Legal Status of Sim City 4 mods

[Binarius 0]

Hello,

I was wondering about the legal status of mods such as the NAM w/ respect to EA.  If I could be referred to a previous thread or EA communication regarding the extent of Sim City 4 hacking that is permissible I would appreciate it very much.  My impression from what I've read is that without express permission from EA mods constitute copyright infringement, but hope I'm mistaken.

[City2TheMax 3]

The EA/Maxis people provided us with the lot editor and BAT especially designed for making new lots and buildings, plus allowing us to modify their stats. It is perfectly legal.

[Binarius 0]

Perhaps then I do not fully understand what those tools allow.  Are the NAM pathfinding improvements implemented by merely replacing the built-in transportation structures (roads, stations, etc.) with ones that have different properties?  I tried downloading the BAT but it wanted a tool (gmax) no longer available for free, so I wasn't really able to find out to what extent it exposed the simulation mechanics.

[cnelson 0]

I'm sorry, but it is MY understanding that in order for any copyright infringement to take place either; 1. You need to be claiming EA files as your own, or 2. Redistributing EA files without written permission. As for hacking Sim City 4, or ANY game in general there is nothing illegal about it, however you may void your warranty in doing so.

HOWEVER.. I may be completely wrong so someone please correct me if I am.

I think your just looking into this a little to much, no one is going to come after you its a 5 year old game.. IMO.

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

Originally posted by: Binarius Perhaps then I do not fully understand what those tools allow.  Are the NAM pathfinding improvements implemented by merely replacing the built-in transportation structures (roads, stations, etc.) with ones that have different properties?  I tried downloading the BAT but it wanted a tool (gmax) no longer available for free, so I wasn't really able to find out to what extent it exposed the simulation mechanics.quote>

Gmax is still avaible for free its just not on the autodesk site. Its on turbosquid here and is still free.

Gmax is a free version of 3dsmax. Gmax is used for modeling buildings, the BAT then lets you export the model into the game. It does not affect the simulation in any way. The programs that effect the simulation are used after the model is made. They include the plugin manager, lot editor, reader , sc4 tool and others.  Thoose other programs allow you to make the objcet you modeld in gmax have some kind of effect.

As far as a leagl standpoint here is EA's opinion on a similar issue:

"The EULA states that a user can create coustom content for Sim City 4 using the tools that EA provided as long as they do not charge for the content. Charging for content is considered to be a violation of both the Electronic Arts Terms of Service and copyright law. This includes both content that is sold directly and content that is offered as part of a subscription service. The intent behind providing these tools to the Sim City 4 community was to promote the sharing of content, not commercial activity."

[Cougar2004 127]

Its legal, don't worry.

You can still find copies of the Gmax tool on the net to download. A month ago, I looked for it, and it works great.

The reason why most all game makers design their games to be customized, is to make themselves more money. If a huge organization such as Simtropolis is put up, hailing honors to the game with expanded playability and features for it, this makes the game much more desirable. Additional people end up purchasing the game, even long after its original lifecycle is well over due to the new content and supportive communities online. Its a smart financial and marketing move to as EA has chosen to in this case.

[un1 41]

Originally posted by: cnelson I'm sorry, but it is MY understanding that in order for any copyright infringement to take place either; 1. You need to be claiming EA files as your own, or 2. Redistributing EA files without written permission. As for hacking Sim City 4, or ANY game in general there is nothing illegal about it, however you may void your warranty in doing so.

HOWEVER.. I may be completely wrong so someone please correct me if I am.

I think your just looking into this a little to much, no one is going to come after you its a 5 year old game.. IMO.quote>

 

Okay, you do not need to redistribiute the EA files. All you do is take a little bit of the file and mod the file and make a new .dat.

There, perfectly legal but...

If you were to remake the SimCity 4.exe and upload it to the STEX that would be illegal.

-un1

[Karybdis 34]

As one of the people that originally started on this, I can answer specifically.

EA gave us complete permission to do any modifications that we want. In fact they cheered us on in person, and gave us as much info as they could without breaking NDA's or giving up company secrets. Several modders have been under Non disclosure agreement with EA specifically for the purpose of furthering file modifications, and a bunch of us (myself included) beta tested the BAT when it was being made.

Yes, it is perfectly legal in every way. But sorry, you're not going to get any document saying so. These are our personal emails and chat logs with them.

We have talked to them about modding the EXE by the way, but they said they couldn't give us the source code currently due to legal reasons. Modding the exe would be done via dll plugins which can be made, and would be legal if done.

The only thing they remotely have a problem with is the naming of SimMars expansion (which EA employees call "That other Mars simulator" in order to maintain legality)

If you need more proof, EA paid thousands of dollars to fly us modders to San Fransisco in order to learn more about the game code... I doubt they would do that if they considered it illegal.

[cnelson 0]

un1, i believe either my post or your reading of my post, was misinterpreted. I was agreeing with you! haha.

[Binarius 0]

 I don't really understand why they wouldn't just put something on the EA website though. Perhaps they just want to be able to force commercialization in the future if they desire?

[warrior 169]

Modding the exe would be done via dll plugins which can be made, and would be legal if done.quote>

karybdis, can I ask why this hasn't been done yet? there plently of programmers in the SC4 Community, If lots of the right people got to together the outcome would be amazing just like when the first discovery's were made there was a group(you and several other gods) who knew what they were doing and the outcome was amazing. That was done before why can't it be done again. When was the source code asked for, I expect not recently. I mean Buggi has the source code to the Extra cheats.dll somewhere. EA/maxis provided the community with the dll can't that be used to make more? Goaskin has modified the exe before and managed to added a new submenu, so it is 100% possible. Just not legal. The game is 5 years old and I have seen it shops recently, not in the back corner tucked behind other games, surely adding even more to the game would promote it further. We either need to ask EA/Maxis again, someone who has a relationship with them. Or we need to make a workaround. Not saying EA denied us in the past so lets not bother Jonathan