TSR Sharing your infomation!

[Anouk]

Still leaning towards psychopathy or malignent narcissism with this man.

[Paden]

He's a walking malignancy, that's about the best way to put it.

[Alexia]

To my thinking had we ever the notion of attacking T$R, we would leave nothing behind. Hell we'd sow the land with salt to make sure nothing like this ever crops up again.
But this is not what we're about and the A$$ and co will never get it. We inform people about this situation, but in the past we have clearly taken a stance against using hacking or other illegal means as a way of battling. Two illegal actions (wrongs) do not a right make.
So any lurkers here spread the message: We may be "pirates" but we do not believe in burning down the ship. We'd rather sic lawyers on their asses than hackers.

[Pescado]

To my thinking had we ever the notion of attacking T$R, we would leave nothing behind. Hell we'd sow the land with salt to make sure nothing like this ever crops up again.

Please, give me some credit here. If I were going to hack TSR, I would make sure that NOTHING was visibly damaged, and just turn the place into a giant phish pharm. Mmm. Phish. The notion of destroying such a potentially valuable intelligence asset before it has exhausted its usefulness would be absurd.

[Darqstar]

To my thinking had we ever the notion of attacking T$R, we would leave nothing behind. Hell we'd sow the land with salt to make sure nothing like this ever crops up again.
But this is not what we're about and the A$$ and co will never get it. We inform people about this situation, but in the past we have clearly taken a stance against using hacking or other illegal means as a way of battling. Two illegal actions (wrongs) do not a right make.
So any lurkers here spread the message: We may be "pirates" but we do not believe in burning down the ship. We'd rather sic lawyers on their asses than hackers.

Yup.  But remember, Thomas thinks we are breaking the law, (the law written in his head) knowingly by offering stuff in the booty.  Black Garden pretty much laid out TSR's opinion of pirates when she said that we're just selfish cunts who want everything for free.  They really do believe that we, deep down in our little black hearts, know that it's really okay to sell this stuff, because EA isn't upset by it.  They really do believe that we don't really care about legalities, we just want all their awesome goodies for free.

So, Thomas figures that we would hack the site.  After all, if we're already "breaking the law" by offering precious pay files for free, why not go further?  Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, so-to-speak.

 

[SnarkyShark]

So if they should blame anyone to hack them every few days, I had to choose between three possible reactions:

1. Admire the skills of the hacker, as he/she must be almost supernaturally skilled and experienced
2. Admire TSR, as they did create the worlds most unsecure large-scale website with public traffic
3. Don't believe a word

Just my 50 cents

Most reasonably intelligent people would go with #3. However, all Thomass has to do is convince a handful of FAs.  Since they're not the brightest bunch and loath to give up the only claim to celebrity that they'll ever have, they'll happily swallow his fail sauce before asking for more.

(Your fifty cents iz are naow mine! - )

[ooglafina]

That's a delusional idea, thinking that we "want their goodies for free." I don't use TSR stuff, pay or free.

I've never understood this copyright crap, even back before the piracy movement. People used to make cute little copyright lines and put them at the bottom of their websites, like if they declare that it's copyrighted that it makes it so.

[rum nate]

I don't know about any other countries, but here in the US, the second you create something, there is a copyright on it, but it has to be your own work. So the second someone creates a website, they have the copyright to it.

[ooglafina]

I was wondering about that after I wrote it. But I always thought that they were extending the website copyright to their creations and I don't think that works, since it is based on something else that is copyrighted by somebody else. That was always my basic understanding, but maybe I'm wrong. I always that of it like writing fanfiction. You couldn't claim a copyright on a story about Obi-Wan Kenobi and publish it as your own, even if it is on your own website. ??

[Paden]

No, you couldn't, because the universe of Star Wars belongs to George Lucas and his company. He invented them, so unless you're in his pantheon of approved writers, you are breaking his copyright. The files that people make are composite works, using the copyrighted material that belongs not to them, but to EA Games, in order to get it into the game. Therefore, what you make before you put it into the package format belongs soley to you. Once it's in the package file, from what I've understood, it belongs to EA Games and cannot be sold unless you're a licensed vendor, which they've not made any legal and binding agreements with any third party.

[Alexia]

That just shows the ignorant morons T$R employs. BlackGarden considers us greedy bitches? Heck when T$R stamped on her little clique she was the one running off in a huff trying to set up her own little fan club. But when Tomass showed her the money, straight back into the open cesspit she jumped.
I couldn't give flying fuck if BG thinks were the ones who are greedy, given that she's notorious for trying to brain wash the twee teens into subscribing. And B.t.w. taking the Ass seriously when it comes to legal matters? ORLY? What law school has that fuck up graduated from exactly BG?

[Silver Arrows]

BlackGarden.. lol. Anyone else notice that her av/siggy on her simshack or whatever her forum is called feature a character from the game Phoenix Wright where the protagonist is... a lawyer?? Ironic?

or maybe I just need to get a life

[Paden]

The Law School of Gravity and Heavy Objects. That means that anything dropped from an upper story onto the head of a person below will result in someone like the people that work at TSR, therefore increasing the numbers working in their sweat shop.

[Devilfish]

I don't think anyone here actually believes hacking into TSR would be any easier than hacking into a Swiss bank account. If the FAs/assorted TSR mouth-breathers believe this, they'll lose whatever inkling of respect I apparently still had for them. I'm not a hacker, not really, but my ex knew a trick or two (the guy probably could hack into a Swiss bak account) and it painfully obvious that hacking TSR would be a LOT more trouble than it's worth. There's no glory in it outside the Sims community. Who cares enough to do that? I only know a few people who could do it (at least if the place is as secure as it should be) and they're sure as hell not Simmers

But yeah, when things go wonky, blame it on the hackers.

Pardon.

TEH haxx0rz!!&!omgbbq!

Yup.  But remember, Thomas thinks we are breaking the law, (the law written in his head) knowingly by offering stuff in the booty.  Black Garden pretty much laid out TSR's opinion of pirates when she said that we're just selfish cunts who want everything for free. They really do believe that we, deep down in our little black hearts, know that it's really okay to sell this stuff, because EA isn't upset by it.

A frightening thought occurs. The TSR diehards have accepted Electronic Arts as their ethical Führer.

 

[nixy]

I was wondering about that after I wrote it. But I always thought that they were extending the website copyright to their creations and I don't think that works, since it is based on something else that is copyrighted by somebody else. That was always my basic understanding, but maybe I'm wrong. I always that of it like writing fanfiction. You couldn't claim a copyright on a story about Obi-Wan Kenobi and publish it as your own, even if it is on your own website. ??

You can copyright your graphics and your text on a website, but you can't copyright methods of doing things or processes - like layouts and formatting, for instance. Copyright has to do with distribution rights, not creation. For instance, a computer users' manual will be copyright by the computer company, not by the technical writer(s) who actually did the work. That's because "work for hire" copyright goes to the employer/entity paying instead of the person who actually does the writing and graphics. It's also possible to sign over copyright to another party - various branches of publishing expect authors to retain copyright and others expect to have it signed over with (hopefully) additional wording that specifices the actual creator's right to be paid royalties on a work to which they no longer hold copyright. Current copyright law covers static works and doesn't translate well to dynamic works, which most websites are - they really need to come up with a method for attributing rights to dynamic works that isn't copyright or trademark or patent, since none of them apply entirely. Anyway, just as with the .package format, just because someone thinks they own something doesn't mean that they actually do.

As for your example, depending on the media source that fanfiction is based off of, you're talking about infringement on a copyright and/or trademark, and a fanfiction story can't be published for sale without the permission of those who hold the rights to what are presumably specific and identifiable characters. Obviously, though, the actual story portion isn't covered by those copyrights and trademarks, placing the work into a sort of limbo where all the plot, action and dialog are owned by one party, and the characters performing these actions and speaking the words are owned by another party. Change the names and whatever circumstances are necessary in that story, however, and you have magically removed the claims of all parties except the actual author, who then has copyright over the entire thing.

Fake edit: I see that your question is already answered. Have some redundancy! With a side of overkill!