Food for thought... if this really is the legal loophole that EA games is going to jump through to be able to protect and worship TSR's and other paysites asses, the booty might end up making paysites legal. Follow me on this one, I know that sounds strange, but, techically, someone charging for content could say, "I'm only charging you for the convenience of downloading my stuff from my website. If you want my stuff for free, go to the booty."
The only problem with that is how do these booty shoppers know what to look for? In order for a site to fall under this protection, they would have to implement a "Pay at the Door" policy. So unless you've paid to get in, you don't know what's on the site. If you've already paid to get in, then everything on the site will be available to you. Why go somewhere else at that point. I can't imagine paying just to visit the forums or to submit creations or to see what kind of content they might have would be a particularly advantageous business practice. Unless you got some good p0rn happening it all sounds a bit restrictive to me.
I had a feeling that was going to be misunderstood.
No, I am not saying that any paysite will ever leap for joy and say, "Thank you PMBD, We love you!" We know that is never going to happen.
However, if the whole idea is that "Noo, you're not paying for items, you're paying for something, it just looks like its for items!" (Let's face it, to say you're paying for the site is ridiculous. Who is going to pay to merely look?)
Now, if a site has multiple servers, they can offer all their stuff for free, but if you donate, you'll get a better server. Then, you aren't really paying for the items, you're paying for the privilege of a fast download.
I would imagine that if there was any way,
besides paying for items, to get items from any site, a paysite owner could get around that loophole by, instead of bitching about the booty, using it to prove their legality. "I'm not charging for the items, I'm charging for the privilege of getting the items from my site. My items are free somewhere, they're free on the booty." They could even take it a step further and say, "If you donate, you can download the items here, and if they don't work as you hoped, I will replace them, or refund your money. If you get them from the booty, I make no gaurentee, you're on your own."
Do I think it's likely? About as likely as a snowstorm in July in the Bahamas. However, it would be ironic if by the booty's very existence, these paysite owners could continue and stay within the rights of the EULA.
The only stickler would be, of course, the artists at TSR. They have nothing to do with the running of the site, they are paid by how many people download, there is no way to look at that as anything but "They are making a profit on Sims items." Nothing can change that. But, even Thomas's extravagant paycheck could be written off as "Costs of running the site."
ETA: Buttercup, go back to Peggy and let her know you came over and made your statement. Then, go to the BBS and suck Drea's tits for awhile, because clearly you are not ready to be weaned off breastmilk.
PMBD
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