phoenix_candy | Legality Clarified

Essentially I am quoting the EULAs of The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. This way, I have legality totally covered before I start doing any pic spam/cc creation/cc frankening/et cetera. Oh and thank you Ms. Hat for the following quotes.

Sims 2:

EA owns all of the rights, title and interest in the Tools & Materials. You may not alter any of EA’s trademarks or logos, or alter or remove any of EA’s trademark or copyright notices included in or with the Tools & Materials or EA’s products. Your right to use Tools & Materials is limited to the license grant above, and you may not otherwise copy, display, distribute, perform, publish, modify, create works from, or use any of the Tools & Materials. Without limiting the preceding sentence, you may not modify, reverse engineer, disassemble, license, transfer, distribute, create works from, or sell the Tool, or use the Tools & Materials to further any commercial or unlawful purpose. Without limiting the foregoing, you may not use the Tools & Materials to promote another product or business, or on any site that operates or promotes a server emulator.

You may include materials created with the Tools & Materials on your personal noncommercial website for the noncommercial benefit of the fan community for EA’s products, provided this is beneficial to the product(s) in EA’s judgment, and provided that if you do so, you must also post the following notice on your site on the same web page(s) where those materials are located: “This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Electronic Arts, or its licensors. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Game content and materials copyright Electronic Arts Inc. and its licensors. All Rights Reserved.” You will not represent that your site is endorsed or approved by or affiliated with EA or our licensors or that any other content on your site is endorsed or approved by or affiliated with EA or our licensors.

“This means that all your custom content (anything created using the game (screenshots, pet breeds, lots), Body Shop, Homecrafter, or anything packaged in the .package and .package format is legal property of Electronic Arts, and only EA can send you a cease-and-desist, NOT a fellow user. A fellow user’s policy is about as binding as wet toilet paper; following their policy is a matter of politeness, NOT legality.”

Sims 3:

4. In exchange for the right to use content contributed by other users through the Software, when you contribute content through the Software, you expressly grant to other users of the Software the non-exclusive, perpetual, transferable, worldwide, irrevocable right to access and use, copy, modify, display, perform, and create and distribute derivative works from, your contributed content in connection with the Software, and to distribute and otherwise communicate your contributed content as a component of works that they create using the Software, for example, The Sims lots or The Sims videos, without further notice, attribution or compensation to you. You hereby waive any moral rights of paternity, publication, reputation, or attribution under applicable law with respect to EA.s and other players. use and enjoyment of such content contributions in connection with the Software.

“This means that EA got sick of paysites complaining about pirates and contract-abiding users complaining about paysites, and said they don’t care what users do with each other’s content so don’t come bitching to us.”

So, effectually; do what you want with CC...However, remember to try to be polite & considerate to CC artists and creators. Most importantly, if your files are removed from any downloading service; remember to inform that company of the relevant parts of the EULA. You are doing nothing illegal because EA owns ALL custom content.

And of course, the obvious part: this website is neither endorsed by nor affiliated with EA Games/Maxis. Copyright is property of the respective owners.