Article about paysites and EA

[Anouk]

PineAppleBrain, Spacebuccaneer, a pm is on the way!

[Amazone]

EA letting paysites sell branded items and not taking any responsibility
- The possible implications of their actions
- Any info that has not been talked about yet by her, send it to her
- The fact that numerous people have contacted EA by phone, have sent letters to directors, etc, and if you are one of those people, mention it to her!
- Legal information

Time to sharpen our pitchforks again and involve some media.

Thanks

*Edit: In the end it's not a huge deal. But if we can contact some game websites with this kind of information, it can help the cause. Someone in for another campaign?

Very nice of you to bring up newer posts with critics against EA for not doing anything to shut down paysites, even though they claim themself
that payitems are illegal.

This is nothing new, we have discussed it over and over again, and this
article didn't bring anything new to the table so and say. But i agree, isn't it time to focus more on media, to bring the focus constantly against EAs own double moralism. Why do they create rules in their EULA and then not follow them? Well, most of us know the answer, time to make an action against them? I would do it.

This is a question we've also discussed several times, but what is the real outcome after many of you have sent e-mails, questions, stories about paysites to some guys representing EA? The paysites are still up and running, they are renewing their sections, their items are getting more expensive, Peggy is moving her sites around, probably 1 reason is because she knows very well that her stuff ends up in the booty, so i don't understand all her fuzz trying to make it more "difficult".

A very good question: "- EA letting paysites sell branded items and not taking any responsibility"

I have another question, who would for sure work where i live, - EA
is in fact responsible - i can complain on paysites to them, for items made
by paysiteowners and are broken. Why i could complain? Because they are not following their own laws against copyrights, and if that isn't enough, EA have a big official site who promotes paysites, they put
the spotlight on them, give them free commercial, interviewing paysiteowners. EA promotes them, doesn't their own EULAs matter at all?

When you mention to involve some media, which media do you think of?
Who would be interested in typing about this, when it's not been mentioned in any media before? I can't see that a newspaper is interested in a case like this, Sims 2, the paysites and the pirates, but there might be someone who are interested in
the law, The EULA and the principels. I agree that gamers magazine
could be a good place to start with, like Pineapplebrain and another one
is suggesting. I really would hope they could accept the articles.


For the english people, or americans, don't you have something like
"customers survice" - an organisation or section under the law, who protect the customers right against beeing swindled, and to protect the
buyers against beeing tricked. If i lived in USA i would have gone that far, or at least asked some lawyers there what is going on, and hope for the best that they cared.

To me EA do not longer stand as a serious company, i thought they were very professional, but they are not. They are not honest to their customers, who let other customers abuse their own laws and get away with it. I have no respect for EA as a company anymore, i bought BV
and Seasons, but i might stop there.

So i am with you Nouk in for a new action, paysites must be destroyed!
It would be nothing better than to involve some media, even if it's not
CNN or BBC.  :lol:

[Lorelei]

One more clarification:

The "pirate" thing is just a metaphor. Robin Hood would be more apropos. We buy files that should not be being sold in the first place, according to the EULA all must click "I agree" to when installing the games.

It is more about the booty (pirates have treasure) than "pirating," but the forum owner enjoys a bit of misdirection now and then and seems to be amused that the pirate metaphor causes some to think we are literally pirating files.

All booty files were paid for. And we don't play favourites. We like Numenor, generally speaking, and respect his work, but a payfile is a payfile, and we chose--after heated debate!--not to give people a pass or ignore that they are defying EA's EULA just because they are otherwise nice folks. It's not, for the most part, a campaign motivated by animosity. If a paysiter is disliked, it is because they are jerks, or are boils on the bum of the Simming community, not specifically because they have payfiles.

Note that TSR claims MTS2 is "bad" because they have adult items.
Point A: not anymore.
B: TSR's "non-adult" content frequently crosses the line, in that you hope kids aren't downloading it, and in that their advertising revenues are generated by some skeevy sites.
C: it was already noted above that MTS2 was vilified after TSR ran a raid on the site trying to woo away talented creators, hoping they would be persuaded to sell their work (thus taking AWAY FROM the community at large, as not everyone can afford to buy files or have a credit card to pay with).
D: personal and non-Sims-related info from years and years ago was dug up about MTS2's lead guy and the constant barrage of posts about a grossly exaggerated version of that info, played for maximum outrage, directly led him to get fed up and bail.
E: TSR had to be threated with lawyers to release a creator's content when a creator decided she couldn't be a party to breaking the EULA anymore.

Also already mentioned, but worth underscoring: paysiters shared financial and personal data about customers. Indefensible, really.

DDOS attacks are attempted on PMBD and freesites constantly to run up hosting bills, pressure freesiters to join TSR, to eliminate competition, and so on.

Again, people breaking the law compounded that, because EA are being waffly about enforcing their own legal documents, with further illegal and unethical behavior.

Then, as also noted, there's the rampant copyright theft and infringement: paysites sell items that rip off the IP and branding and logos of Disney, Coke, Pepsi, Winnie the Pooh, Starbucks, Subway, celebrity photographs that are owned by magazines or professional photographers or the celebs themselves, makeup brands (with their barely Photoshopped advertisements included), fashion labels / designs, and more.

Paysiters steal free content and try to sell it, like 2-for-u stealing Enayla / Linda Berkvist's free skins. Pandora stealing MATY's hacks. DLMuslow stealing from, well, everyone. SORRY! I goofed here. DLMuslow is not a paysiter, she is just a thieving wart. Sites trying to sell kathy and Eric's (free and generously provided and supported) Insiminator tool. It never ends.

One pro-paysiter even got caught raiding the booty and used "it was really a DDOS-like attempt" as her excuse for this hypocrisy.  

The "donations for bandwidth" excuse was somewhat fair back when Sims 1 first came out. Now anyone can find free hosting for their creations, and so that excuse is just hot air.

People pay and do not always get anything for the money! Scams abound.

And the best content, IMVHO, has always been from free sites, who are also more open to providing support for their work.

[SamanthaS]

DL Mulsow is a paysiter?

[redisenchanted]

DL Mulsow is a paysiter?

Nope, just hated by lots of people.

[Anouk]

She is still free! Keep your hands off of her!

[dietofworms]

Thomass has been queried over and over again about the appropriateness of skanky items but he hasn't bothered to reply, let alone to remove the items in question.  Hey, sex sells. :roll:

[Devilfish]

One pro-paysiter even got caught raiding the booty and used "it was really a DDOS-like attempt" as her excuse for this hypocrisy.  

They tried to use that as an excuse? Is that online somewhere? I'd love to read it.

[Paden]

Yeah, well, at least we can be thankful that he keeps Atwat on a leash behind a computer instead of on a street corner trying to sell it...

[calalily]

One pro-paysiter even got caught raiding the booty and used "it was really a DDOS-like attempt" as her excuse for this hypocrisy.  

They tried to use that as an excuse? Is that online somewhere? I'd love to read it.

Lyric Lee - that was her claim for this:
http://paysites.mustbedestroyed.org/hate/lyric_log.txt
http://paysites.mustbedestroyed.org/hate/lyric.txt

[Amazone]

Funny bitch!  :evil:  Is she really an admin in #social too? I have been there sometimes, but haven't seen her nick.

[Harlock]

Lyric Lee ... is a interesting case, she was a administrator on MTS2 and their offshoot S2C until she seem to done something ...

From the FAQ:

Lyric Lee (LL): a former moderator at MTS2, who has wreaked havoc throughout the community; she’s Pescado and Delphy’s …favorite…person. <cough cough> Lyric Lee has led any number of slander campaigns against Delphy; we think she’s full of crap. A search on her name here will produce a bounty of threads for your reading pleasure.

[Lorelei]

DL Mulsow is a paysiter?

Crapcakes. I knew that. That's what I get, trying to type all that in before running out the door to class. My bad.

See? We are even even-handed amongst freesiters! Clearly when one sucks as a human being, we hate them even though, technically, we are on the "same side."

Would "strikethru" it, but that code isn't enabled on here or something.

[Amazone]

I guess her avatar as an admin at supernova shows who she really is...LL

[calalily]

She's not admin any more - she used to do everything around MTS2, but she's long gone for her beloved paysite.

Grey Goose at the Save the Sims Community forums, where they plot to close freesites, is in fact Lyric Lee.