[CLOSED] BIS Petition

[Storm18 22]

I know this might not be allowed or at least probably frowned upon.
Recently CUP, Community Upgrade Project, has been threatening communities who are allowed by BIS to monetize, stating that you cannot have any type of monetization to either remove it or remove their mod. If you don't BIS will take action by either removing your community from monetization and worse, blacklisting.
What is the purpose of even having your server approved?
It should also be noted that CUP is mostly ported content from Arma 2; however, BIS no longer cares about server communities and seem to stand behind these content creators even if most of their content is made from BIS themselves.
I read https://www.bistudio.com/monetization/faq and found that the first one made me laugh, "Arma 3 tools and documentation are generally available only for a non-commercial use and to create non-commercial content. May I use (or license others to use) the content created with these tools on monetized servers?"
The answer: "Yes, you may but only for the type of monetization specified in the Server monetization rules."
How can a community that made a mod from Arma content be able to govern what server owners are allowed to do?
I have decided to email back Vojta hoping to get a clear reason why.

In the meantime, I have made a petition to BIS. 

https://www.change.org/p/bistudio-bis-monetization-protest-against-cup
There are already over 40+ users who have already signed it, I hope that Bohemia will see and understand what they are doing.

 

Edited May 29, 2016 by Storm18

[READTHESCROLL 203]

lol what a joke... Mod makers have the permission to do that. It may be BIS assets but it is other peoples time, hard work and dedication that even make it possible for you to have these things on your server and they do it for FREE. The reason they stand behind the mod makers is because WAY more people benefit from having that particular mod around than they do from having your server around. It also influences more people to make add ons because they dont have to worry about people making money off their time and hard work if they do not want them to. Other mods just want to stay away from it all together and they have that right.  Mod > your server. Period. You also left out some important pieces from the FAQ.

On my server I am using mods created by other people. May I get approval to monetize?

You may, but ONLY if you have proper permission from all of the authors of such mods. Monetizing without it contravenes our licenses.

I am a content creator and I have released a mod, but I do not wish to allow other people to use it on their monetization-enabled servers. What can I do?

You don’t have to do anything. Unless you give permission no one is allowed to monetize your creation.

https://www.bistudio.com/monetization/faq

[Storm18 22]

1 hour ago, READTHESCROLL said:

lol what a joke... Mod makers have the permission to do that. It may be BIS assets but it is other peoples time, hard work and dedication that even make it possible for you to have these things on your server and they do it for FREE. The reason they stand behind the mod makers is because WAY more people benefit from having that particular mod around than they do from having your server around. It also influences more people to make add ons because they dont have to worry about people making money off their time and hard work if they do not want them to. Other mods just want to stay away from it all together and they have that right.  Mod > your server. Period. You also left out some important pieces from the FAQ.

On my server I am using mods created by other people. May I get approval to monetize?

You may, but ONLY if you have proper permission from all of the authors of such mods. Monetizing without it contravenes our licenses.

I am a content creator and I have released a mod, but I do not wish to allow other people to use it on their monetization-enabled servers. What can I do?

You don’t have to do anything. Unless you give permission no one is allowed to monetize your creation.

https://www.bistudio.com/monetization/faq

 

 

 

 

Yet that gives them the right even though it was ported over from Arma 2?
I stand behind most mod content creators, but CUP doesn't want any monetization even reserved slots.
I don't see how that would still apply to them since their mod is most likely 90% Arma content.

Not just my server either, any server with monetization that is using CUP got the email.
It's not a joke when the majority of Exile communities agree.

Edited May 29, 2016 by Storm18

[READTHESCROLL 203]

Yes because they (CUP, whoever) made the actual MOD. BIS is extremely generous with regards to using/porting their assets however they default the decision to the mod makers on how/where that mod can be used for the most part. It's not strictly about the content within the mod, it's also about the MOD itself. You seem to be forgetting all the time and effort people have put in to porting all these assets over. They make custom configs (which are NOT BIS property) and retextures to make them work correctly and look better in A3, as well as maintaining the mod and furthering development on it. 

If mod makers dont want the mod they created to be used on $$ servers then they have that right to restrict access and take action if needed. Bottom line is if you don't like it, tough titties. That's the way it is and you'll have to find other mods to use or better yet, start porting over your own assets. When you get to the amount that CUP has released maybe your opinion on whether or not other people should make money related to assets your team spent 100s of hours on and released for FREE will change.

Edited May 29, 2016 by READTHESCROLL

[Ayaka 4]

Not every thing in CUP is BI Assets, there are other arma 2 modders that donated their models to CUP to port over to Arma 3. If CUP wants to protect other people's stuff, then let them do it and stop whinning. If you want make money off arma 3, then port stuff over and create your own mods. 

[ka0s 457]

100% agreed with @READTHESCROLL & @Ayaka.

I'm currently developing a mod together with @zisb, and I'd get pissed as FUCK if somebody is monetizing their servers with our mod, however the mod won't work on other servers without modifying the mod itself, as it's specifically designed for our server. In general mods released for Arma is open source, however only if you're releasing it under APL-SA license (Arma's own license). How would YOU feel if you spent say 6 months on a mod, offering it for free and 1 week later you see it running on a monetized server? 

Sounds to me you have absolutely no clue how time consuming modding is.

Rivers will be cried. Suck it up.

[Sgt Smash 153]

CUP is very poorly ported, the sooner the project gets replaced by a team that know what they are doing and can do a better job the better!!

[Valthos™ 115]

CUP guys are not interested in any Deals. We argued with BI stating it was ported content. BI are not going to piss the people making content so a few servers can sell base boxes and get away with it.

the fact Exile allows it to be done is great but the CUP guys do not want people making money of there work and you can understand that. 

we took our Cups Lingor server down due to the fact we could not take donations to pay for the server.

Edited May 29, 2016 by Valthos™

[Tobias Solem 559]

Not a huge fan of CUP to begin with, but I do think content-creators should have control over what happens with their mod.

['45 28]

TLDR: It's time for CUP/Bohemia to get in touch with reality, start showing some meaningful respect to the rest of the Arma communities and think of a solution that doesn't involve strong arming and bullying.

 It goes further than just the monetization, it's creating an environment conducive to hacking poptab sellers. As admin, I have been approached a number of times by players looking to pay me, through paypal, for poptabs and a number of times we have had to ban hacking poptab sellers. Can you see the corealation here...? The players are shouting "TAKE MY MONEY" at us and we can't because CUP are playing dog in the manger. Do the players care? No, they just find a hacker who'll sell them what they want. So what's happening is the money that players are willing to spend is lining the pockets of hackers rather than going towards the running costs of our servers and we have CUP and Bohemia to thank for this.

Another thing is, if CUP's license terms don't explicitly forbid certain types of monetization yet they're crying to Bohemia to strong arm the communities they're not happy with(but are legally within the license terms) over said monetization and having Bohemia threaten these communities, that's bullying. I think we can all agree that bullying makes no one look good or smart.  

The fact is, whether you're happy about it or not, we all live in a capitalist society, everything costs money or can be assigned a dollar value, i.e. time is money. If the CUP devs are happy to release their content for free, good for them, it's not as if it's not appreciated. Maybe they can easily afford all the time and effort they've devoted to their mods but not every fan of Arma can and they should not be bullied out of running servers by a minority of high minded pie-in-sky stalwarts.

If they have a problem with people making money off their content, what the hell do they think server companies run on, fuzzy sentiments and gratitude!? Money is already being made off their content, they're just too obtuse to see it. Why is it ok for one crowd to make money but not another? If it comes down to a problem with people profiting off their content then the meaning of the word profit needs to be examined. If a community's costs come to $100 a month and money in is $100 a month, there is no profit. We could all come to a gentleman's agreement that any excess is farmed out within the communities to developers who are willing to accept donations. If CUP don't want a share, fine, farm it out amongst the rest so they can set it off against their costs or simply reimburse them for their time.