EULA and Sentinel Craft

[Elfsmelf]

Some of you may have heard about announcements from Mojang in relation two its End User License Agreement 

If you have not heard about it here are some useful links you can use to find out more info:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnSx_Zk8A7o

http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/27i69l/the_eula_megathread/

If you don't want to pour over all of this information, here is a basic overview of what has happened

- Most servers offer donator packages, which give players access to certain usually hard to attain items
- The problem is some larger servers are offering extremely expensive donation ranks in excess 10,000 dollars
- Children are spending money to buy these packages usually from their parents credit card. Mojang has been receiving many complaints about this but has not, until now, done anything about it.
- Mojang has now stated (in an effort to stop the problem of complaints about unsuspecting parents paying large sums of money) that it is enforcing what has already been stated in its End User License Agreement:

The one major rule is that you must not distribute anything we?ve made. By ?distribute anything we?ve made? what we mean is ?give copies of the game away, make commercial use of, try to make money from, or let other people get access to our game and its parts in a way that is unfair or unreasonable?. So the one major rule is that (unless we specifically agree it ? such as in brand and asset usage guidelines) you must not:

    give copies of our Game to anyone else;
    make commercial use of anything we?ve made;
    try to make money from anything we?ve made; or
    let other people get access to anything we?ve made in a way that is unfair or unreasonable.

?and so that we are crystal clear, what we have made includes, but is not limited to, the client or the server software for our Game. It also includes modified versions of a Game, part of it or anything else we?ve made.

So the problem is by providing donator packages server owners are " making commercial use of anything we?ve made and Taking money from anything we have made"

The reason Mojang hasn't enforced this is kind of obvious - without donation perks, donations would decrease significantly and servers would not be able to run for very long without being shut down.

However in the last three years the problem of excessive donations and angry parents has reached such a level that Mojang has decided to do something about this. It has said that it disagrees with the use of donations which allow players to gain certain items.

So that's the background info, I can't really explain it very well so I suggest you go to the YouTube video...

The reason I am talking about this is I am worried about the implications this will have on Sentinel Craft. If someone could answer that would be really cool. I personally believe that it will have little to no effect because (Good work team SC) most donations are plugin based. Mob Disguise etc. which is not really Mojang's intellectual property.

But you know thats law stuff. Kind of boring, and I am not a lawyer by the way so I have probably said things wrong.

Elfsmelf

EDIT: I do not mean by any of this that SC has done anything wrong, I am not trying to point the finger or anything like that. I love this server I would never mean that sort of thing. I am just wondering if this change effects SC, that is all

[Meteora]

Children should not have access to credit cards & PayPal accounts. It's those parents' fault because they let their children use theirs. The end.

[Elfsmelf]

True, but it is just an example that I have used, and unfortunately more often than not children find a way

[DaVoBMX1725]

The thing which would be mostly effect with donors I think would be kits eg ./kit tools /kit stone /kit iron /kit redstone /kit diamond

[angelu]

All of your donator perks davo ...

[DaVoBMX1725]

Angelu, all perks pretty much aren't possible  ifsofacto aren't made my mojang

[Richgotya]

this does not effect us we do not SELL any thing or Make money in any form on a legal standing donations are just that donations =P


You may recieve perks from donating but like in real life you donate to charity you get a tax write off and other perks so its the same thing charitys only have to have 50% of proceeds going to the cause while they pocket the rest.

100% goes to our cause

[sirwilliam732]

From my understanding of the follow-up Q and A's there are a couple things that are donator perks that are disallowed by the new EULA.

"You are allowed to sell in-game items so long as they don?t affect gameplay
We don?t mind you selling items in game, but they must be purely cosmetic. Pets, hats, and particle effects are OK, but swords, invincibility potions, and man-eating pigs are not. We want all players to be presented with the same gameplay features, whether they decide to pay or not."
This includes kits and fly command.

"Can I charge for access to server commands?
Yes, as long as their effects are purely cosmetic. Commands that affect gameplay, such as a command to fly, cannot be sold for hard currency."
Just to clarify above comment

"Can I sell ?kits? for hard currency if I provide a balanced alternative for non-paying users?
If the ?kits? contain gameplay-affecting features they are not allowed. Gameplay balance is not relevant to the EULA. If the items included in the kit are purely cosmetic, you can charge real money/hard currency."
Further Clarification

"You cannot charge real-world cash for in-game currency
We don?t mind in-game currencies which are earned through playing, but you are not allowed to sell them for real-world cash. Remember ? if the stuff you sell affects gameplay, we?re not cool with it."
Can't sell soft currency for hard currency

Now with that said there Rich brought up the point that they are donations not selling but here
"You are allowed to accept donations
You are allowed to accept donations from players. You can thank them publicly or in-game, but can?t give preferential treatment for donating. You are not allowed to restrict gameplay features in an attempt to make money."
That means the donations are not donations, they are charging for certain perks except for Name color change and joining the full server. With that said I understand the server costs money and it goes towards running it but I think its a bit naive to ignore the changes and continue with the current revenue.
If anyone has any counter points I am very interested in reading them as there are plenty of grey areas here. I'd love to hear more.

Sirwilliam732

Sources:
Original FAQ for donations https://mojang.com/2014/06/lets-talk-server-monetisation/
Follow up Q&A https://mojang.com/2014/06/lets-talk-server-monetisation-the-follow-up-qa/

[MacLeezy]

Fly is a Cheat, And Wouldn't normally be enabled on survival,(accept on Creative mode... which is available to SM and enables fly in that area)  So its not like they are restricting its use to make money. and I'm pretty sure all things obtained in /kits are available on the server anyways (Plus Your not allowed to sell things obtained from kits SC Rules) and it like rich said they are perks... not for sale, that is why donations stack and you can achieve all perks over time even if you donate small.

either way, it would take someone making a case against Sentinel Craft and I Don't think they make that much money or are Inciting children to donate to the extreme to have that sort of attention, this sort of thing can't be changed over night as there are MANY servers that have Donation perks available.

[Migas]

Kits --> Regular players have access to items offered in those. So there's no violation in that.

Fly --> Regular players can achieve this command if they are active enough and are promoted to Senior Member.

We are not profiting anything with it and every donation go to the server itself. Also, we are not selling anything because stuff like fly, kits, mob disguises and in-game currency are perks from it. The main objective of donations is to support the server and as a "Thank you" from us, they receive certain perks. Players are not paying us something, they are simply donating. Therefore, our server is not affected to EULA because the donations go 100% to the server and players are not buying, they are donating (different words on the dictionary).

[MacLeezy]

and Migas, is that true about Fly for SM? I don't think I have access to that, Maybe I have the wrong command.

[Migas]

and Migas, is that true about Fly for SM? I don't think I have access to that, Maybe I have the wrong command.

Senior members get fly on creative world and both SM and Members can get /fly through events develloped on the server. So everyone may have access to the same feature.

[MacLeezy]

Gotcha... See everything is on the Up and Up!

[sirwilliam732]

Kits --> Regular players have access to items offered in those. So there's no violation in that.

Fly --> Regular players can achieve this command if they are active enough and are promoted to Senior Member.

We are not profiting anything with it and every donation go to the server itself. Also, we are not selling anything because stuff like fly, kits, mob disguises and in-game currency are perks from it. The main objective of donations is to support the server and as a "Thank you" from us, they receive certain perks. Players are not paying us something, they are simply donating. Therefore, our server is not affected to EULA because the donations go 100% to the server and players are not buying, they are donating (different words on the dictionary).

I think you missed my point, whether you call it a donation, gift, paying for it, buying or an act of god you are not allowed to trade hard currency for things that are not cosmetic. Yes people have access to the items in the kits themselves but they do not have access to the command for the kit which is a gameplay changing mechanic no matter how you look at it therefore forbidden. And the fly thing I think might be okay because you can get the gameplay changing mechanic through strictly in game means(the actual command /fly itself) so unless there is a way to get the /kit commands through in game means I don't think that would be okay with the clarification on the EULA.

"You are allowed to accept donations
You are allowed to accept donations from players. You can thank them publicly or in-game, but can?t give preferential treatment for donating. You are not allowed to restrict gameplay features in an attempt to make money."
Donations can't be traded for anything other then a thank you or a purely cosmetic item plain and simple.

[Richgotya]

You are allowed to accept donations
 You are allowed to accept donations from players. You can thank them publicly or in-game, but can?t give preferential treatment for donating. You are not allowed to restrict game play features in an attempt to make money.


Right off the page. All of our features for Donators are 100% able to get by ANY member. As we give out kits, flying, disguises, ect as voting prizes. We even give out donation status on special events! So nothing is really ever "restricted" from us.

The game play features that we restrict, are with Sm (creative world new content ect). Though you can donate to be one, but its also earned if a player applys and deserves it.


Does this clear up any of your concerns? I can understand if your new and do not understand every thing. So feel free to reply if you come up with any other concerns. We will try to address the issue as soon as possible.