While entertaining, I see nothing legal or professional about this threat.

Just more of the same.  EA has the 'do whatever the hell you like' policy, as long as it keeps the money rolling in.

You'd think TSR would realize the more noise they make, the more potential damage they are doing to themselves with all this nonsense.
If TSR becomes a squeaky enough wheel in the ears of the right people, EA may be forced to drop their 'partnership'.
Eh, one could dream.

I think there are a few reasons for Blizzard taking action.   

- they just won against Glider in court (botting program)

- paid leveling guides (Zygor's Guide, for an example) are becoming more popular.   
  it's not just a .pdf or a book you buy - you buy an addon to install, and it displays step by step what you need to do in-game.
  with a big pointy arrow and nice map mods, etc.

- sometimes Blizzard takes ideas from the mod creators (like CTmod) and puts a similar version in the default UI of the game.
  if you have people getting paid for their mods, couldn't they demand that Blizz compensate them as well for 'stealing' their ideas?
  that seems like you'd be getting into a lot of ugly grey area, and copyright stuff...i'm no lawyer, so /shrug

Anyway, to keep it on the topic of The Sims

I posted the update because while I'm not sure I agree with Blizzard's methods 100% - I do think that paid mods/add-ons detract from the creative spirit of the community.
Same with the Sims.   It alienates good people that create for fun, and often create more quality stuff.   And I wish that SOMEONE at EA would realize what they're doing to this community by not taking a stance, or enforcing, or updating their f***ing policy.    I realize my opinions matter not to EA or their speshul paysite partner.

I believe The Sims games were originally meant to be a 'free' and open moddable game.   It's been a good time-waster for the last 8 years, and I was interested in seeing if they've made the Sims3 engine more stable.   But I seriously doubt it will be.   =/     They're just grubbing for more money at this point.    If EAxis had wanted more cash out of me, maybe they should have made a Stuff Pack called 'We fixed our crap code' and I would have pre-ordered it.   

I had a point in there somewhere.  Maybe.

Not sure if this is the right thread, but I thought this was worth mentioning.

Blizzard (the company behind World of Warcraft), just released an update to their policy
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/policy/ui.html

People can no longer charge for their mods or add-ons.   

People have been debating it a little on the forums, and it reminded me of the Sims community.       

So, you see.....EA *could* amend their policy if it suited them.   Blizzard had no problem putting the smack down.  /shrug

and re: the petition.... I did sign it, and I'm sure my email address and name are out there now...  only have myself to blame for that, I suppose.