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Tales from Spiral Knights' Terms of Service

9 replies [Last post]
Fri, 01/09/2015 - 09:02
Torn-Mandate's picture
Torn-Mandate

You may not select as your User ID the name of another living person
You are not allowed to name yourself Bob. Someone out there may be named that.
Someone out there may be named anything.
Only gibberish names are allowed.

6. Restrictions. You agree not to do any of the following prohibited actions:

1. reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, translate, modify, adapt, create derivative works from, deconstruct, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble in any manner Spiral Knights or any portion thereof
No translating the game, no writing fiction based on the game.

2. permit any other person to access Spiral Knights, or create or provide any other means through which the Games may be played by anyone besides you;
Literally not allowed to allow anyone else play the game.

Fri, 01/09/2015 - 09:21
#1
Krakob's picture
Krakob

You may not select as your User ID the name of another living person
I think this quite obviously refers to that you can't steal someone else's name.

1. reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, translate, modify, adapt, create derivative works from, deconstruct, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble in any manner Spiral Knights or any portion thereof
Most probably refers to SK's code and other resources. Quite clearly, they don't mind fanfic. Fan translations are probably not ok since they would require reverse engineering the game's content.

2. permit any other person to access Spiral Knights, or create or provide any other means through which the Games may be played by anyone besides you;
If you'd read more in-depth and analyze the sentence, it's quite obvious that it says that you're not allowed to let anyone access the game through your account. That's to prevent people who have been banned from playing as well as prevent anyone from playing without having agreed to the ToS.

You wouldn't happen to be part of this club, would you?

Fri, 01/09/2015 - 09:25
#2
Bopp's picture
Bopp
response

You may not select as your User ID the name of another living person

I think that they're trying to avoid names like "Jennifer Lawrence" or "Barack Obama". It may have to do with libel laws. I know that Wikipedia has special policies for articles about living persons. But yeah, the wording on this is clearly waaay too restrictive.

reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, translate, modify, adapt, create derivative works from, deconstruct, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble

This one doesn't surprise me. The former ones are about using SK's intellectual property, which might in theory "steal" revenue from Three Rings/Sega or "dilute the brand" with bad products. The latter ones are about not cheating basically.

permit any other person to access Spiral Knights, or create or provide any other means through which the Games may be played by anyone besides you

This one seems totally reasonable to me. They don't want to deal with account "hacking" cases, where the "hacking" is that you gave somebody your account and they wrecked it. If they're 13 or older, they should get their own account. If they're under 13, then they shouldn't be playing the game anyway.

By the way, the 13-year-old thing seems to be a result of the COPPA law. It seems to be easier for many companies to ban children, than to develop systems that keep them "safe".

Disclaimer: I am not endorsing Three Rings' policies. I am merely speculating about why they might exist.

Fri, 01/09/2015 - 09:25
#3
Skepticraven's picture
Skepticraven
↓

Point #1 is selectively out of context. Here is the full context: [bold = my emphasis]

"You must select a user ID to identify you to Three Rings and other users of
the Spiral Knights web site. You may not select as your User ID the name of
another living person (unless it is also your name), a name for the purpose of
fraud or disparagement, or a name that violates any third party's trademark
right, copyright, or other proprietary right, or which Three Rings deems in
its sole discretion to be vulgar or otherwise offensive. Three Rings reserves
the right to delete any vulgar or otherwise offensive User ID, or to require
you to change your User ID.

It outlines that OOO reserves the right to delete or change any vulgar or offensive ID. I could name myself Bob if that is a name that I use, you know... because there is that area in the quote that I bolded.

Point #2.
This is basic copyright law. Ever dealt with copyright law? It is a big mess, but this is the legal way of saying "if we want to press charges on you for taking our idea and using it for you own advantage, we can". Do companies press charges on translating or writing fiction for a game? Only when the person is making a profit on the company's idea.

Jempire made this fan made game. It is likely that they contacted OOO support prior to releasing it, but it obviously is in violation of this part of the ToS. No locked thread in the year that it's been released. If Jempire wanted to sell it, I bet you the story would turn out differently.

Point #3.
Again with the selective editing of context. Here is the unedited text:

" 2. permit any other person (including but not limited to a former member
whose account Three Rings has terminated) to access Spiral Knights, or
create or provide any other means through which the Games may be played
by anyone besides you (e.g., through server emulators);
"

Sure reads to me like you can't make an account for someone else. That someone else has to make the account themselves.

Moral of the story:
Contact support to have them clarify if you want to do something that would be against the ToS.
Certain things that are technically against the ToS are allowed, but it is difficult to identify all the little things to allow/disallow in a legal format. Written requests and permission [in the form of support requests] trump the ToS.

Fri, 01/09/2015 - 10:14
#4
Bopp's picture
Bopp
first point

But even in its context the first point is too restrictive. Suppose that I want to name my knight Jimmy, although my own name is Johan (and I never go by Jimmy in real life). I can't, according to the ToS. But what is the rationale?

Am I pretending to be a certain real-world person named Jimmy? Can I libel him by committing misdeeds under his name? It seems pretty far-fetched.

Am I unfairly preventing him from using his own name? Yes, but this seems rather trivial, considering that thousands of Jimmys might want to play the game and only one can have the name for his knight.

Fri, 01/09/2015 - 10:28
#5
Hexzyle's picture
Hexzyle
@Bopp

I believe the restrictions in names is full names, not first names. With just a first name, your name is too ambiguous to be referencing/defaming any one person or franchise. (Plus it's near impossible for Three Rings to prove that's not your name) For instance "Duke", or "Jim". It's only a problem once you add the "Nukem" or "Carrey", respectively, and makes it far easier for OOO to doubt the validity of your name.

Fri, 01/09/2015 - 10:31
#6
Skepticraven's picture
Skepticraven
↓

@Bopp

Yes, I definitely agree that it is overly restrictive. However, that is exactly why I have the last part of my statement: Contact support to have them clarify if you want to do something that would be against the ToS.

Could they have altered their wording to be slightly more specific to things like full names? Probably, but getting written permission through a support contact will still trump the ToS.

Sun, 01/11/2015 - 09:52
#7
Torn-Mandate's picture
Torn-Mandate
Did not expect this

I already forgot I posted this.

Thanks for the replies though.
I wasn't being entirely serious when I posted this. I am aware of how BS legal stuff is, and it's a reason lawyers exist.
Anyways, thanks for laughs. <3 u ppl

Sun, 01/11/2015 - 10:59
#8
Orangeo's picture
Orangeo
I don't get why some of the

I don't get why some of the rules are in place though. Like for libel/slander usernames, why can't OOO just say "You are solely responsible if you break the laws of country XXX and/or YYY in-game" or something? Does that cover it, or is there a technicality I missed?

Sun, 01/11/2015 - 12:46
#9
Deleted-Knight's picture
Deleted-Knight
I think everyone is overanalyzing this

I think Skepticraven gave the best answer.
Basically it's a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo so OOO can do things to your account (or you personally) if they feel there is a good reason to do so. They aren't out to get you, so if you stay off their bad side, nothing will happen even if you violate the ToS.

Examples:
1. Reverse engineering their code is okay*. Publishing or making money off of their code will quickly put you on their bad side.
2. Having a illegal name is okay*. Having somebody report your name for being offensive will put you on their radar.
3. Hacking the graphics on your personal copy of the game is okay*. Telling everyone how to hack and making OOO lose money as a result will get you banned/censored/sued.
4. Heck, if somehow you managed to hack the client itself, even that's okay*. They will only ban you if they detect your mods. Their team is so small that I doubt there's a person dedicated to looking through logs for potential hackers.

*"okay" in the sense that you probably won't be punished. NOT equivalent to morally okay.

For the average player, these restrictions essentially don't exist. You really have to try to get OOO's attention (unfortunately this also applies to suggestions as well).

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