A Very Interesting Discovery...

[Bella the Paysite Slayer]

That would be the Mall of the Sims. The site and its contents sucked anyways. No wonder you were not impressed.

Ah.. the Mall of the Sims.  That place was the biggest ripoff of the TS1 era.  I was never been dumb enough to subscribe, but I've heard that the owners did some pretty nasty things with your money.  Plus, I have seen their freebies, and most of them look like they were created (poorly) with free Maxis programs like Art Studio, Homecrafter, FaceLift Gold, etc.  Everything had a cheap, crappy look to it.  I suspect the pay stuff was of same quality, but this was one of those nasty paysites that doesn't let non-subscribers preview the pay stuff (Note: These are among the worst paysites, as that means they are hiding something.).

Guess What? Mall of the Sims is still online:  http://www.mallofthesims.com/.  What's rather amusing is that this place is still TS1 only.  They never created a TS2 section (Probably because they haven't updated since 2004! ).  I can't possibly fathom that anyone still subscribes to them.  Yet, they're still up and running and 100% pay.  Hmmm... Wonder if the same will happen to PeggySims2 (the biggest ripoff of the TS2 era) once TS3 comes out?  Hey, it's a thought!

I looked over some of those threads, Bella, and all I can say is...wow. I wish I had been a member of the online community at the time, because I would have loved to rip those idiots a new one.

I'm with you 100% glasscigarette!

Ah the booty, the great equalizer.

Love the booty.  Wish there was a place for the TS1 crowd, though (other than Sims Cave).

[Kragey]

Ah.. the Mall of the Sims.  That place was the biggest ripoff of the TS1 era.  I was never been dumb enough to subscribe, but I've heard that the owners did some pretty nasty things with your money.

What level of nasty are we talking about here? Like, name-calling a small child nasty, or buying mail order brides and whoring them out nasty?

[glasscigarette]

I'd like to second Kragey's question. Did they do something "nasty" with the money, or was it like Rose giving out people's information? Either way, I find it repugnant.

I'd never heard of the site until I read this thread, so I checked it out just to see what it was like. Of all the sites it links to on the front page, only one is still running, and it hasn't been updated in over 5 years. And if you enter through the visitor's entrance, you get a huge page of text talking about Norton anti-virus; to actually navigate the site you have to use the weird map thing in the corner.

Shitty site is shitty.

[Kragey]

...or was it like Rose giving out people's information?

SAY WHAT?!

[glasscigarette]

Yeah, she handed out her customer's PayPal info. It happened quite some time ago, but I'm sure it was discussed here...

Yep, here's the thread.

http://phorum.mustnotbenamed.com/index.php/topic,58.0.html

[wyrdwing]

Talking of things that come up in search I was trying to find help as to why Freetime suddenly stopped working and this came up with AVG link scan. I just thought it was funny. 



I blurred the address under it because it was a link to a pirate torrent site. (Another unrelated link that came up) 

On topic I don't know anyone that payed for sims 1 content back in the days since all the pay content I saw were celebrity skins and catwalk dresses.

[redisenchanted]

   Yup some of us were stupid enough to pay for sims 1 content back in the day. I subbed for a month or two at Wood for Sims. There was also one other site that had the only vehicle replacements that I found for the game. I can't recall the name, it had fat sims too. I considered subbing to sim freaks too, but never got round to it. Their sims 1 stuff was really good, though they haven't transitioned well at all.

I didn't learn my lesson for a while. I paid Peggy for her crappy, gappy hairs one month    I also gave money to Around the Sims. I don't feel too bad about that though.

Now though, I've left my foolish ways behind. No paysite will ever get any of my monies again.

[Bella the Paysite Slayer]

What level of nasty are we talking about here? Like, name-calling a small child nasty, or buying mail order brides and whoring them out nasty?

I'd like to second Kragey's question. Did they do something "nasty" with the money, or was it like Rose giving out people's information? Either way, I find it repugnant.

Calm down, guys. I don't remember the source where I read it, but I believe MOTS was doing the same thing Rose has been doing.  They're probably still doing it to whatever # of subscribers they still have left, but really, only the most retarded n00b sheep would subscribe there nowadays.

[deelink]

Well I was over at Mermaid Cove, still on my hunt for the ultimate Goopy Drag Dress when I stumbled over this: "With a minimal working knowledge of SimPE, you can easily edit existing Female skins to make them available to Males. I do not recommend editing existing skins! But it's OK to "clone" them with BodyShop, and edit the "clones," for your personal use only. Distributing others' skins without permission, even if edited, violates international copyright laws"

ahem.

After I read this, and got suitably annoyed, I got distracted by a blinking gif on the lower left corner "TSR Fansite Index" button.
We all know TSR agenda, but do you think, that to get on their index you have to follow their totalitarian attitude towards CC? Of course you do! And by last count the index had 157 sites THAT MUST BE DESTROYED!!
Well, if they have booty on offer of course. But it still irks me to think that people are so freaking stupid to tell me that once they release CC they expect to have full control over it. How many people modify content for their own purpose? possible hundreds of thousands of people, do the creators grow boils on their heads because of this? Only if they knew, I guess. Maybe.
All I say in return is that, once I've paid for it - it's mine. If I want to give it to the booty. I should be able to. Intellectual property cannot apply to a SEQUINED SKIRT, I am not making money of it, I am simply sharing the love. There is love in this when it was created right? Oh, you just made it to make money? Let me see it in-game.. oh ew...it shows...

disclaimer: I am very very very ill. Sorry If I made little or no sense.

[SnarkyShark]

Well I was over at Mermaid Cove, still on my hunt for the ultimate Goopy Drag Dress when I stumbled over this: "With a minimal working knowledge of SimPE, you can easily edit existing Female skins to make them available to Males. I do not recommend editing existing skins! But it's OK to "clone" them with BodyShop, and edit the "clones," for your personal use only. Distributing others' skins without permission, even if edited, violates international copyright laws"

So, it's OK to alter or convert maxis made outfits and post those all over the web (which I've seen done plenty of times without anyone raising an eyebrow), but when it's a hobbyist's creation, then suddenly it's wrong? I wouldn't think so. If EA ain't bitching about someone, say, converting their adult outfits into teen outfits, then fan creators have no reason to bitch if someone converts theirs and shares it. If you can't deal with it find another hobby or keep it to yourself.

And Dee, I hope you feel better soon.

[Bella the Paysite Slayer]

Did some more spying @ T$R (Man, I'm so bored! ):

http://forums.thesimsresource.com/showthread.php?t=251311
http://forums.thesimsresource.com/showthread.php?t=244358

Both above threads are from 2004, and once again, poor little Buffy_slayer02 is being mauled by frisbitch & co.  Apparently, they suspect she is *shock* filesharing!

http://forums.thesimsresource.com/showthread.php?t=242262&highlight=paysites

This one's also from 2004, and apparently, this Simmer, MoNNie 2 Dope (notice she/he has also been blacklisted like Buffy_slayer02), wants a popcorn machine from T$R for their home theater.  She/he naively wandered into T$R's forums thinking someone would give it to her for free.  What I can say is that frisbitch wasn't very nice to her...

What I find amusing is that to these assholes, Maxis stuff isn't copyrighted, but if it's user-created, it suddenly has a copyright.  Good logic, ain't it?    

[deelink]

Thanks Snarky. I've had a crappy couple of weeks. Tooth Pain, period Pain, now tonsillitis. I don't want to derail this thread, so I shall thank you quickly but gracefully! shanksyoushanksyoushanksyou I will try to get better!

I have a question... will copyright exist in the Sims if for example, a person painted an original artwork and put it on their own painting mesh?
I guess they could hold copyright of the image but not of the actual object.. right? I think I just would like clarification on that

[glasscigarette]

oooeeeeoooooo *think Harvey Birdman's lovely ESP laden judge*

The saddest part about this thread is that I almost missed a chance to say, "MENTOK: THE MIIIIND TAKER!"

Oh, pedophiles might be trolling TSR. Wait, that's another thread. Um...Dee is sick. That is sad.

Feel better!

Edited to fix a typo-diddly-o.

[Bella the Paysite Slayer]

I have a question... will copyright exist in the Sims if for example, a person painted an original artwork and put it on their own painting mesh?

Still not.  Would copyright exist if a person created their own hair texture and put on their own hair mesh?  No.  Yes, the "skin" contains their artwork, but it still technically belongs to Maxis because the codes and everything were Maxis-created (Or so I believe.  I play TS1, so I only have to worry about head and body skins/meshes. ).  And the mesh, unless they totally recoded the mesh themselves, it's definitely still Maxis' object.  Blah... Blah... The point is that copyright will never exist in the Sims.  The only people that can copyright anything would be the game creators, Maxis.  Now, it's okay to give credit to creators of custom content for their work, but copyrighting is a completely different matter.  The confusion between "crediting" and "copyrighting" is what allows several paysites to continue fucking their subscribing sheep over!

[Paden]

Thanks for the history, Bella, maybe you ought to see if you can track that poor kid and see how it turned out. Like check to see if they're now a brain dead drone or someone that fights the bullshit. Thing is, while important, this stuff happened four years back in time. We can't change what went on then. But, we are trying to change what is going on now. If you find sites where they are still selling Sims one content, maybe you should get like-minded people together and do a Booty thing on them, setting up a site and subs and shit so that people don't have to pay to get the good, where you can fileshare to your heart's delight. Me, I choose to focus on the here and now, and what's up ahead. I'm not going down without a fight and while it's handy to have the history that you've brought to us and while we can learn from what happened, we have to move forward and change it now or people are going to wonder what in the world happened to those pirates that enraged the bloodsuckers. We're gonna  knock their asses into the dirt. And we're gonna like it.