatever the hell you want with it. It's the vector points that determine the copyright. That's how sites like DaFont can offer free downloads of the Harry Potter font without getting harassed about legalities--because it's not the Harry Potter font Warner Brother's owns, it just looks very similar without the vector points visible. I'm guessing it's the same with vertices. That might not make it right, but it does make it legal.

Thanks you for the 2nd, Lady Vader. I already opened a complaint about the cyberccrimes issue without offering the names of any parties involved. Basically I told them there is suspicion of spyware/malware in their downloads and that their registered user's secure information may not be safe due to lax encryption standards. Chances are that nothing will come of it without more voices behind me or first-hand accounts of actual wrongdoings from the people involved (e.g.-Buggybooz (sp)). I have the opportunity to add examples, names, and other info to my pending complaint if anyone wishes to supply me with ammo. Otherwise, I'd suggest submitting your own complaint via the URL here:

http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

I just hope the reports of TSR's wrongdoings are accurate and not made-up hullabaloo to make TSR look bad--otherwise, opening a complaint based on fictitious information will only strengthen their position and weaken the position of PSMBD. I really can't stress that point enough. But if what people are saying on these boards is accurate, then TSR is in quite the bad position. So again, the more people that submit a complaint, the more likely something will happen. Think of it this way: If you saw someone breaking into your neighbors house and taking a shit on their kitchen floor, you'd call the police, right? You wouldn't ignore it until you came home to find a poop on your kitchen floor, would you? Well, this situation is basically the same. And honestly, this situation scares the bejeezuz out of me due to TSR's apparent lack of morality. I'm just glad I never gave TSR any financial info on me as I never bought a subscription.

But to bastardize another movie quote: you shouldn't be scared of your paysites, your paysites should be scared of you.

dstar, you raise some very good points and I'd like to acknowledge you taking the time to consider the issue and respond. Thanks!  That said, I'd like to offer some counterpoints:


Well, not necessarily. The point of conducting an investigation is to gather definitive proof. The FBI (like any law agency) just needs "reasonable cause" to investigate. If enough people complain, then that would constitute reasonable cause.


I agree. No one should have to be part of an investigation who doesn't want to. However, I'm sure if an investigation did happen, the agency involved wouldn't release the personal information to the private parties involved at the behest of the unidentified party as that would violate confidentiality laws (which are taken very seriously in the legal profession). Those who want to remain anonymous just have their information recorded in litigation (which clients and private parties don't attend, just counsel). But that's even assuming any of this would play out in court, which is highly unlikely. Since no one is accusing TSR of theft or identity fraud, chances are they'd just get a fine and a cease and desist order (and a shitbucket of bad publicity-i.e.- they'll get handed a big bowl of poop, a spoon, and maybe a napkin).


Exactly. But no one would expect a private party to pay being that what TSR is doing is a civil offense and the gov't pays for that. The reason why cybercrimes are investigated by the FBI is because it's a civil offense. Civil cases aren't paid for privately.


You're right, EA won't do anything about the EULA violation because they don't care enough to pursue it (as is EA's prerogative). However, imagine (if you will) surfing Google and The Sims Resource pops up in the search results. Next to it are BIG FREAKIN' RED LETTERS that read "WARNING, SUSPECTED ATTACK SITE". Now, do you think EA would continue to list TSR as a fansite partner with THAT sword of Damocles hanging there? Hells no! EA doesn't want that kind of bad publicity, they'll just hand TSR a "goodbye and thank you" if that ever happened and send them to the same naughty chair that Mod The Sims is (unjustly) inhabiting. Maybe EA will still never pursue the EULA, but TSR won't be able to wear the cc daddy pants anymore. It's not the specific resolution that PSMD might be looking for, but it's still a "karma is freakin' sweet" scenario.


If this was entirely true, TSR wouldn't be so convinced of their unaccountability that they blatantly commit cybercrimes.

Dstar, I think what you have to offer is very valid, when discussing TSR from the perspective of EULA. But. this isn't about EULA, AT ALL. Honestly, I couldn't care less about the EULA debate. That's EA's gauntlet and I'm not picking it up. If people make a living with their paysites and they're allowed to get away with it, more power to 'em. That EULA debate (which has been going on for ages) is not the issue here. And the Chinaman is not the issue here either. Er... sorry, ADHD moment and I love The Big Lebowski...

Anyway, EULA is not the issue here. The issue is about TSR releasing Spyware/Malware in their downloads without user knowledge,  and using personal account information on its users to hack into other websites. These are crimes, and serious ones at that. The folks at TSR may be above EA's policies, but they are not above the law. THAT is the issue here.

I posted a whole long rant in the other thread about this, but you're right--at least in the area of copyright protection.

However...

Cybercrimes (like illegally hacking into competitor website accounts for the purposes of cybervandalizing, and planting spyware/malware in downloadable files) are a whole different matter. In the cases of cybercrimes, I'm guessing the FBI works with foreign agencies which DO have jurisdiction. TSR generates a good deal of revenue from their American customers and therefore has a good deal of information on their American customers as a result. Furthermore, they have their hands in the back pockets on a major American company while they engage in cybercrimes. These are factors that the FBI may be interested in.

So, if you want to have a kvetch (even if you're not sure any good will come of it), here you go:

http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

I don't really complain about pay sites (though I don't subscribe to them out of principal-I mean, paying real money for a digital armchair or pair of photoshopped sneakers is just DUMB--and I do not have the money to throw away like that). My view is if EA is letting it go than there's not much that can be done about it aside from supporting the free community (EA has a whole boatload of high-powered corporate attorneys on retainer if they REALLY wanted to enforce their EULA). If TSR wants to charge money and EA lets 'em, well, das leben. No, I don't like paysites, but I don't usually complain either--I just wave my flag for the free community.

But cyber crimes are a whole different deal and for that I WILL complain. If TSR is being EEEEEVIL and committing illegal douchebaggery by infecting computers with malware/spyware and and using the information (and unencrypted password info from their own site) for hacking into competitor websites and cyber-vandalizing (as described in the "TSR: In Ur Accounts, Deletin Ur Stuffs!" thread), then formal complaints need to happen. They are not merely being annoying, they are being criminal. So, if you feel the hot sting of injustice, then here you go:

http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

It's the gov't site for reporting cybercrimes (yes, TSR is a foreign run site, but EA is not and a good part of their customer base is not). Maybe if enough people raise a ruckus...? I wholeheartedly support the free content community (I'm posting in this forum, ain't I?). But frankly, bitching about TSR's activity to each other isn't going to change anything--especially when it seems they are so clearly incriminating themselves. To bastardize a line from one of my favorite movies, "bitch in one hand and shit in the other hand--see which one fills up faster". If people are going to bitch, then go to the the most effective ears.

Ah, I stand corrected. Though I do mean evil in the sense that evil activity may be addressed by stern men in trenchcoats and fedoras who will investigate claims just controversial enough to get EA reconsidering any cooperatives they have going on.... if you get my drift.

Hey there,

I'm a newcomer to this thread to I'm responding to the first few posts (so forgive me for bringing up old news and getting off the current discussion):

"'Secure' passwords are mostly a myth. While it pays not to have really LAME passwords, beyond that, it is no use. Besides, given that TSR bundles mysterious SPYWARE in with their downloads, it is likely that Buggybooz picked up a keylogger trojan, probably from a TSR download.

So remember, get your TSR downloads HERE, where we have swept and cleaned them, don't run strange executables, and don't download from TSR."

This chills be to my social advocacy bones. If this is true, than TSR can be reported to the FBI for cybercrimes (look it up on the FBI site. Delivering Spyware is a reportable offense that the FBI takes seriously). If anyone can prove TSR is still doing this (or at least attest to it, if not prove it)--specifically, those who sweep the downloads before uploading them here--then I'd suggest reporting them. After all, they're not going to stop hacking into people's accounts unless they get smacked in the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. This probably won't stop them from being a paysite, but it might curtail them from being an EEEEEVIL paysite.