Whether the site gets taken down or not, they're the laughing stock of The Sims community and therefore no one is going to go there. It'll die soon.

Hey everyone, I am the owner of S4F. Can I clear everything up.

We are not stealing peoples content, nor are we trying to charge people for it.

We're a small... EMPHASIS on the small - community. We've been running the site for a year and have in the past month or so been trying to share some custom content for our members/visitors who are too lazy to go look for it.

That tumblr post got blown out of proportion. The content creator that started it, contacted me asking me to remove their content and instead place a link to their tumblr. I get alot of emails asking silly questions, and I assumed it was some newbie who uploaded something to our site and wanted us to instead link to their tumblr... we get ALOT of spammers. So I dismissed it and said if they wish to promote their tumblr, they can upload their creation and advertise their tumblr in the description.
I later realised the person contacting me was someone whos creation I shared on our website, and instead KiwiSims4 was asking me to remove the file that we uploaded/stored on our server and instead link to her tumblr page where the file is located. I contacted her and told her today that I completely misunderstood and that I was going to make things right which I have.

AGAIN to be clear, we are NOT 'stealing' peoples creations, we're not claiming to have made them infact we're giving full credit to the creators and the places they post their creations to. I am a BIG fan of MTS.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY... we aren't charging people money to buy content we've taken from other sites. That would be insanely stupid... I would never even consider doing that.

The ONLY things we have prices on, is our custom content area are fees to access NUDE and ADULT skins... not to buy them, but to ACCES the area where they are stored... which by the way were made by OUR creators and posted on OUR site first. Our creators now even set the price to access them. Those are the ONLY downloads we charge to access, and they were posted first by creators on OUR site and hosted on OUR site.

We are sharing stuff with the best intentions for our members... I have no malicious plans. If people want to come on MTS to download the free content which EA owns ultimately they can, just as they can come on Sims4Forum to download it.

I am completely overwhelmed at how people have spread this misinformation and lies about how we are 'stealing' peoples content and charging people to access them. Which couldn't be further from the truth. All content uploaded to Sims4Forum has credits to the person who makes it and where it comes from. I'm actually in the process of linking to the source pages of all files to further compliment the credits.

<3 Don't hate us

As for monetisation of Sims4Forum, we do have a thing called a VIP club subscription where our members can pay a monthly fee for a load of site benefits and perks.... that relates to our site only and goes towards hosting fees, upgrades and money for maintaining the site... and we barely even make any money from that.

As with everything, it's completely optional.... you dont have to, we're not forcing people to. The only thing the VIP subscription on our site offers, is that VIP members can download custom content from our site faster... but that's just one out of several perks.

Hope that clears things up. Everyone is free to email me at: [email protected] if you have any concerns or worries.

Ultimately all Sims 4 mods are essentially owned by EA... and they are free to share amongst everyone... but it's common courtesy to give credits to the people who made them and the place they come from. And I can tell you, myself and everyone at Sims4Forum (our small fan forum) will do our best to give credit where credit is due!

Hey everyone, I am the owner of S4F. Can I clear everything up.

We are not stealing peoples content, nor are we trying to charge people for it. All files shared on our site have credits to the creators and are free with the exception of a few adult/nude skins our own creators/members have made for our site only.

We're a small... EMPHASIS on the small - community. We've been running the site for a year and have in the past month or so been trying to share some custom content for our members/visitors who are too lazy to go look for it.

That tumblr post got blown out of proportion. The content creator that started it, contacted me asking me to remove their content and instead place a link to their tumblr. I get alot of emails asking silly questions, and I assumed it was some newbie who uploaded something to our site and wanted us to instead link to their tumblr... we get ALOT of spammers. So I dismissed it and said if they wish to promote their tumblr, they can upload their creation and advertise their tumblr in the description.
I later realised the person contacting me was someone whos creation I shared on our website, and instead KiwiSims4 was asking me to remove the file that we uploaded/stored on our server and instead link to her tumblr page where the file is located. I contacted her and told her today that I completely misunderstood and that I was going to make things right which I have.

AGAIN to be clear, we are NOT 'stealing' peoples creations, we're not claiming to have made them infact we're giving full credit to the creators and the places they post their creations to. I am a BIG fan of MTS. :lovestruc

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY... we aren't charging people money to buy content we've taken from other sites. That would be insanely stupid... I would never even consider doing that.

The ONLY things we have prices on, is our custom content area are fees to access NUDE and ADULT skins... not to buy them, but to ACCES the area where they are stored... which by the way were made by OUR creators and posted on OUR site first. Our creators now even set the price to access them. Those are the ONLY downloads we charge to access, and they were posted first by creators on OUR site and hosted on OUR site.

We are sharing stuff with the best intentions for our members... I have no malicious plans. If people want to come on MTS to download the free content which EA owns ultimately they can, just as they can come on Sims4Forum to download it.

I am completely overwhelmed at how people have spread this misinformation and lies about how we are 'stealing' peoples content and charging people to access them. Which couldn't be further from the truth. All content uploaded to Sims4Forum has credits to the person who makes it and where it comes from. I'm actually in the process of linking to the source pages of all files to further compliment the credits.

<3 Don't hate us 

As for monetisation of Sims4Forum, we do have a thing called a VIP club subscription where our members can pay a monthly fee for a load of site benefits and perks.... that relates to our site only and goes towards hosting fees, upgrades and money for maintaining the site... and we barely even make any money from that.

As with everything, it's completely optional.... you dont have to, we're not forcing people to. The only thing the VIP subscription on our site offers, is that VIP members can download custom content from our site faster... but that's just one out of several perks.

Hope that clears things up. Everyone is free to email me at: [email protected] if you have any concerns or worries.

Ultimately all Sims 4 mods are essentially owned by EA... and they are free to share amongst everyone... but it's common courtesy to give credits to the people who made them and the place they come from. And I can tell you, myself and everyone at Sims4Forum (our small fan forum) will do our best to give credit where credit is due!

Putting other people's files up for download to members of your site without the permission of the creators is wrong.
And I happen to know of one item that for sure specifically stated not to put it up anywhere else was placed by you on your website with that snippet of information removed.

You should just have member stuff posted and things by your creators, if you want to _link_ to other people's content that is one thing but taking it without permission to fill up your website is not ok.
Also, duplicate content (text, etc) is frowned upon by google and can wind up having people's sites blocked from google and worse. You might wind up doing more damage then anyone even thinks.

Note: I do not speak in the name mts here, this is my own personal opinion.

You have absolutely no right to re-publish *anything* that creators have uploaded to mts or elsewhere without prior consent. This does not only pertain to the actual custom content files, but also to screenshots and descriptions. By copy-pasting vast amounts of content (the majority of your Mods category, for example) onto your site you are monetising other people's unpaid work.

In case you have uploaded even one byte of anything I have ever authored, you're going to remove that AT ONCE. I don't give a shit whether you're crediting me or not -- I can decide very well for myself where I upload my stuff and where I don't. A butt ugly paysite with badly-made tits and asses plastered all over the top is NOT the context in which I want my work to be seen, and you are NOT going to use any of it in order to shill out "VIP access" to unsuspecting idiots who are willing to pay for that.

If you want a site that offers lots of cool mods, make them yourself.

I do feel a little bad though. This guy doesn't seem to have wanted to do any harm, and if what he's saying is true then he's not making money off of the content that he stole (Sorry m8. Even if that wasn't your intention, it's still stealing). But I can see why CC creators would be pissed. It is still uploading content without their permission. It's one thing to link people to somebody's creation. It's another thing to host said creation on your site as if it's yours. Even if you do give credit to the creator, it still makes it appear like it came from your site.

It is without a hint of doubt a commercial use. However tasteless and ill-advised it may be. That is what makes it different from all those "Finds" sites.

I do not believe one iota of all that "honest mistake" bullshit. People who would go to the trouble of copying, downloading, and reuploading entire posts only because they like others' content so much would ASK FIRST. At the very least, they would leave the author a note.

After more than 2.5 million downloads and other folks having used my stuff for all sorts of things over the years -- edits, contests, world uploads, versions etc pp -- I believe I can tell the difference.

Hosting other people's files is a shitty thing to do, even if you might not be charging for them directly, mate. Your site chastised me for using adblock so I assume that you still make money from people visiting and it looks like you also take donations so you're obviously getting something from hosting downloads that aren't yours.

Actually.. he is claiming that the modifications belong to EA and are therefore open season for him to offer so long as he credits the author.
This is not the case. However, even assuming that this WAS the case... I seriously doubt EA gave you permission to provide adult content on their behalf for their teen rated game.

@sims4forum If your intentions are truly not malicious. I would do the following immediately.

- Remove all content on your site that you have not verified actual permission from the author.
- Create a review process to make sure submitted modifications are not plagiarized
- Ban or give warnings to those who submit plagiarized content.

As for charging for your content. You have every right to do so.. so long as it is yours and it does not violate whatever policy EA has on it. Websites cost money and every one of them has their own method to meet this demand.
I personally do not hate you, however I think you need to pay more attention to what is going on within your site. Good luck to you.

Yeah I heard that before (but only in the form of allegiatons) -- what is the source for this? Do you have a link?

I don't believe even EA claim "all CC are belong to us" in this blanket form. They probably do that with regards to the content that's published on their own forum and exchange / gallery, because they have to -- they wouldn't be able to run these sites otherwise. Surely there is some "by posting, you agree we have publishing rights" fine print somewhere -- just as I, by pushing the "Post" button, implicitely give mts the right to actually publish this post.

But this is my decision, as I am the author. It does not mean it's free-for-all. (Excluding the usual "citation rights" stuff that I probably can't explain very well since the legal terms are all different in my first language =P)

@sims4forum - there's a thing called "Finds", could also be called "Best Finds". Other sites have threads like that- a link, maybe a little picture. A link? Yeah, a link to the actual download. It's really not cool of you at all to host the files on your forum like you are. Whether or not EA owns all custom content or not, there's a little thing called respect. If a creator's TOU specifically states "Do not upload elsewhere", or some variation on that, then guess what you should do? RESPECT that creator's wishes and keep your hands to yourself.

I'll make it quite clear right here and now: I have a very open TOU. The only thing I ask is that my stuff NOT be hosted elsewhere and that NO money be involved in any way.

/me needs to go check something and will be back... cuz I'm not done yet

Look, I am just a guy. who runs a Sims forum whos primary purpose is to have a Sims 4 fan forum and have an area by where people can share neat custom content they find for the benefit of other members and visitors.

Yes I have ads on my site, yes I monetise my site with a VIP subscription which people pay for to access certain features on our site and a very minute percentage of those features has anything to do with the custom content section so don't say I am monetising and stealign everyones custom content and trying to make money off it unfairly. I don't know about ModTheSims but our site doesn't get anything near a fraction of the traffic that MTS has.... and our ad revenue is to put it bluntly... CRAP.

The monetisation of my site helps pay hosting fees, and gives me some spending money doing something I love. I don't have the luxury of having a full time job and spending hours of my day posting on my forum and moderating it for nothing. :S

I am new to this game in the Sims series, and I love it. I am also new to Sims custom content but its my understanding that people are free to share and enjoy mods and skins because they are fun!....

and it would be bad taste and downright disgraceful if someone was to take credit for something someone else made... not to mention doing it purely to make profit from it...

The fact is I can't seperate our monetisation stuff from the custom content stuff... they go hand in hand because thats just how our forum software works :S I am not willing to dismantle my entire site, my hobby because some huge/bigger site doesn't like the competition... mods and skins are to be shared and enjoyed.

We only host the files plastic because we want files to live on for as long as we exist. I have years of experience playing games and using mods on other games, and know the frustration of looking for a mod I used to have and not being able to find it because the person who made it deleted their tumblr or their blog for whatever reason.

I am hosting some of the files so they stay alive and online, not because im trying to steal or make money from them. I am also making people log in to download them because if anyone and everyone unregistered could download them, we'd max out our bandwidth cap on the site verrrry fast... so that's why I limit them.

Anyhow you guys are probably right, I need to do things differently for sure... but I just want to see my site grow bigger. I'll admit I'm not as knowledgable as everyone here on the do's and don'ts on custom content.

But from what I have looked at, EA ultimately owns everything that's made for their game... mods, skins and downloads for the game SHOULD be allowed to be shared freely across the web AS LONG as proper credit is given to the creators.

For the files we have sourced from here, I plan on adding even more credit to this site, linking people to the pages here for more information.... the last thing I want to do is 'compete' or try and rub MTS up in the wrong way. You guys do a great job here and have a fantastic community, and you guys make people login/register to download too... probably for the same reasons I do to stay in control of bandwidth.

But yeah, please don't attack me and spreading false accusations about my intentions. I have a site which has ads, I have a site that has a vip subscription... and it just so happens I have a little area where people can share custom content... but here i'm being accused of solely trying to maliciously steal stuff from other people to make money.... I just want my community to grow. We are a forum, we're called Sims4Forum for a reason... we're not called Sims4Mods.com.

I believe in my heart that what I have done is perfectly acceptable. It's acceptable to share peoples content freely across the web.

If someone here was to copy a piece of free custom content exclusive to Sims4Forum.com and post it here on MTS giving credit to the creator and our site... I would be totally fine with that. It's all about sharing mods and downloads for everyone to enjoy! Lets not lose sight of that... and as long as full credits are given I don't see the problem.... anyone who says it's all about the site its uploaded to, is the one with secret motives....

Here you go..

http://tos.ea.com/legalapp/WEBTERMS/US/en/PC/#section6

6. Contributing UGC to EA Services

EA does not pre-screen all UGC and does not endorse or approve any UGC that you and other users may contribute to EA Services. You are solely responsible for your UGC and may be held liable for UGC that you post.

EA respects the intellectual property rights of others. You must have the legal right to upload UGC to EA Services. You may not upload or post any UGC on EA Services that infringes the copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights of a third party nor may you upload UGC that violates the law, this Terms of Service and/or any third party's right of privacy or right of publicity. You may upload only UGC that you are permitted to upload by the owner or by law. EA may, without prior notice to you and in its sole judgment, remove UGC that may infringe the intellectual property or other rights of a third party. If you are a repeat infringer of EA's or a third party's intellectual property or other rights, EA may terminate your Account without notice to you. If your Account(s) are terminated, you are not entitled to a refund for any fees you have paid, and you will lose access to Entitlements associated with your Account.

EA reserves the right (but has no obligation except as required by law) to remove, block, edit, move or disable UGC for any reason, including when EA determines that UGC violates these terms. The decision to remove UGC or other Content at any time is in EA's sole and final discretion. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, EA does not assume any responsibility or liability for UGC or for removal of, UGC or any failure to or delay in removing, UGC or other Content.

as jimmy savile would say "now then now then"

Dude, you're just making money off of shit that doesn't belong to you. Like, where are you getting this weird free-sharing moral highground shit?

I am trying to grow my community guys, and sharing custom content. If I was to try and contact EVERY single person to ask if we could share their content and give full credit to them on our site.... I'd have to to register on a thousand sites, wait days for responses before getting permission. And by the end of the week i'd only have about 5 mods in total... which would be of no benefit to our community Trust me, I would if I had a time machine though.

As I said before, my forum is monetised... aka I have ads on it and I have a neat VIP subscription where members get loads of bonuses. It is primarily for the forum, our custom content area I had no idea would create this much drama and conflict, it was just an addon script for our forum software I thought would be handy. It is in no way comparable to modthesims.... modthesims is a community and site dedicated to sharing custom content.

Anyhow, I don't want to rub you guys the wrong way and I respect custom content creators for the work they do and I want to give full credit to the people that make the content and their sites.... but I strongly believe custom content should be shared freely by anyone providing they give credit to the creators.

I've been harassed, attacked and had my name/address posted all over the internet as I am belittled and bullied because of something someone posted which held no truth to it.

All this drama and the insults i've received is down to someone saying we're "stealing peoples content" and "charging people to download it" which couldn't be further from the truth

My name, mine and my sites reputation has been dragged through the dirt all because someone posted something that wasn't true.... and there's nothing I can do about it.

Some people need to think about how they'd feel if someone did that to them. I am just a guy whos poor, who loves games and loves forums... I'm not some rich corporation who's trying to rip everyone off.... please don't treat me like I am one...

I'm sorry about your situation. But that does not change the fact that you need to have permission to use content before you use it.
That's just the way things are. The moderators on this site do it.. it is not easy for them either. If you do not have the time, nor capability to do it.. then you just can't do it.
I can't offer a Big Mac without permission from McDonalds and claim that it's too hard and expensive to get this permission.
They put the investment on it and deserve a return from their work.

ETA: The solution to your problem is simple...
As I have stated above.. remove the content that you have not verified permission.
Put in the legwork... get mod authors to build up your base. Your name will be cleared.

So your solution is that you expect us to spend hours each day moderating this site instead? So that you can just grab what you like without having to do anything yourself?




Yes. So take it down. Remove everything you copied from here, and then wait for the creators to reupload it. They are the ones who decide. This is what you claim, right? "a little area where people can share custom content" -- share, not "being shared" without their knowledge and against their will. You can stuff your credits where the sun doesn't shine, seriously. I for one do not want to be associated with your site in any way shape or form.


Again, I am not officially speaking in the name of the site here. But I do not expect any of the other mods who pour countless hours into this site every week to have a vastly differing opinion.

My mind is so utterly blown by that last post that I've typed out several responses and just deleted them all...
Indirectly profiting is just as illegal as directly profiting, and using unemployment as an excuse to steal doesn't cut it in the real world, and so it won't here either.
I'm unemlpoyed too, but you don't see me re-uploading anyone's content anywhere. I regulate my own behaviour, as adults should.
This is coming from someone who has successfully used DMCA forms against more than 50 separate cases of stolen artwork and photography.

I know this is wasted breathe, but it's more for the creators if anything, go and get yourself a good DMCA form, dig your heels in, I do and it works. Yes it's annoying, but trust me, far too many artists and creators complain but never fill out the form. Follow through. Do it. That's what it's there for. It doesn't even have to have a commercial element to be a valid request. It's not even an argument, it's a pretty straight forward law, you didn't give permission, then that's that.

Normally I wouldn't bother to reply to an obviously drama inducing thread, but I know there must be real people hurting over this somewhere in the world, and they deserve someone to stand up with them and say this isn't right, and there's something you can do about it. If people keep on brushing aside copyright infringement, it will never get better.

Yes, doing things properly in order to cover your nether regions takes time. Necessary time. Laziness is not an excuse for disregarding creator wishes.


They already are shared freely. Here.

I'll turn that back on you: How would you feel if someone took your website (at least the free parts) and reposted it on another site with ads generating revenue?

There's also the issue of updates. If a file is found to have a problem and updated, your copy that you are sharing with the creator's name on it is now faulty and making the creator look like they don't create a working product.

Maybe it's just because I don't have any content for his site to hijack but don't you think you all might be a little too hard on him? Maybe I'm just the type who's easily swayed once I actually sit down and talk to the person who committed the offense but while I'm not defending him, I don't think he had any malicious intent. I don't think what he did was particularly smart and his excuse doesn't fly with me but I really don't think he knows to what extent his actions could anger others. I'm sure we can find a solution that makes everyone happy. Though he could start by removing all the MTS content and let the creators decide whether or not they want their stuff on any other site.

...Are you 13?

You're actually saying that the reason that you're stealing content is because you're too lazy to do things like everyone else and you think that's a justification?

Thousands of downloadable content items on this site are based on brands, real people and products the creators don't have the permission to use. Like the Heath Ledger - The Joker Sim.

Do you MTS or indeed the creator have explicit permission from Heath Ledgers family, DC comics and the countless other brands to host and share content/brand/figures they own the rights to? No? Good because you shouldn't have to go and get permission from every single brand, creator of ideas and products to share it....

How it looks to me is you are stomping out a small site... because you want to monopolise the entire Sims 4 custom content scene....

In a few minutes i've found COUNTLESS other sites, blogs and whatnot sharing mods that are available on here. Yet you are singling me out... and attacking me for explaining my side of the story.

If I am to remove and dismantle my site until I get permission from individual creators.... then I request that MTS remove all content on this site that has content influenced or made by using other brand products, images and/or public figures.

Aaaand just like that I lost some sympathy for you for what is probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard, First off, if you're gonna accuse us of something at least spell it right. Second, when has this site ever been known to come down on other CC sites? When does anyone here EVER do that? The problem isn't that we're scared of some non-existent competition. It's that you were taking people's shit without asking them. Nobody here goes out of their way to take out "small sites". We're actually pretty supportive when it comes to up and coming CC makers and their sites (Case in point: Twallan and his site). So let's get that cleared up right now. If you hosted your own content or the people you stole from put their own stuff on your site of their free will, there would be no problem. Nobody's "beating on the new guy". You're definitely not the first new guy and something like this has definitely never happened before. MTS is the probably the last site you'd wanna accuse of trying to monopolize the Sims CC community (not that that's even possible given the number of CC sites there are). We are not The Sims Resource.

If you want to _share_ people's awesome work link to it. The put it up on whatever website they did for a reason. Save the image and post it up (just because... bandwidth is limited for some folks and hotlinking images is a douchy thing to do) and say what it is and post a friggen link.
If you don't want to contact for permission do not spend your poor *sniffle sniffle* self's time copying people's content and uploading it on your site, etc.

Listen kid, yeah, I'm going to call you a kid since I'm pretty sure I'm about 13 years older than you... I've been online for a number of years and dealing with copyright issues and all sorts of related crap. What you are doing is not ok and I know you know that. From what I've seen you've had a number of websites, you have a youtube channel for video game videos, etc.

There are right and wrong ways to do all of this and you are not doing yourself any favors whining on here. *hands you another coffin nail*

Ok, here's an example. I go on netflix and go "oh, what a great movie, I'm going to steal it and then post it on my ____ so other people can watch it too!"
That would be nice of me for the folks who don't have netflix but it isn't legal or proper. Just like you aren't supposed to use streaming services, like twitch, to stream movies for people to watch online.