The gall - Polish site tries to make money from fanmade mods

While I do understand your sentiments, and I personally have no clue about this specific case and will not comment on that, I do like to add something to the discussion. Whilst maybe not directly in response to the original post, some of the comments did trigger this response.

Some people seem to think that providing files, on ftp-servers or any other way, is free. It is not. Someone is paying for it, whether it's the advertisers or the creators. While I do understand, -and applaud- the sentiments that it should be free of charge, it saddens me that a lot of people have a certain mindset that says: "it's on the internet, so it is free!".
 
Yared said:
Use Daemon Tools? I use it.
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No. Too much of a hassle to copy .isos over. Too much of a hassle to go out to the store to get games. Costs more money too, since the stores don't have weekly sales on games. Besides, some stores are getting out of the PC games business entirely.

Steam is low hassle, gives me good games cheap, and doesn't lock me out of the games I bought and paid for. Not my number one online retailer, but definitely number three.
 
Hey Phungus420, I appreciate your sentiments that parts of an EULA, etc. may be difficult to enforce or unenforceable as they generally seek to place conditions on use that go beyond the law. However, if you look at Aforess's link to a Wikipedia article about EULA's, it seems that the courts have upheld some provisions while not others and no general ruling on EULA's in their entirety has happened yet.

In reality, though...if you click that link and agree to the EULA you are bound by it unless a court determines otherwise. If you do not agree with any part of it and decline, installation of the software terminates. (In effect, that would be one example of a non-judicial enforcement.)

Do not believe a EULA is non-binding or unenforceable! Firaxis has implied consent to modify CivIV and thus voluntarily relaxed some of the provisions of its EULA.

As I've said earlier, I dislike things going the way of Steam. (No intent meant to offend the Steam fans out there.) I do not mind sticking a disk in a drive for a few seconds to start any game or ordering a new game on-line. Waiting two or three days for it to arrive in the mail is no great hardship.

Don't any of you guys/gals get the point of my argument? Steam is a third party software and it's main purpose is to tether you to their site to buy more products. It is not optional, but conditional to the use of my purchased hard copy DVD game (software). It is not limited just to games you purchase and download from Steam. That's my main objection in that I'm being leveraged to do business with them by their control of access to a purchase I made from another business entity without giving me the option to choose to be a Steam customer or not. (i.e., I cannot play the game I bought unless I become a Steam Subscriber under their terms.) All of that is not simply just a matter of digital rights management.

It is interesting to note that, from a business prespective, every person in the world who is playing or will play (for example) DOW II, Empire/Napolean Total War, etc., will become a customer of Steam. (Unless they are a software pirate or own pirated software. lol!)

I don't think my concerns towards Steam are that unreasonable?
 
Firstly a EULA is not a legally binding contract. Show me one case that has ruled otherwise and I'll find you a higher court that has overruled it. Secondly any provision in a contract that is illicit or unenforcealbe in a contract is void anyway. There is absolutely no legal basis for half the crap in a standard EULA, and so it can be ignored, look up right of first sale for instance. If EULAs were really legally binding, then explain why used game stores exist. Everything that's binding in a EULA is covered by intellectual property law, the EULA is just there so the firm can say that the user was informed that the product was covered by property law; all that extra crap is hogwash.
 
Well, I do realize this is a friendly discussion to arrive at something useful. In that respect......I am reluctant to keep going back and forth because it almost seems a bit antagonistic.

However; Phungus420, take a look at this information about EULA's and Proprietary Licenses or "Clickwrap" license agreements as they are sometimes called:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickwrap

It has some pretty interesting information with regard to EULAs, but more specifically the "clickwrap" type that we encounter when installing some type of software or computer game. Courts do uphold them as binding. If you look through the information at the above link, you'll find a case that details where a EULA was ruled to be binding as the defendant did indeed click through and install the software.

In quote from part of the page: "Few cases have considered the validity of clickwrap licenses. However, in the cases that have challenged their validity, the terms of the contract have usually been upheld.", and also: "It should be noted however that even though courts have ruled some clickwrap licenses to be enforceable contracts, it does not follow that every term of every clickwrap license is enforceable. Clickwrap licenses must still meet the criteria for enforceability of a unilateral form contract." (This is in regard to United States courts.)
 
Afforess said:
You've never seen these before:

"If you have paid for this software, please contact your vendor. [Insert Product Here] is free of charge"
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All the spam I get is either links to porn sites or "gift card/ lasik/ army" advertisements.
 
I just got sent the same e-mail again. Only this time they left out the following paragraph...

But you should be aware that our FTP servers are available only to our paying subscribers (more or less like Fileplanet) or people who decide to pay us via SMS (we are charging for transfer not file).
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Sneaky bastards.
 
Given that Planetfall, Fairy tale and Dune Wars have recently been mentioned in PC Gamer, and given that today I got a similar mail from a French corporation, Le Sage of Fairy Tale and davidlallen/Deliverator/keldath of Dune Wars perhaps can expect or have received this mail as well.
 
I've not gotten any such mail. But I keep my eyes open and I won't accept they charging anything for my mod either.

Thanks for the warning, Maniac!

Oh. And Fairy Tale was indeed on a French mag a couple of months ago, but they don't charge anything for hosting the mod and they kept it freely for download on their website too. Tha French mag was OK, although I didn't get an own copy of it although I was promised!
 
Yeah, I would have said "yes" towards the French too, except they require me to guarantee that 'my company' owns all the intellectual property rights related to my product.
 
mmhh...okay, that's for now good to hear.
Not that it spreads further.

Maniac said:
Given that Planetfall, Fairy tale and Dune Wars have recently been mentioned in PC Gamer
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Uh, yeah, wanted to ask about that: Any online source?
 
Maniac said:
Yeah, I would have said "yes" towards the French too, except they require me to guarantee that 'my company' owns all the intellectual property rights related to my product.
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OK. That wasn't the same guys as mine then. Mine never required anything like that.

I've ordered PC Gamer and I will scan what's in there when I get it and post it here on CivFanatics!
 
Le Sage said:
Ah OK. I don't know any online source, I'm afraid.
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Then maybe later, when the mag has been long released :/..

Afforess said:
Pretty sure it's not. Is it now illegal to copy news articles too?
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As a future computer scientist, you should maybe read some computer news portal, then you would know, a how big deal it is, that google copies the entries from news sites into their index ;).
And when they sell the magazine, it's sure illegal to distribute it for free ;).


So, back to topic: No one else?
 
The_J said:
As a future computer scientist, you should maybe read some computer news portal, then you would know, a how big deal it is, that google copies the entries from news sites into their index ;).
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I do - and I know Rupert Murdoch want's Google stopped - but Google isn't breaking any American laws.
 
I could pull a Gordon Ramsay and let out all sorts of expletives, but I'll leave it at "Mr. Ziolkowsky is a Jerk."
 
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