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Am I allowed to sell my fiction ingame (written in books) for gold?
I don't see why not. Good luck. Getting people to read free fiction posted on the forums here is hard enough.
I would be interested in reading it, but I don't have any gold these days.
I would be interested in reading it, but I don't have any gold these days.
I mean, if you're going to write fiction, you may as well post it here so people will see it. You can also use Stratics Central if you prefer, that's what I did with my latest story. I suppose quite a few people read it.
Player News - Stinky Pete, the Miner?
Lockpicking. It fed me as a child. My father was legendary. He tried to teach me time and time again, but I never learned. I’ll have you know that this is not the first time I have regretted this, but it seems that it may be my last. My good citizens, this will likely be the last that you will...
community.stratics.com
All you will get here is opinions. If you want a real answer you need to go to the real UOForums where a dev can answer you. You also might want to consider that everything in UO is owned by EA and that could also mean your book too.
I'm here late.
Read the Terms and Agreements.
You can sell your book for gold as long as it does not violate those Terms or Agreements.
EA will not own the intellectual property of the contents within your book.
No attorney would let that happen to you.
UO Forums is a terrible place to acquire answers to your questions.
Any worthwhile information provided on UO Forums is available on Stratics.
Stratics also has a much more active, experienced and knowledgeable user base.
Although it may be difficult for some to navigate, Stratics has more information and all the history.
#ProfaneWord-UO-Forums
Show me where in the Terms of Service or Agreements that it says EA relinquishes derivative rights. Because it sure looks like they say:
" (c) Rights. You acknowledge and agree that all characters created, and items acquired and developed as a result of game play are part of the Software and Service and are the sole property of Electronic Arts. You acknowledge that: (i) the Software and the Service permit access to Content that is protected by copyrights, trademarks, and other proprietary rights owned by Electronic Arts or Content Providers (collectively, "Rights"), and (ii) these Rights are valid and protected in all media existing now or later developed, and (iii) except as is explicitly provided otherwise, your use of Content shall be governed by the copyright laws of the United States and other applicable laws. You agree that you may upload or otherwise transmit on or through the Service only Content that is not subject to any Rights, or Content in which any holder of Rights has given express authorization for distribution on the Service. By submitting Content to any area on the Service, you automatically grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted) to Electronic Arts the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed for the full term including any renewal term of any Rights that may exist in such Content. "
This is from a Wayback version of the EA page from 2013, the last indexed copy: UO Terms of Service|EA Help . The current EA site is down (of course) but nothing substantial has changed in copyright law since.
I can put this in to simple terms for you.
Let's say you were to write the book "Lord of The Rings" in game and sell it for gold.
EA isn't owning that.
If you want to write books and sell them for gold, have at it.
Don't worry about anything.
This is a great example of why you will have no problem with your books.
Numerous people paged a GM on her and each time they said there is nothing in the ToS that she was breaking by doing this role play.
I'll put this in more simple terms.
We're as shady as you can be and are "trying" to steal your stuff.
Key word trying.
I totally believe you.
Some pretty crazy stuff has happened in this game.
One of you historians should make a top ten list.
You can double down on this all you'd like, it doesn't change the fact that your statement about the ToS was incorrect and that any competent lawyer wouldn't take your case because the service contract and laws are very clear about this sort of thing. Just because EA doesn't go after people for flagrant copyright violations concerning UO doesn't mean they waive their rights to.
The guy can write his book with no problems.
I guarantee this.
The best EA could do is ban the guy from using their services.
As mentioned above, EA isn't exactly the most law abiding citizen.
He can sell his book on Amazon at the same time and will have no problems.
https://tos.ea.com/legalapp/WEBTERMS/US/en/PC/#section5
The EA Services include Content and Entitlements. Content is the software, technology, text, forum posts, chat posts, profiles, widgets, messages, links, emails, music, sound, graphics, pictures, video, code, and all audio visual or other material appearing on or coming from EA Services, as well as the design and appearance of our websites. Content also includes user-generated Content ("UGC"). UGC includes EA Account personas, forum posts, profile content and other Content contributed by users to EA Services. All Content is either owned by EA or its licensors, or is licensed to EA and its licensors pursuant to Section 5 below.
Also EA owns everything and you are only renting access
The EA Services are licensed to you, not sold. EA grants you a personal, limited, non-transferable, revocable and non-exclusive license to use the EA Services to which you have access for your non-commercial use, subject to your compliance with this Agreement. You may not access, copy, modify or distribute any EA Service, Content or Entitlements (as those terms are defined below), unless expressly authorized by EA or permitted by law. You may not reverse engineer or attempt to extract or otherwise use source code or other data from EA Services, unless expressly authorized by EA or permitted by law. EA or its licensors own and reserve all other rights, including all right, title and interest in the EA Services and associated intellectual property rights.
https://tos.ea.com/legalapp/WEBTERMS/US/en/PC/#section13
And by using any EA Service you agree to have your dispute settled by arbitration
You agree to these terms every time you long into your UO Account and even BS has a rule that they can freely distribute anything you create in game.
Broadsword Online Games
You expressly acknowledge and agree that any User-Generated Content that you make available through the Services may be made freely available by Broadsword to others, including without limitation for download by others.
You further acknowledge and agree that this permission is made and granted by you in consideration of your use of the Services, and that this permission constitutes a world-wide, nonexclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable and transferable license to Broadsword to use, copy, perform, display and distribute such User-Generated Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of such User-Generated Content to others.
Cool story.
You can keep citing whatever EA nonsense you want, it doesn't change anything.
People have been selling their books for some time now with no problem.
It's will to continue to stay like that until the end.
A wise person once told me it's best to judge based on actions rather than words.
I want to be very clear and frank with what I am about to say.
Please exercise your ability to write fiction and use it in UO for the enjoyment and betterment of the community and the shared experiences for us all. I sincerely encourage you to do this because UO was always a sandbox game in the beginning and players would do whatever they wanted to enhance the experience.
We need people like you who will contribute robust fiction to this fantasy setting because it is in short supply these days. I go to tavern nights whenever I can and the amount of sheer joy I receive is so fulfilling. Who doesn't want to buy beer from an orc that built a makeshift bar in front of Brit bank? Well I certainly do!
I am an old school D&D player from the early 90's and UO was one of my outlets back in 2000 that allowed me to RP with people in a sandbox setting and acquire a great deal of enjoyment and memories from those experiences.
Please don't let anything stop you from writing. If there are obstacles, find a way to overcome them. If the TOS is an issue, ask the moderators what your options are.
However, I see player written books in game all the time when I am shopping and I snatch them up greedily and collect them and read them later. There are a few of us out here that still are trying to keep the lights on in the good ole tavern and enjoy our warm ale and the comfort of a fire with familiar surroundings.
I honestly think player fiction has been around since the beginning, as well as selling of that fiction.
Best of luck.
Please exercise your ability to write fiction and use it in UO for the enjoyment and betterment of the community and the shared experiences for us all. I sincerely encourage you to do this because UO was always a sandbox game in the beginning and players would do whatever they wanted to enhance the experience.
We need people like you who will contribute robust fiction to this fantasy setting because it is in short supply these days. I go to tavern nights whenever I can and the amount of sheer joy I receive is so fulfilling. Who doesn't want to buy beer from an orc that built a makeshift bar in front of Brit bank? Well I certainly do!
I am an old school D&D player from the early 90's and UO was one of my outlets back in 2000 that allowed me to RP with people in a sandbox setting and acquire a great deal of enjoyment and memories from those experiences.
Please don't let anything stop you from writing. If there are obstacles, find a way to overcome them. If the TOS is an issue, ask the moderators what your options are.
However, I see player written books in game all the time when I am shopping and I snatch them up greedily and collect them and read them later. There are a few of us out here that still are trying to keep the lights on in the good ole tavern and enjoy our warm ale and the comfort of a fire with familiar surroundings.
I honestly think player fiction has been around since the beginning, as well as selling of that fiction.
Best of luck.
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