Personal lives are being affected. And destroyed. All over illegal The Sims 4 Custom Content.
Please note that this story is still in development. Until then, be careful when downloading CC / Mods. Keep things fair. Don’t ruin this for actual talented people who are trying to make a living. Lastly – don’t steal personal information, threaten and harass people.
I also want to remind you that no one from The Sims Team is responsible for this situation getting out of control. Do not harass and set expectations from the developers and people working on this franchise. There are multiple factors involved in this situation. This situation has just recently been brought up to attention at this scale and cannot be resolved overnight.
In the meantime, please be respectful to everyone who wants to do right by this franchise and this community. Supporters of creators, the creators themselves, the Sims team, reporters and other rightful groups who are on the frontline of all of this. We just want to make this community a safer, better and more welcoming space than what it is right now. Thank you!
Custom Content. Mods. They’ve been around for as long as video games have existed. It’s no surprise that the biggest life simulation game that lets you create and build anything allows for custom creations and gameplay modifications. After all, this has been the staple of The Sims Community since the first day The Sims 1 was released.
Will Wright, the creator of The Sims, SimCity and Spore has always been a huge advocate for the CC / Mods community. And even gave a lengthy interview about it for TechTV in 2001.
Video Games simply wouldn’t have the longetivity that they have right now without amazing creators that keep making the franchise more interesting on a daily basis.
I might’ve started this article a bit dramatically from what you’re usually used to reading here on Sims Community, but it definitely fits the situation that players and modders are dealing with at the moment.
The Sims 4 and Custom Content
The Sims 4 has a huge community of Modders and Custom Content Creators. Some of them even make a living out of it through Patreon / Early Access and tipping platforms that support their passion to keep on creating new content for the game. This is all rightfully so, considering that the game simply wouldn’t last for this long if it wasn’t for passionate CC creators and Modders who break the vanilla mold of The Sims 4.
The first Custom Content Pieces for the game started out way back when The Sims 4 Create A Sim Demo was released, allowing for players to create their custom T-Shirt Prints and even dabble with custom meshes and designs that create a whole new clothing piece.
This all started back in July 2014 – just two months before The Sims 4 Base Game would officially be released.
Fast forward to 2022 and we have Custom Content creators who create entirely new CC Sets both for Create A Sim and Build Mode – sometimes that even look better than the official content we get in The Sims 4!
6 Maxis Match Sets by myshunosun
The Modding Community has also gotten extremely creative with new ideas to rewrite the existing code that’s in The Sims 4 and create something different. From gameplay improvements to new game mechanics created from different parts of The Sims 4 game code. Yes, to even new animations that make the game realistic and lifelike to players who prefer to play the game that way.
Realistic Childbirth Mod by PandaSamaSims4
Both communities, along with creators that upload their creations to The Gallery, go hand-in-hand in making The Sims 4 a sandbox game that it is today.
EA’s stance on Custom Content and Mods
Electronic Arts and Maxis have always been indirectly supporting Mods and Custom Content for their games. Luckily, The Sims 4 is no different.
The game has its own Mods folder in the Documents settings that allows for players to paste any .package or .ts4script created by a CC / Mod creator and play with the unofficial content in their games. Sure, there’s always been a silent rule from EA to never promote custom content creations on their socials often as the 3rd party community always has unexpected creations that include stuff that’s way above the 12+ rating that The Sims 4 has in most countries. At the time of writing this I was mostly thinking about WickedWhims and the Extreme Violence Mod that I must stress out, are not for anyone below the age of 18.
The Sims 4 even has its own settings in the Game Options that allow you to enable / disable CC and Mods. Even more so, Maxis has started embracing the CC community by hiring talented creators to create custom stuff for their game. From makeup and clothing to new furniture.
The Sims Franchise 21st Birthday Update
The Sims Team seems to have still continued this tradition, with the latest collaboration being with ComplexSims. The creator brought new robes as well as durags and bonnets to Create A Sim just 2 months ago!
Some creators have taken the opportunity of Custom Content and Mods to turn it into their career, with Early Access releases and exclusive periods for their supporters.
This method has been used widely since 2017 when creators started utilizing the Patreon platform more and more. EA’s Terms of Service regulate that User Generated Content is still in sole property of EA, considering that .package and .ts4script files are all appropriated for their product. Which in this case is The Sims 4.
Your UGC
You are responsible for your UGC. You may not upload UGC that infringes a third party’s intellectual property rights or that violates the law, this Agreement or a third party’s right of privacy or right of publicity.
EA may, in its sole discretion, remove, edit or disable UGC for any reason, including if EA reasonably determines that UGC violates this Agreement. EA does not assume any responsibility or liability for UGC, for removing it, or not removing it or other Content. EA does not pre-screen all UGC and does not endorse or approve any UGC available on EA Services.
When you contribute UGC, you grant to EA, its licensors and licensees a non-exclusive, perpetual, transferable, worldwide, sublicensable license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, publicly perform, publicly display or otherwise transmit and communicate the UGC, or any portion of it, in any manner or form and in any medium or forum, whether now known or later devised, without notice, payment or attribution of any kind to you or any third party. You also grant to all other users who can access and use your UGC on an EA Service the right to use, copy, modify, display, perform, create derivative works from, and otherwise communicate and distribute your UGC on or through the relevant EA Service without further notice, attribution or compensation to you.
In November 2017 the Global Community Manager for The Sims who worked at that time – SimGuruDrake, has clarified what CC creators and Modders are allowed to do when releasing their content. At least when it comes to temporary monetization.
Maxis and EA has granted permission through this latest (and only statement so far) from November 2017 for creators to earn money through Early Access periods. The only catch is that creators need to make their content available and free for everyone after the period of 2-3 weeks.
- CC/Mods Locked Behind Paywalls – Creators cannot lock content they make using our game behind a paywall. While we do not police this content (there is no way we would create a team simply to monitor this) we do take reports sent to us seriously and action accordingly.
- Patreon – We understand that folks who make CC / Mods for others to enjoy are doing it in their free time and may desire to offset costs to create the content by using this service. As long as the content is still made available FOR FREE we do not mind these types of pages. Folks who have a Patreon page are welcome to provide folks with “early access” incentives for their content but it should be made available to the general public within 2-3 weeks of it being given to folks early.
So what’s the problem then?
Throughout the last few months (and even years) more and more creators have started extending the trial periods from maximum 21 days to a month, two months – and sometimes never making their content available for the public. Unless they pay for their stuff.
I first started doing an article on this topic a few months ago when mack3030 published their Anti-Permpaywall Directory, including a list of .package files made by creators who never released their stuff to the public.
As if violating EA’s Terms of Service wasn’t enough, a certain group of Custom Content Creators who don’t release their content to the public have started putting “trackers” in their CC downloads. All to find out who is avoiding their permanent paywall. Which, I should remind you again, is against Terms of Service.
Player and creator ladysimmer94 has pointed out the new issues and concerns that mack3030 raised a few months ago about the recent incidents. Where real people got harassed, doxxed and bullied. All for downloading content that should be free for everyone.
We don’t want to contribute to any additional harassment or disturbing stories shared by many community members who have been affected by this – however, if you want to know the full story and how to protect yourself from these awful people, you can check out the Anti-Permpaywall Directory linked below. With real stories. Real people, and real lives almost ruined.
All over Sims 4 Custom Content.
Creator simbelene has posted a thread on their tumblr, including information on how these creators were tricking other people and collecting personal information. All illegally. All while trying to destroy their personal lives.
The Reddit thread linked below also explains perfectly the situation that’s going on. Including real people affected and a list of creators who practice doxxing and stealing personal information.
We will continue to develop this story if new information surface. We’d like to remind all the players out there to keep things fair, be careful when downloading CC and Mods, and not ruin the wonderful community that we have.
Also, if you are one of the people who puts your content behind permanent paywalls, destroys personal lives and ruins an amazing experience that is this game and the community – please seek professional help and stay out of people’s personal lives!
CC is the one thing that makes this game worthwhile and people gotta ruin that too…
I wouldn’t be surprised if EA decided to stop (indirectly) supporting third party content after this, as their name and their product is definitely going to be dragged into this. And as much as I hate defending them, I wouldn’t blame them one bit as they have done absolutely nothing wrong in this case.
I mean EA could go the bethesda route and give us a version of creation club, it would allow them to control the content a bit more, although it would then affect those who use the nsfw or otherwise more taboo mods a bit more of having to make another way to put said content onto console players
That’s what I thought EA would do with TS5 long before this happened. I think they were testing out how their sales would be impacted without the store.
To be fair, EA didn’t do that after finding out about the CP that some people had after using the coding from a popular NSFW mod. So I don’t see EA going that route with TS4 because being associated with CP through your name and product (even when you had nothing to do with it) is really bad.
Yes, I learned about the doxxing about two months ago. Is EA aware of this, are people reporting to EA and to Patreon what’s happening? I would hate it if EA banned all CC just because of a few greedy, selfish and insensitive bad apples.
i doubt EA will suddenly ban CC over this. If anything they may create their own paywall for creators to use for TS5 this way it’s more regulated but people on both sides will likely complain anyways. Getting rid of CC would likely negatively impact the game.
Maybe if people followed the EA guidelines and stopped keeping everything behind permanent paywalls, they wouldn’t have any issues. Doxxing and harassing people is only going to make things worse and nobody is going to want to support their patreon. Allowing them to have a patreon and make money off cc for the game was a mistake on EA’s part as people can’t follow rules or not doing enough to enforce the rules and stop those who dox or keep lists, etc….This is why we can’t have nice things.
This community in general has an issue with following rules even when someone creates content for free. We have people stealing their content and then presenting it as their own. We also have people creating mod folders which on one hand puts users in danger of a virus just because it’s a download but also mod folders can and have contained outdated CC or mods. So not only is the person not giving the creator the credit deserved the person downloading isn’t getting updated content especially when they don’t know where to find it. Literally some people just ask for you to link back and respect the creations they make. Honestly this community has a lot of issues both with some custom creators and some cc fans.
I wonder if it is possible here (and if not here, if someone could tell me where exactly) I can report such creators who should make all their content available to everyone at a given time, but they do not do it with all or most things.
I don’t know. I honestly don’t think EA would care overall about who is releasing content or not as long as they aren’t a big entity like say TSR. As long as you’re not promoting something heinous like CP, racism, homophobia and/or xenophobia EA likely won’t get too involved. It has to be something that would really impact their product and get potential headlines. For example, Snowy Escape with the historical issues between Koreans and Japanese made its way to EA.
There are wonderful CC creators and modders out there. I have used CC and sometimes Mods. But right now, I have none of that in my game. For me I feel that CC & mods change the game form what it is supposed to be to something else. I have all of what EA has made for the game, EP’s, Game packs Stuf Packs & all the Kits. I think that paying for CC or a mod is up to the individual. I shy away from creators that have a price for their creations…I hope this does not leave a bad mark on Creators of CC & Mods all because a few have taken advantage of people..
Mack3030 on tumblr is being doxxed and her JOB is being contacted just because she decided to speak out against this. Mack is just saying that these creators are unsafe and tracking/doxxing people and people are doxxing her to her job.
Please take it with a gain of salt before believing Mack3030 story. As an asian simmer community we are a small community and we don’t have a bigger platform to speak out. This person has been caught saying Sinophobic and hate speech to Chinese people for a very long time now, such as making fun of Chinese children working in sweatshops. It could be a reason that she claim that someone has contacted her workplace because of a custom contents to hiding her sinophobia past. Her sinophobic behaviour behind closed doors need to stop before she starts jumping and pretended to be someone else.
Also last time I checked, the picture of an Asian woman who is a creator is on her page and been slandered. Her university and her family information is also on there. Even though I disagreed with some creators practices. I suggest that she should delete it since she is doxing too.
You only created this account to defend a doxxer, lemme guess, you’re friends with them? Or maybe ARE them?
I created the account because as an asian simmer person I am tired of seeing Pesaco, Mack3030 and the rest of your pirate group threaten and being racist towards us. And I have the right to voice for my people since we are being killing on the streets more and more each day. And I will contacted every asian community and spreading this.
If you want me to provide screenshots of all you people that have been saying Sinophobic things behind a closed door in your group. That’s fine too I have them.
Mack3030, you know why some asian people might have contact your workplace before. You tried to make it into a custom content issue to hide the fact that you got into trouble last time for racist jokes. And you work hand in hand with Pescado, the owner of piracy website who is well known for being extremely racist and even recently always referring to covid as kung-flu and hosting groups allowing people who comment on how chinese people should be killed.
As much as I agree that the behaviours of doxing is wrong. And I would be delightful that these people who commit such things will get punished.
However I will not sit down and watch a sinophobic asian racist hater running around pretending like you have never done anything wrong. Especially with Pescado. Never. You have been silencing us long enough.
Edits:
Dear Reader. Sorry but this is already 2022. I hope nobody here is going to buy and believe an anonymous account pretending to be an Asian person and saying such things as yes, please call me a chi, ku flu and make fun of a chinese virus. I am an asian person and I feel totally fine with it. No one with a sane mind is going to be okay with it. Even if that person is Asian, Black or Caucasian no one deserves to be called slurs and racist terms like that.
I hope you people now see what type of people Mack3030 and friends are. Once the evidence has been shown. They are trying to frame me as a creator and just cover theirs tracks.
I have not said at all that doxing is the right thing to do. I am supporting the punishment of anyone who is sharing the peoples information at all cost. Again, I am supporting the punishment of anyone who sharing information AT ALL COST. But that doesn’t mean that we are going to okay with someone that makes racist jokes, continues working with a bunch of racist people especially when that person is working in the educational field.
Please consider reading my evidence on imgur before you have decided and ask yourself. If you think these types of comments are okay and these type of people belong in sims community. And you think the way we combat evil creators is to invite racist and sinophobic people to do the job. Then I’m running out of words.
https://imgur.com/a/atxQAIE
Sweet suffering Mary you sound damn right delusional. As an Asian myself, the fact that toxic cc creators and their fanatic community are making this into a race issue is hysterical. Really, they are targeting your favorite cc creator because they’re asian? Playing victim behind your race is downright disgusting. Please actually reflect on the severity and danger of doxxing someone or contacting their workplace, which may result in them losing their means of supporting themselves. If you think that is even close to comparable to an asian cc creator with little to no moral sense and compass complaining about their patron member exploiting their exclusive cc(which the creators themselves are exploiting and illegally charging their supporters for), you really need to step outside and touch some grass. Pirating vs doxxing and ruining someone’s personal and social life. I don’t think those two are on the same breadth on the malice scale. Please reflect more and apply some critical thinking about the moral and legal implications of the actions of dishonest and malicious TS4 cc creators before opening your ignorant mouth. No one is silencing you within TS4 community. Social media is a free speech platform you are free to speak and post with freedom.
edit: please actually read the news on Asian hate crime. “People being killed in the streets,” is an actual issue in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, India, China, and the Philippines to name a few. Maybe focus and channel your anger and frustration on the actual social and humanitarian issues that EXIST currently. Maybe that will give you some perspective on what is an actual hate crime and violence towards the Asian community rather than play victim in that obsessive sociopathic circlejerk community you threaten to spread this on.
“Dear Reader. Sorry but this is already 2022. I hope nobody here is going to buy and believe an anonymous account pretending to be an Asian person” LOL the irony.
I invite you to help us combat Cowbuilds transphobia and homophobia, as well as racism within the community.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Some of the accounts downvoting Nina go around claiming to be Asian or Black women all over Tumblr. They use the exact same wording in all their comments such as “touch grass” or “step outside” every single time. I can’t tell if it is just Mack or her flying monkeys like Simbelene doing her bidding, but you are buying into their lies hook, line and sinker.
Pescado too is someone that has been worshipped in the community despite saying these digusting things forever. This information is not so big secret either. They are quite open as to their views so if you are OK with racists then just say so. If they are so anti-doxxing, why dox Cowbuild? Two wrongs don’t make a right. Nobody likes Cowbuild either but that is never going to make me side with a racist either. I pick no one since they both need to go.
It’s a common phrase especially directed at delusional and asocial degenerates. Maybe it’s a sign Yao. Maybe it is time to step outside and take a good hard glance at reality.
lmfao, 너나 개소리 하지마 썅. 무식하면 아가리 닥치고 있어.. that means stop bullshiting but with slang that doesn’t appear on google translate. I don’t have to prove it to you just like I didn’t ask you to prove you are a certain race. but if you do want to keep living in your bubble of all slander is a hate crime all asians are being silenced, racist jokes wawa then go ahead. It’s your time not mine. You could just choose to be mature and take the high road of ignoring trolls on tumblr. But that would just be too logical wouldn’t it.
Mack3030, Turtle-momma, Solar-Pirate. You are running around with different names. In reality, You are the owner of a pirate group called Dollhouse Mafia. We have screenshots that you admit it to your friends. You been trying to delete all of your evidence and move the topic into a custom content so you can continue to keep your job.
You were supporting, laughing and even agreeing with someone who is making jokes towards Chinese people in your group. When you were in a Mod position you have the power to stop it. Yet you enjoy it and mocking us and laughing with them.
You, as someone who is working in the education sector should have know better. But you are continuing to supporting, promoting and be friends with a group of extremely racist people.
You values pixels more than our lives. Anyone who speaks up against your sinophobic racism, you have all blantant them as You are creator. So you can keep your Sinophobic takes under your rug.
I place a picture here as proof for anyone that is interested to know what has really been going on. I must warn you, the content inside includes slurs and plenty of racist takes. An asian woman threaten of being killed. Gores. And this is a person that Mack3030 is working with. Praising.
https://imgur.com/a/atxQAIE
Dont value pixel more than human lives. Doxxing should be condemn. But racism shouldn’t be looking passed either.
All that post shows is that Pescado is a tool. There are plenty of screenshots showing Cowbuild’s peachy personality as well, so yay, they’re both terrible humans in their online lives. That doesn’t change the fact that Cowbuild, et al are violating EA’s terms and conditions (perma paywalls, etc) and going after the people who call them out over it.
Ok, “Nina”. I think it’s weird that you are trying so hard to change the subject by bringing up the race card. I also think it’s strange how fixated you are with Mack and how you somehow know that Mack is running around with multiple names. It’s very obvious who you really are. Cowbuild’s first language is Thai and from how you’ve been typing, I can tell English is not your first language. I mean, not to mention, you’ve stated you’re Asian, so that’s actually the first clue. Also, from Cowbuild’s posts/interaction with others, your personality seems a lot like theirs; providing fake screenshots to use as proof, using manipulative tactics to gain favor, and deflecting. What you’ve been doing is sharing your patreons’ emails and doxxing them. You’re also emailing Mack’s workplace multiple times. This is what you’d rather do than own up to your crimes. Respectfully, you and your perma-paywall friends need to leave the Sims community and maybe, get a real job in 3D modeling. As an Asian woman, myself, I need you to stop using race as a way to benefit your own personal narrative. It’s obvious you don’t actually care about Asians; you only care about your wallet and that’s disgusting.
nobody’s trying to ‘hide’ dollhouse mafia, the invite to the group chat is literally linked on several people’s blogs.
dollhouse mafia isn’t a ‘piracy’ group because it’s distributing content that’s being illegally withheld from the community. perma-paywalling is against EA TOS and copyright law, and what dollhouse mafia does does not break the law (as paywall creators DO NOT OWN PAID DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS to sims 4 custom content.)
I believe you, Nina. You are 1000% right as I know some of these accounts are sock puppets. I don’t know if you have a way to contact me in private but I would love to be part of your community to help spread the word.
Everyone, includIing Jovan, cares so much more about their CC than they do about the harm they are caused by highlighting racists Tumblr accounts. Jovan really should look into how they feel about those of us who don’t speak English natively for a start and then see if they also align with their racist and literally MAGA views. Again, a look at the very comments Mack has made should make it very clear what they are about.
It’s NOT just mack who is worried about cowbuilds actions! Are you saying that even maxismatch finds, peacemaker, Trillyke, Harrie etc are all just sinophobes for pointing out what her behaviour is doing to the community?
You’re centring mack who most people only just heard of, calling people sockpuppets and trying to deflect very REAL concerns people have about their personal information… Which really makes it look like this is all about minimising cowbuilds actions.
Why are you so pressed and defending Mack then? The claims are made by her minion Simbelene and posted on this very post. Are you unable to read? And yes, these are sock puppet accounts because they go around saying the exact same phrases over and over. No two people write the exact same so either it’s a script or the same person logically.
As for your other claims, please post proof of where I said any of this. I don’t repeat myself, and it is obvious to me you are not firing on all cylinders. I am not going to back and forth with someone who cannot follow a simple conversation.
PS. It is so weird you have all this time to defend racists.
How many times do I have to tell you it’s not just Mack… Anto himself who was sharing the list confirmed it, is he just a Mack shill too? Nina and you seem completely focused on mack, does that make you one cowbuilds minions?
Other cc creators have condemed this behaviour. And you are here bleating on about mack making it all up!
If you are going to play that game, I’ll join; why do you have so much time to defend transphobes and doxers?
Since you and Cowbuild care so much about fighting against racism, I’ve compiled some links for you to visit.
https://stopaapihate.org/
https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/stop-aapi-hate
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-aapi-community-fund
https://blacklivesmatter.com/
https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/
From there, you both can learn to actually make a real difference rather than pretend to care about it on a Sim’s community post that’s talking about certain perma-paywallers taking advantage of others’ personal information for their own gain. It’s quite pathetic seeing how hard you and cowbuild are trying to use racism as a way to distract others from perma-paywallers violating EA’s UGC terms. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were actually “Nina” aka cowbuild lmao
Hilarious. Use those links yourself especially since you clearly just Googled them. I don’t just talk about these issues to reblog them when they are trendy like the rest of you.
And not all Asians are the same, racist. Cowbuild is Thai, Nina appears to be Korean based on her comments, and I am mixed Japanese. I know to you there is no difference right? Please keep telling on yourself.
lol. it’s obvious you create this account to defend yourself cowbuild. i’m Asian too and you’re embarrassing me. When you’re wrong, you’re wrong. Don’t make excuses
You’re a really horrible person.
It’s obvious this is either CowBuild or a stan.
Cowbuild not only are you classist, transphobic and homophobic but you are completely toxic. People like you are destroying our community.
TL;DR Modders are becoming EA.
Really people are destroyed by this?
Look like League of Legends players than rant about toxics and trolls
> One thing that CC engenderers might do to manage their own CC without resorting to such illegal measures is to see how the MikuMikuDance community handles distribution of curated content:
> Use BowlRoll with password aegis, or execute timed releases.
> Or use PMs for distribution; this is how model creators would regulate who has permission to use their models.
> I don’t believe in pirating custom content from individuals on Patreon or Gumroad, especially because most custom content engenderers create items from the ground up and it might take weeks for a single item, putting their income at risk comes off as selfish and shows no consideration for the artist. But I understand the annoyance that comes with waiting for a public release.
People who are locked behind a paywall may access a release or specific .package file.
> However, using patron information illegally as a management tool to monitor CC distribution and using said information to doxx persons with whom you have issues is not the way to go about this.
> Perhaps a solution for everyone would be if Maxis-Electronic Arts implemented a Bethesda ‘Creation Club’ system where modders/custom content creators could spread their work while still being adequately rewarded for their talents.
The Sims players should open their eyes… they already accept being exploited by EA, with their overpriced DLCs and lack of content, and now they are accepting being exploited by mod creators as well. As long as they continue to collude with this mafia, this will not end. Stop paying for mods, folks.
this greedy sims cc maker want invade your privacy
This is so messed up. It’s already shady enough to permapaywall stuff, but to track people is just so gross. Genuinely hope these people get some serious ramifications for their actions.
These creators act like there aren’t places where they can sell their 3D models. That’s what real artists do. Real artists don’t propagate EA’s business model using EA’s file format for Sims 4. They are not freelancing, they are profiting off of Sims 4 players psychological manipulation to wanting more content. It’s basically the sims version of a NFT
Another reason why I am not so gungho about CC and Mods. I play as close to vanilla as I can, and only have a few mods in my game that “fix” issues. But, yeah, really sad that people are paying these modders on patreon and they are doing this to their patrons. Has EA been made aware of this craziness?
I am just utterly shocked to in turn also find out that there are people involved who have been making CC I’m the community for YEARS. Anto was one of the first creators that I started to download hairs from, so to find this out is just shocking and horrifying. Time to remove all of Anto’s and Busra’s CC from my folder.
This is all so upsetting 🙁 As one content creator said on their patreon, it’s not right that a few bad apples should ruin the trust players put in custom content creators. Personally, I trust and respect all of the talented modders that I download content from on a semi-regular basis including HeyHarrie, Felixandre, RVSN, Pierism, Pandasama, Little Dica, and Charly Pancakes. My conclusion is that EA might now be forced to think seriously about doing more to promote and protect content creators. It seems woefully inadequate for EA to simply say – with respect to cc – ‘download at your own risk.’ And the truly unfortunate consequence of this whole incident may be that EA begins more closely “policing” cc content which could mean tighter (and more cumbersome) restrictions on creators