Ok. I'm tapping out of this one.
If you're going to take an opinion dump, you should at least stand by that smell.
At least you tried injecting your ideas of ethics and virtue with the rest of your post.
I didn't try, I made it obvious.
It's entirely ethics and opinion.
You choose to not bother, I chose to make an effort.
That's why you and I are in very different positions.
Nice thing to say, but anybody close to doing it is far from thorough. It is part of the laziness.
If they can't manage that much then their project won't last. Problem is self-solving in the end.
Good luck with that one. So I guess Broadsword just needs to ask nicely for us to stop using their stuff?
They're a corporate entity, we are private individuals.
We don't expect them to ask us nicely, but in this niche community, we try to respect each-other.
Though given it's something you haven't really been around long enough to experience here.
Another idea of a virtue quickly ignored when the 2D client is downloaded for emulation purposes.
How?
Yeah, people know where to find that one and it is so in their faces loud and proud. This is like saying I gave credit to everyone by putting their names in the comments section of a DLL file.
There's quite literally a huge Credits button right there on the login screen of the client...
Not taking the bait, you're the one that brought it up.
At the end of the day it's irrelevant to name the shard unless you want to reinforce some precognitive bias about that shard.
Nope, but for something that is just a hobby monopolizing a small part of someone's life, it is the easiest route and usually justified with the same form of ethics that caused them to pursue a hobby in Ultima Online emulation.
You can't monopolize a small portion of something, it would actually be the opposite by definition.
It entirely depends on the person/people we're talking about, otherwise it's just conjecture.
You're being ambiguous with your statements here, there are words but no real meaning can be derived from them.
Stop beating around the bush and say what you want to say, save the consequences.
I don't think the Ultima Online emulation community will wither away because of art thieves. Hell, Broadsword keeps trying over and over.
Of course not, but advocating that people don't bother in the first place isn't helping.
This was the battle cry during the MP3 days where we posted music thinking if the artist has a problem with it they will let us know that we wronged them. Until then, we will assume they are OK with it. Just another laziness justification.
Emulation is a legal grey area, hence why we've been debating the same old topic for two decades.
It would be pretty clear-cut if EA had ever taken action to protect the games' assets, but they haven't.
In an ideal world, everyone would live by the honor system, but providing a ToS/EULA without actually enforcing it means nothing.
This situation cannot be compared to the days of music piracy, the lines regarding that are quite clear and have precedent set for reinforcement.
Blizzard actively sued private WoW servers and won, that's why they barely exist today, because a precedent was set.
In context, we're talking about members stealing from members, not members stealing from a corporation.
I could even make the joke that EA are the true thieves with the way they gouge people through microtransactions, and how that should justify ripping off UO, but that'd be unfair. Two wrongs don't make a right.
On the contrary, their 20 hours is worth alot for another shard own to not have to spend the same time making that map. The first person saved them 20 hours of work. The point I was making with that statement is that shard owners feel somewhat powerless from thieves because they have to let the public download the art files in order to play. So the copy protection at that point is naming and shaming.
20 hours of map work is going to get you a flat grass island with a roofless hut and a few scattered plants, unless you're a professional mapper in which case you're not going to spend 20 hours on the map, more like 20,000.
When you equate that to labour rates, that's a lot of money.
There are ways to secure the files, and there are ways to mediate 'theft' cases where it does happen.
Some people tend to be a little more dramatic than others and don't stop to think because they're still angry at having their work ripped off.
The OP also pointed out that there was artwork unrelated to UO being 'stolen', but that seems to have been conveniently ignored.
He is the moderator of that Reddit.
I don't care how he moderates his Reddit
You quite clearly do to be bringing it up in the first place and using it as a significant argument in your cases going forward.
I've removed a shard and its' owner from ServUO very recently for exactly the same reason.
They failed to communicate an understanding with the shards' owner by completely ignoring all communications, then failed to properly address the concerns during mediation.
Their attitude showed they had potential to cause more drama within this community than they would contributing to it.
Whether it was the same shard as described on Reddit, or not, is up for debate because I haven't paid attention to the reddit for a while (I actually don't care what happens there).
When I say you don't know all the details, it's simply because you don't have any way to know what events had lead up to that thread.
It was just started by pointing out the absurdity of stealing from one person and then complaining you were then stolen from. The statement was made that someone's art was in a particular shard files and that they didn't give permission. It is just back to the irony of it all.
It's not irony, it's hypocrisy.
Everyone is a hypocrite, including myself.
It's impossible not to be, it's part of our humanity - a trait which needs to be kept in check like any other vice.
I don't think anyone is panicking in this thread.
Calming down doesn't mean anyone is panicking, it just means this is going to get heated, people are going to have differing opinions, so we should remember why we are here beyond this thread.
I would like to ask; who are you and why are you here at ServUO?
Thanks
