Garden of Shadows is down, but not out.

[strangetomato]

I thought I'd do my part to spread the word to anyone who might be wondering about Garden of Shadows, and why it's not working. It seems TSR made a legal complaint to GoS's web host about them redistributing their supposedly "copyrighted content." There are more details here on nymphynymms journal. (ETA: And also on Jenfold's dreamwidth journal.)

Thank you to simgaroop for bringing this to my attention. I'm a big fan of Garden of Shadows, even though I mostly lurk. They continue to create quality content for Sims 2, even though most other cc sites gave up the ghost a long time ago. I was thoroughly enjoying the Earth Day monthly theme, and I'm saddened that this messes with their next monthly theme right around that exciting time when the new theme is decided and announced (which theme won? Does anyone know? I was just going to go check). Way to ruin everyone's fun, TSR. Bunch of dicks.

Comments

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Also, "I HATE/LOVE THIS LEGACY/AUTHOR/CREATOR". :P

Yet I still read them, every week... There is the occasional really awesome one.

Mmm, Bigfoot love...

[lady-talaie.livejournal.com]

To clarafie for meetme2theriver:

In a sense yes it is all owned by EAMaxis. (That is a given which in turn actaully proves that TSR has even less of a leg to stand on.)

But if we pretend that it is indenpent work recolors aside, which need to be with permission any way, all the work in copyrighten to the creators. So if some one had to fix a mesh then they know have rights to it becuase it is not the orginal anymore and is something new. But the post the same thing from one site done by one person and then going to another site with it and claiming that it is some one else is in not okay. That was what I was getting at with intellectual property.

And as to what fantasyrouge said, sereiously if your readin that contract corectly then TSR wins for life and even the creator in some sense get their rears handed to them because they may put their work up at more than one place. Like I know simmers who posted at GoS, Mod, and a Club Crimson. It is still their work and they posted it at more than one place to get it out there. Then people steal it claim it as their own and post on TSR hoping the orginal gets yanked.

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

I wish TSR would just stop doing this shit. I don't think the "sharing" that was going on at GOS was really affecting their revenue in any case, considering they seem to be close partners with EA and that in turn is a huge advertisement for that site.

Any Sim Newbie can find TSR easily and buy a subscription, unaware that selling CC goes actually against EA terms of use.

I'll never understand why EA supports this site in particular and not ModTheSims instead, but I'm afraid that trying to find reason is like beating a dead horse.

Last night's exhaustion made me forget to unlock my previous entry, so I'm doing that right now to spread the word to more people. And I'm also updating my MTS profile again. You are right, the more people know about TSR's acts, the better.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

"But if we pretend that it is indenpent work"

Yes, but... it isn't. Pretending otherwise doesn't make any difference.

[traciandrus.livejournal.com]

Arrg this is stupid. :/ TSR strikes again.

Oh and I'm sure we will have a shit storm of secrets this week. lol

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

I honestly think that EA is looking at this from what seems to them to be the most profitable angle - by supporting the biggest Sims CC site, they are getting the most publicity for themselves. You like to shop at TSR? Come try our excellent EA store items!

If they wanted to, they could so easily stomp on TSR for selling what is essentially theirs, but they won't, because they would alienate a huge number of their customers. Likewise, if they openly supported paysites, they'd alienate the non-paysite crowd. So they remain quiet on the matter, and continue to promote themselves through TSR, which they've probably found will work better for them than doing do through MTS. It's all about the money.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Ooh, something new and fun.

sim secret bingo

I need to whip up a card now.

[selenecorvino.livejournal.com]

Thank you for letting me know.

I really try to avoid TSR like the plague.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Haha, that'd be awesome.

Also, 'your sims are pretty' and 'your sims are fugly'. And 'I'm in love with Pescado'.

And let's not forget the biweekly 'really depressing information about my real life pasted on a vaguely related sim picture' secret. (I feel like a horrible person now. :P)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

And Pooklet secrets. That deserves a category of its own. :P (But her gif reactions make it so worth it.)

Confused Pescado boners are my favourite type of secret, by far.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Nice. There's something so oddly satisfying about having Pescado swoop in to save the day once again.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're very welcome. I'm more than happy to spread the news of this TSR-dickery as far and wide as I can, and I'm glad to hear you'll be getting the site back up and running soon.

Apocalypse would indeed be a fitting theme, and it was in the lead the last time I checked. Maybe the new vote should include a "stick it to TSR" theme. :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yessir, it says just about everything I want to say about TSR. Anything more just wastes my typing energy on something I'd rather ignore completely.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yup. It's just business as usual in the Sims fandom. :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

No problem, Jenfold. It was my pleasure to help spread the news of this most recent TSR douche-baggery. It really sucks when a whole forum goes down like this. I imagine it's pretty near impossible to reach everyone with the news.

(And hey, I spoke to Jenfold without getting bitten or shot or kicked in the face. The rumours are not true, people. Heheheh.)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I have no real interest in actually discussing TSR and their logic (if we ignore them, maybe they will go away? One can hope...), but this sounds like Occam's razor to me. Well said.

[ownsimscorner.livejournal.com]

If anyone can make a claim to CC ownership it´s EA, since all CC depends on EA`s products to be created. These copyright claims would only made sense if we were talking about an entirely original creation.

[will-o-whisper.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I wonder if TSR ever just sits back and really thinks about what they're going bugfuck over. Probably not.

[jenfold-sims.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I did steal a kidney.

Hopefully we'll be back up at the same domain name soon and I have a feeling that simsecrets is going to spread the word very widely.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

I just whipped up a quick and dirty 3X3 card (eyeball my journal for it). You'll have to do a cover all (meaning cover all squares) to WIN.

I kept it kind of vague with my card. But on a very specific (more true to an actual BINGO card) I'd also have to include a "photoskinning" square.

Oh, I already have the "real" secret square covered (lovingly called "Are you there god?")

[almightyhat.livejournal.com]

On top of ALL THAT, they don't encrypt passwords or financial information, so they don't have to resort to legal action (and kind of don't, since it's not like they have any legal right to sell this stuff and in fact signed a contract (by installing this software you agree to these terms) that they wouldn't)-- they just find any other place on the internet that user might have used the same password, email, blogs, other Sims sites, and hack the fuck out of it.

I can understand why GoDaddy's policy is to take ten to fourteen business days to review the situation, even if perusing the Sims 2 (make anything you want except money) and Sims 3 (upload anything you want, but once someone has downloaded it they can do what they want with it) EULAs would preeeeeetty much clear up everything in Liegen's favor.

On the other hand, apparently GoDaddy is on the expensive side (on top of being on the slow and apparently slightly stupid side), so perhaps this is a blessing in annoying disguise.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Secrets from people who don't get that he's a persona ("SO MEAN!!") are pretty entertaining too.

And yes, Pooklet secrets do need their own category.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Checked it out, I'll definitely try it out on tomorrow/tonight's secrets. :D

[dhearest.livejournal.com]

I usually just ignore T$R but GOS is my favorite sims community and I'm very upset that they did this. I'm glad that it will be back up soon. Thank you for the information. I was really concerned when I couldn't access GOS yesterday, now I know why.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

I'm going to see if I can't get 25 different things so I can make a "real" card.

I'm mad I forgot a "Big Dumb Pudding" space for sims3 secrets.