Devs call for Flightsim.to boycott over proposed changes

Seems dodgy to say the least.

Sad, for MSFS it's been the place to go to, but I'm afraid that they shot themselves in the foot with this one. Hubris...

Priller
 
I've only just seen this article, thanks for the link. I had four mods on Flightsim.to, which I've now hidden and requested to be deleted, with the message "These files are my intellectual property and I decide who hosts them, not you."
 
Changed terms of service February 19 2023: (4.3) When you submit or post User Content to the Service, either directly or through a Third Party Service, you are granting this Site a worldwide, non-exclusive, assignable, unrestricted, sublicensable, perpetual, irrevocable, and royalty-free license to use the User Content. This license includes all consents or waivers necessary to distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, transmit, host, share, keep available, communicate to the public, and advertise, feature, or promote the User Content in connection with the service provided by the Website and across different media now known or developed in the future, (if applicable) only to the extent that such license grant is not limited or restricted by any third-party EULA of content that is included in your User Content. You are not authorized to grant us, and we do not claim, any intellectual property rights or copyrights of third parties. In either case, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, unrestricted, perpetual, irrevocable and royalty-free license to distribute, host, keep available and publicy display your User Content.These licenses do also allow us to advertise and promote your User Content without further notice or permission from you or any other person, and without compensation to you or any other person.
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It this a joke? :a1310:
No sorry I cant agree, I havent not many my addons here but I cant agree.
 
I guess jankees hasn't read the great news yet, he has a lot of it in there. Seriously, they shot themselves in the foot. Avsim.com and Flightsim.com will come back to favor I feel something and SOH of course :).
 
I'm not clear on what the news is here. Apparently the policy that uploaders are granting a permanent distribution license and can only remove their content at the site's pleasure has been in place for months. Did folks just not notice?

This premium member thing is new, and given the breadth of license rights the site asserts, I guess it may pave the way to paywalling uploads that the author intended to be free. Is that the issue?

Whatever they are doing to tick off creators, they better fix it. The site has had a remarkable rise in supplanting traditional forums like SOH, flightsim, simviation and avsim with its up-to-date interface, easy update mechanism, etc. I admit I'm addicted to it. But if the addon creators all left and went back to SOH and flightsim.to died, I'd happily go back to the old forum download pages and never miss flightsim.to. Hopefully they will realize how expendable they are to most users and make a course correction. They need the content a lot more than the creators or users need them.

:icon36:

August
 
Update on file deletion request

tiger1962 said:
I've only just seen this article, thanks for the link. I had four mods on Flightsim.to, which I've now hidden and requested to be deleted, with the message "These files are my intellectual property and I decide who hosts them, not you."
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I've just logged back in to Flightsim.to and all my files have been deleted as requested. If anyone else feels the same way about their own work, in the Delete request drop-down I selected the "breach of copyright" option and in the further comments box below it I added the message quoted above. Please feel free to use the same message if you wish.
All my files were uploaded before Flightsim.to imposed their new conditions, I didn't sign up for them and they haven't asked for my consent since. Stuff 'em.
 
YoYo said:
I guess jankees hasn't read the great news yet, he has a lot of it in there. Seriously, they shot themselves in the foot. Avsim.com and Flightsim.com will come back to favor I feel something and SOH of course :).
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Just reading this, yes I have a few paints there. I never realised I was not allowed to remove them, which is sort of bugging me. If I'm not allowed to remove my own work, then it's no longer my work, as they decide what happens with it...odd, that.
On the other hand, removing everything and uploading it here or on avsim, jeezz, just the amount of work...
Maybe I should just find another hobby, my wife won't complain...
 
K5083 said:
I'm not clear on what the news is here. Apparently the policy that uploaders are granting a permanent distribution license and can only remove their content at the site's pleasure has been in place for months. Did folks just not notice?

This premium member thing is new, and given the breadth of license rights the site asserts, I guess it may pave the way to paywalling uploads that the author intended to be free. Is that the issue?
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Here are a few statements from the developers themselves:


PuffinFlight on Reddit:

Shady AF. I don't have anything against premium. But let's say one day they decide to go full on paywall. Fine. It's their business. But I don't want to have my add-ons on a paid site. With these terms I can't remove my files. They say that I can permanently unlist them. Awesome. But will they be deleted? No. So they just need to link to them from some place and voila, nothing happened, that still put out my files for download.

Too bad there is no real modern alternative. I'm considering pulling out my add-ons. Was supposed to release last region of We Love VFR in upcoming weeks, but I'll need to rethink my release strategy.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/...nounces_changes_huge_backlash_ensues/j93gnn3/

GotFriends official statement:

2kd7g8m.png


Emerald Scenery Design's statement:

https://www.facebook.com/EmeraldSce...8vUHjcKrq9bRRj9WFSom1K2jwYppfkMac7Xj2eVrjQC5l
 
jankees said:
On the other hand, removing everything and uploading it here or on avsim, jeezz, just the amount of work...
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There again, allowing them to use your work to attract paying customers to their website for free would be even harder to swallow. :disgust:
 
Sounds like highway robbery of everyone elses work.

I always though it odd that their website popped up as soon as msfs was released (at least thats how it appeared), and very quickly became the place for freeware, even though there were so many other existing places to host freeware that had none of those shananagans.
 
centuryseries said:
Sounds like highway robbery of everyone elses work.
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That's exactly what it is. I'm just downloading the latest update for the WBSim/JPLogistics C152 mod from their own google drive "Due to the drama with flighsim.to" as they phrase it on their Discord channel.
 
jankees said:
Maybe I should just find another hobby, my wife won't complain...
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She may not, but the rest of us will revolt!!! :biggrin-new:

OK - my serious views... They say they're not charging anything for users to download. That may be true. But they're still profiting from every page that gets displayed with a banner ad. And their countdown to d/l gimmick does one of two things - it either encourages users to buy in with a membership to get rid of them, or it gets users to open a new tab to continue browsing, which in turn displays more ads. Either way, F'.to gets money. By the way, the only way I use that site anymore is with the Brave Browser. I fully support the devs' collective decision. I hope they go back to the stalwarts that have supported our community for decades, like Flightsim and Avsim. I'm seriously tempted to package up my red flashlight effect and upload it to Avsim tonight.
 
Any good lawyer would likely easily rip them to shreds in court (and adopted judgements over international borders). I have assisted in a number of intellectual property/copyright cases over the years when my former company did skip tracing/asset location & assessment, etc. We saw a lot of matters like this. The problem is, many small scale developers of digital products may not have deep pockets when it comes to hiring a law firm to protect their work. Unscrupulous persons and site owners know this and muscle their way around those who contribute to their website & business model. Some of it is legal, a good bit isn't. Be careful to read the fine print of any agreement & know your rights as a property & content owner. I'm not a lawyer so my advice is if you feel the need to, consult a lawyer who works in this area of practice. The rest of us are probably best off to simply stop dealing with people like this.
 
dont you dare.. many of us enjoy your work!for me its just been looking at the screenshots.but its also art! thank you for what you do!



jankees said:
Just reading this, yes I have a few paints there. I never realised I was not allowed to remove them, which is sort of bugging me. If I'm not allowed to remove my own work, then it's no longer my work, as they decide what happens with it...odd, that.
On the other hand, removing everything and uploading it here or on avsim, jeezz, just the amount of work...
Maybe I should just find another hobby, my wife won't complain...
Click to expand...
 
There are probably more important things to boycott, like made in China products for example. I like FS.to for the conveneince of one location to find new things and update downloads. Never been a fan of AVSIM or Flightsim pages. Very slow downloads and a pain to locate liveries and updates. But taking ownership for private content seems to have buggered the whole .to expereince. Oh well. Guess it's back to model railroads and slot cars for me. Collecting postage stamps are endless fun for the whole family. - d
 
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