I think people are being overly paranoid with this.

I think one condition of the software and you uploading your created content to the website is that it is open for anyone to download and use anyway they see fit.

I havent specifically read all of the eula but I'm pretty sure it doesnt say they have ownership of the assets you create. They claim ownership of the tools and materials which you use to create those assets but not the actual asset(no one owns the assets, after they have been uploaded and made available on the web). I think the content on the sporepedia, in a way is open source. It is about the free creation of assets for everyones games.

That was the whole point of the website and the content on it. What would they gain it opening the content to be used in many other forms and then coming down with their lawyers and saying you cannot do anything with them. That doesnt make any sense and would that even stand up in a court. I can imagine some of the arguments that might be put forward in a court and they would be absurd in the least.

Then again maybe they are somehow claiming ownership of all and sundry and just did this for shits and giggles. We wont know unless we get some clarification.

Derakon: I always assume that but actions speak for themselves. When I said open source. I dont know whether or not they follow that general philosophy but they have opened the source for creatures for anyone to look at and manipulate outside the original program.

Its as if the crysis developers had released the entire code for the crysis engine they put it out their on purpose and then said.

"Were just putting this out there for everyone to look at, your not allowed to use it for anything, just to look at"
"But why?"
"Just to show you how leet we are!"

I can imagine the chaos a mad rush everyone hacking their own games together, stealing bits of code, no one could resist. It would be stupidity beyond belief to try and sue people and attempt to shut the barn door after all the horses have left and had a great big party. They cant make something available and then expect people to not use it. If they do not want people to use things a certain way then they do not make it available that way.

EA have opened pandoras box.

Quote:ID often releases the entire source-base to their games after a while, and Valve have in the past release the entire game-side (i.e. non engine) code to the public almost immediately. Back when HL1's AI was considered "next-gen", anyone could look at the code and steal their ideas, same goes now for HL2.
The entire code-base for Valve's Source engine was also made public via a leak once, but there isn't much point copy&pasting it into your own games.

If you're incompetent enough to have to C&P stolen code to make a game, then you're bound to fail due to that same incompetence ;)

There's a lot more to making a game than hacking together stolen code. And anyway, no legitimate business would risk plagiarism.

In a way I think its a shame more code isnt stolen and reused because then we might end up with a lot more better games. So instead of developers constantly focused on reinventing wheels over and over, they could then focus on the real development of confronting the problems of making good gameplay.

All those releases of codes which are on purpose are done where the developers mean for people to use it, or dont care what is done with it.

Another question then can you claim an asset if you make that asset available to be manipulated in a number of ways? If I change the asset slightly by say moving a single polygon could they still claim it? Can they claim an asset I made myself in their software? All their software allowed me to do was make it.

Even loading it into another software changes it in subtle ways so that it differs from the original asset that it was in the game. If they do own it then where does that ownership end? If I make one change? a hundred? as long as a single polygon remains the same as in the original?

If they own it then the proof lies with them. How do they prove it? "Well it looks a bit like it",

"Those 355 vertices lie at the exact x, y, z coords, in the original model, the probability of creating a unique model with those exact same coord is six million to one".

"We have stamped our logo name on every single vertex, you have been busted!"