Legal violations by A3L: Arma 3 life

[ArmaPilot 1]

They taken down the page literally seconds after I posted the video.

http://arma3-life.net/forums/index.php?/donate/

But i've got VIDEO evidence of it now so ya'll fucked.

SCREENSHOT:

Non-edited screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/zaQ2zjd.png

Screenshot /w comments: http://i.imgur.com/P7lqSMS.png

Discuss this on REDDIT: http://www.reddit.com/r/arma/comments/2lt10v/how_much_money_does_arma_3_life_makes/

God damn bro.. They really are kicking up the damage control. Shows that they are hiding something. If they all claim they are doing nothing wrong then why to they keep doing shit like that?

[havatan19 10]

yup the sites are different, the .com site is more closed in terms of the forum but they have a public donation site there too and it seems like they earn far more money per day if you use the .com site.

look: http://arma3-life.com/forums/index.php?/donate/

at the .net site, the last donation was on november 6th but on the .com site, the last donation was today.

[Tacti-Cool 10]

This is pretty sad. Thats more than enough money to HIRE someone to create legitimate content for them, no need to steal.

[havatan19 10]

-removed-

from the .com site.

Edited November 10, 2014 by havatan19
bad imagehoster

[ArmaPilot 1]

yup the sites are different, the .com site is more closed in terms of the forum but they have a public donation site there too and it seems like they earn far more money per day if you use the .com site.

look: http://arma3-life.com/forums/index.php?/donate/

at the .net site, the last donation was on november 6th but on the .com site, the last donation was today.

You realize that .net is a spinoff right?

[havatan19 10]

You realize that .net is a spinoff right?

what do you mean exactly with that ? that .net is a second site made by arma 3:life "devs" or that .net is another domain but leads to the .com site ?

[BadHabitz 235]

Looks like 34 donations just today.

[ArmaPilot 1]

what do you mean exactly with that ? that .net is a second site made by arma 3:life "devs" or that .net is another domain but leads to the .com site ?

No its mocking .com . The .net has its own free open server with A3L addons, they get ddos'ed by .com allot.

[havatan19 10]

No its mocking .com . The .net has its own free open server with A3L addons, they get ddos'ed by .com allot.

ah ok thx didnt knew that

[GSP167 1]

ah ok thx didnt knew that

Also havatan, suggest you remove your link the mega.co.nz image hosting service, there's a bunch of porn ads and moderators probably won't like that too much. (Or maybe they will but that's another story for another day)

Use imgur next time, here's a link to your image http://i.imgur.com/XdrC8j4.jpg

and yes, the .net version is a copy of their website/server someone made to mock them. Which is hilarious because A3L seems to be pretty pissed about that.

Here's a link to the donations page, 450 donations so far since October 22nd 2014.

http://arma3-life.com/forums/index.php?/donate/goal-2-a3l-server-donations/

Edited November 10, 2014 by GSP167

[MattLightfoot 1]

So the rippers got ripped - well there is some justice in that.

I must say I am very disappointed in BIS's response via Matt that they will not deal with the full team with the fullest range of economic measures open to them.

A3L team as a whole:

1. modified Tonics no-derivs code and claimed it as their own,

2. modified Milkmans and RobertHammers no-derivs mods and charge people to use them. Both of these guys have asked them to remove their content, but they have not complied with this wish

3. published a price-list for content, and when this was evidenced they hid it basically, and told BIS that they had taken it down, but continued to collect money from new users wanting access.

4. abused people in the forums asking questions about what they were up to, and have been disrespectful to Gnat, Tonic, myself and others about our questions

5. presented themselves to the world as professional, with a lawyer no-less, only to be outed by their own disillusioned team members as youngsters, and confessing they made the bit up about the lawyer (essentially to try to scare us off)

6. allegedly stole licensed copyrighted materials from Microsoft, Forza, Shift 2, and CL3

and today they

a) continue to secretly charge for access

b) publish these allegedly illegal models in the arma 3 engine

c) promote their stolen and modified arma community assets (Tonic, Milkman, RobertHammer)

d) sow a big seam of discord amongst the collaborative, experienced modding community that keeps BIS games popular

so what can be done?

first a forum ban for these guys unless they confirm they have left the mod team

make complaints here

Web host: http://www.networksolutions.com/abuse-report.jsp

Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/arma3lifeofficial

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Arma3life

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/a3life

Steam: steamcommunity.com/groups/a3l?l=german

write to Marek Spanel about it using the contact form here

http://support.bistudio.com/

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t247/eggbeast/a3lpriacy_zps7d85fdbf.jpg

sign my petition

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bis-vs-piracy

You seem to be missing the key point here, we can't take legal steps, it's up to the LEGAL copyright holders of the content to pursue it, whether it be tonic or whom ever.

We also can't offer legal advice, the most I can say is that it's up to the legal owners to pursue, we can't do that for them.

Edited November 10, 2014 by MattLightfoot

[GSP167 1]

MATT WTF

It clearly says that they can't make PROFIT with Arma 3 assets.

Are they making a profit? (They're using arma 3 as a platform to make profit at very least)

Yes

Are they making a profit with other games 3d models?

Yes

Are they making a profit with mods from the community such as RH Weapon Pack, Tonic's Altis Life, etc etc

Yes

Can BI sue then?

Most likely YES

Can companies such as EA, Crytek, Microsoft Studios sue them for making profit with their content?

Yes

[PolyG 69]

MATT WTF

Can BI sue then?

Most likely YES

Your missing his point - BI has done what they could. They made them agree to follow the EULA again - So its out of their hands. They can offer support but not legally do anything. If you can find more breaches in the EULA then they can help again, for the time being its up to the Copyright holders.

[torndeco 128]

@MattLightfoot

Technical they are in violation of your Game Content Usage Rules

But seems more of a guideline, sure the real rules are buried in the EULA somewhere...

http://www.bistudio.com/community/game-content-usage-rules

What can I do with content made by other users?

----------------

Regardless BIS has a very good / talented modding + coding community.

That adds alot of value to the game engine

Sure some people may not like some of the mods / missions.

But they do bring in more Players + money for BIS to fund further development on engine.

I really never seen a engine get some may patches / additional features after a release for so long like the Arma2 Engine.

-------

Personally its really abit much to expect people that release their modding work for free.

When someone abuses this constantly + ignores the license. BIS just tells authors sorry nothing BIS can do its up to yourself to sort it out.

While also at the same time telling the authors of work they are limited to how they can make money off their work.

i.e purely donations only, no fund raising to name a town / monument on a map

It really would prob help if BIS took more pro-active steps, in helping community coders / modelers etc.

You guys are more than capable of getting EULA changed for engine / battleye to add a loophole for BIS for extreme situations like this.

Even if its just to make example of someone before it gets outof control.

Taking the legal route for something you do in your free time, especially if offender is in a different country is really going to cost abit.

Imagine going legal route + finding out the other person is only 15 years old... how are you going to recoup legal costs assuming you can based on local laws.

Especially for something when the author doesn't make any source of income from the the addon / mission in question.

Maybe its time for BIS to look @ charging a small yearly fee so people have the ability to encrypt their own EPO's for public releases etc.

Edited November 10, 2014 by Torndeco

[GSP167 1]

Your missing his point - BI has done what they could. They made them agree to follow the EULA again - So its out of their hands. They can offer support but not legally do anything. If you can find more breaches in the EULA then they can help again, for the time being its up to the Copyright holders.

They never followed the EULA. Once BIS turned their back they reworded their "donations" system but it's still the same thing than it was at the very beginning. They are forcing people to pay 30$ in order to join their server.

EDIT: Matt can I take Arma 3, change a few logos and and start selling it and claim it's a game I made on my own?

Because you're basically saying I could do that and BIS wouldn't be able to do anything legally.

Man.

Edited November 10, 2014 by GSP167

[MattLightfoot 1]

MATT WTF

1. It clearly says that they can't make PROFIT with Arma 3 assets.

Are they making a profit? (They're using arma 3 as a platform to make profit at very least)

Yes

2. Are they making a profit with other games 3d models?

Yes

3. Are they making a profit with mods from the community such as RH Weapon Pack, Tonic's Altis Life, etc etc

Yes

4. Can BI sue then?

Most likely YES

5. Can companies such as EA, Crytek, Microsoft Studios sue them for making profit with their content?

Yes

I numbered your assertions so I can better respond to them;

1. The tools EULA is about commercial usage

2. We don't own the copyright to other games, so we can't do anything.

3. We aren't the copyright holders, it is up to them to take action themselves.

4. What are you basing this off?, I'm presuming by your use of the words "Most likely", you haven't passed the bar, please read what I'm saying and listen, this boils down to two key facts;

- We aren't the copyright holders of tonic's work or other modders, they need to take action themselves rather than getting us to, we simply cannot, with any good grounding.

- We tackled them charging for access, now as far as I'm aware this has been ceased.

5. That is between those companies and the Arma 3 Life team.

[GSP167 1]

I numbered your assertions so I can better respond to them;

1. The tools EULA is about commercial usage

2. We don't own the copyright to other games, so we can't do anything.

3. We aren't the copyright holders, it is up to them to take action themselves.

4. What are you basing this off?, I'm presuming by your use of the words "Most likely", you haven't passed the bar, please read what I'm saying and listen, this boils down to two key facts;

- We aren't the copyright holders of tonic's work or other modders, they need to take action themselves rather than getting us to, we simply cannot, with any good grounding.

- We tackled them charging for access, now as far as I'm aware this has been ceased.

5. That is between those companies and the Arma 3 Life team.

1. Pretty sure making over 200k a year is considered commercial usage

2. k

3. fine then

4. They are still charging access how many times are we gonna have to tell you

5. What if these companies sues BI (as Tonic suggested it's possible)

[MattLightfoot 1]

They never followed the EULA. Once BIS turned their back they reworded their "donations" system but it's still the same thing than it was at the very beginning. They are forcing people to pay 30$ in order to join their server.

EDIT: Matt can I take Arma 3, change a few logos and and start selling it and claim it's a game I made on my own?

Because you're basically saying I could do that and BIS wouldn't be able to do anything legally.

Man.

The copyrights of those content creators it's up to them to enforce, we can't do anything, the copyright isn't ours

[GSP167 1]

The copyrights of those content creators it's up to them to enforce, we can't do anything, the copyright isn't ours

Yes.

but as I said, they are making money off of Arma 3. (Disregarding the mods, they are still using arma 3 to make profit)

[icebreakr 3101]

Signed the petition. Also will talk with my lawyer on how to state the use of my upcoming A3 addons, to ban the use for this f***ers getting $ off from other people's community work.

[MattLightfoot 1]

4. They are still charging access how many times are we gonna have to tell you

You can tell me all you bloody want, you all need to stop just saying it and prove it beyond reasonable doubt. Get together, collect evidence, give me an ABSOLUTE rock solid case showing, that you can pay to be guaranteed a spot on their server, give me numbers, statistics, facts, everything, something I can run with.

Now you guys give me that in a coherent, complete, fact based (with evidence that cannot be questioned), document to matt.lightfoot@bistudio.com and I'll do everything I possibly can, if they are breaking the EULA.

I can't act on other people's copyrights nor can I advise them on what to do, they need to pursue it themselves.

[GSP167 1]

You can tell me all you bloody want, you all need to stop just saying it and prove it beyond reasonable doubt. Get together, collect evidence, give me an ABSOLUTE rock solid case showing, that you can pay to be guaranteed a spot on their server, give me numbers, statistics, facts, everything, something I can run with.

Now you guys give me that in a coherent, complete, fact based (with evidence that cannot be questioned), document to matt.lightfoot@bistudio.com and I'll do everything I possibly can, if they are breaking the EULA.

I can't act on other people's copyrights nor can I advise them on what to do, they need to pursue it themselves.

MFW http://replygif.net/i/966.gif

Didn't we already provide evidence of that?

450+ donations in 19 days? Most of which are without a doubt 30+$ donations?

But I get it we'll keep digging.

[ArmaPilot 1]

MFW http://replygif.net/i/966.gif

Didn't we already provide evidence of that?

450+ donations in 19 days? Most of which are without a doubt 30+$ donations?

But I get it we'll keep digging.

Give it a rest bro. There is allot of legal shit involved.

[MattLightfoot 1]

MFW http://replygif.net/i/966.gif

Didn't we already provide evidence of that?

450+ donations in 19 days? Most of which are without a doubt 30+$ donations?

But I get it we'll keep digging.

No you didn't, the only thing that shows is that they receive a large amount of donations. Reread what I said, I asked for some very specific things in a quite specific manner, not just suggestions or coincidence, absolute proof.

[haleks 8204]

How much money does Arma 3 Life makes?

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

Currency is USD.

~700$ per day x 365 = 255,500$ per year.

DISCUSS THIS ON REDDIT: http://www.reddit.com/r/arma/comments/2lt10v/how_much_money_does_arma_3_life_makes/

That makes me so sick...

Anyway, I have a question for Matt - eventhough it's not really on topic :

I remember reading somewhere that BI sent, some time ago, a cease and desist letter to the DayZ Origins devs; I'd like to know on what basis this action had been taken?

I'm not familiar with Origins, but it seems it is quite alike the present situation, isn't it?