Good day Sirs, Madams and anyone in between, I,
am a modder. (For clarification, I've been part of the OFP/ArmA modding community for a good while now, and have made mods for a few other games as well)
I see a lot of... shall we say "individuals who's strength of opinion is inversely proportional to their understanding of the situation" here, so allow me to explain these terms and conditions.
Mods must not jeopardize the integrity of the gameplay or harm the experience of others. Mods that affect the simulation for multiplayer games and multiplayer features, such as leaderboards or trading with other players, are not allowed.
Basically, don't make something that's designed exclusively to break the system, ie, a client mod that would allow a player to join an unmodded server and have an unfair advantage. I haven't played simcity, so I don't know how that would work with their always-online requirement, so this might be a much bigger deal than I've made it out to be.
Mods must not infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property right of any third party and will not include content that is unlawful, tortious, defamatory, obscene, invasive of the privacy of another person, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful, racist or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate. SimCity has an age rating of ESRB Everyone 10+ and PEGI 7, and similar ratings from other ratings boards around the world. EA requires that Mods not include any material that would not be allowed under these ratings.
In laymans terms: We don't want a media shitstorm from hot coffee mods and Games Workshop throwing lawyers at us. Yeah, it's a bit draconian, but not the end of the world.
Mods may not modify any .com, .exe, .dll, .so or other executable files.
Everyone seems to think this is a huge deal. It isn't. Modifying these sorts of files isn't too common outside cracks. The only thing this really stops is mods that fundamentally change the nature of the engine (for example, something like ZDooM).
The terms and conditions of SimCity EULA and EA's Terms of Service are specifically incorporated into this policy by this reference. In the event that the terms of this policy are in conflict with the terms of the SimCity EULA or EA's Terms of Service, the terms of this Policy shall supersede and govern over any such conflicting terms.
Completely meaningless legalize filler. Presumably they wanted 5 points on their list because it's a nice round number.
To maintain the integrity of SimCity and ensure the best possible gaming experience for our players, EA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to revoke permission to use, distribute or make Mods at any time, to disable any Mod within SimCity and to take disciplinary action against players who harm the experience of others.
Pretty much just teeth bearing.
Now,
this is the big one:
Distribution of your Mod in any form constitutes a grant by you to EA of an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free, sub-licensable right to use, copy, modify and distribute that Mod (and derivatives of that Mod), and use your name if we choose to, for any purpose and through any means, and without obligation to pay you anything, obtain your approval, or give you credit.
Basically, if you make something, EA can do whatever they like with it. This is generally considered to be a "dick move". They can also pretend to be you while doing so. So, in theory, EA can take your mod, turn it into a 160 page essay entitled "I Believe Hitler was right and I also have improperly sized and diseased genitalia" then publish it in a scientific journal, citing you as the sole author.
Now, it's more likely that the whole "without your permission" thing is just a way around the tendency of modders to unexpectedly disappear from existence entirely without a moments notice, but it's ripe for abuse, if anyone's going to try and abuse an agreement like that, it's EA.
Interesting to note though, is that there's no non-commercial clause, which is usually pretty common in these sorts of agreements. Probably just an oversight, but make of that what you will.
