CCP's new money making scheme!
I'll let you read that a couple of times so it really, really sinks in.
Yes that means everything that happens to have the wtf gall to ask for donations. Evemon? Gone or start paying. EveHQ? Ditto. Web based services like Static Mapper and somer.blink? Yep. Those too. Podcasts and websites? Yeah, no longer free.
Cribba, in an amusing post of barely controlled hate, posted this response. I'm still chuckling.
Interestingly enough, its even going to start affecting your favorite blogs and such. I point you to the part where it says:
Will website ads require a commercial licence? Yes, for ad-supported websites you will require a commercial licence.
Will donations require a commercial licence? Yes, for donation supported websites you will require a commercial licence.
Wait a tick. That's like.... wait let me count... yep, all of the Eve online related websites I go to. Every single one has an ad. Oh wait, I take that back, there are a few blogs like mine that do not have any ads. But I'm sure mine has a blogger ad/link on it. I didn't put it there but it IS there. I don't make any money from it but they do support my website. Who pays the licence there? Me or Blogger? Pretty sure its not gonna be the latter.
I like blogging, but I don't like blogging so much that I'm willing to pay CCP $99 more A YEAR for the privilege of doing so. So on behalf of pretty much the entire EVE community, I would like to say the following to CCP:
You know what CCP? I'm not even a registered fansite. You all denied my application a while ago. I'm also not ad supported. So I will continue to say whatever the hell I feel like when you do something completely idiotic, moronic, and boneheaded such as this move right here.
Stop publishing your internal mails on get rich quick schemes, or publishing unclear stuff you have to put up a hasty response post when you have a hard time taking the heat from. Actually, stop publishing anything not completely tested or thought out. Or at the very least stop doing that when you KNOW in a few hours you'll have to patch it or re: post it (I'm looking at you June 21st). Get the shit right the first time.
There is a lot of misunderstanding over this. You only need a license to use their intellectual property. So most blogs won't be affected as they don't access the API. No once can stop a blogger from writing about EVE. Even using screen shots and such can be considered fair use and CCP would have to send you a cease and desist, and I don't see that happening.
ReplyDeleteIf you have some sort of signed agreement with CCP, such as official fan sites, then you have to stick to the terms you agreed to or give up your special status.
As far as sites that use the API. They have had free access to the API and have used that to create a user base. Many such sites have ads or monetize in other ways. Providing the API is not free for CCP, they have to have servers and bandwidth and engineers, etc. They never had to do this for us and could just decide to stop.
Even if they have 1000 sites and apps pay the fee, thats only $100k. Not really enough to even cover their costs. I doubt they will get even close to that number of paid licenses as the vast majority of fan sites don't use anything that is not fair use.
The token fee of $99 is more about maintaining legal control over their IP. They have up until now been unable to find away to allow 3rd parties to monetize their IP and 3rd parties have been unable to bring us advanced features without the ability to monetize. If CCP gives away their property for free, they run the risk of loosing control over it.
Every site or app that pays for the $99 license will be able to recover many times more if they want to. So yes, dotlan, evemon, battleclinic, etc will have to pay for API access, they already pay much more than that to run their sites so the impact will be minimal while the potential opportunities are great.
These changes were made to help DEVELOPERS who want to write apps using the API. Now someone can write an iPad app, sell it on the iStore, and even make a profit doing it. As stated, the measly $99 isn't going to do much to CCP's bottomline. All of those who shed tears at the death of Capsuleer should be dancing a jig right now.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think this is a GREAT change, and a long time coming. As an author, I may have a different perspective on Intellectual Properties and the rights of the owners of those properties, but think about it for a minute, and try to get past your self-interested perspective. EVE Online is CCP's IP. If ANYone is going to make a buck off that (whether in the form of ads on a blog, in-game services, whatever), CCP deserves a cut. Anything less is criminal and an exploitation of CCP.
This is the real world of business people--no free hand-outs. If you want to make some "easy money" (and what's easier than putting annoying banners on a website?) off someone's IP, you'd damned well be willing to kick back to them. Otherwise, build your own IP and make money off that.
I know people think it's "cool" to bash CCP, but really this gets ridiculous. You have to be able to look at and analyze things from multiple perspectives--not just what's in it for you. With the development of EVE Gate, the coming of Incarna, and now the opportunity for developers to make licensed services for the game, we're going to see an increase of number and quality of applications, not a decrease.
See I disagree Lex. While I'm happy guys like the Capsuleer guy can get back to making money, there are many services that now have a very difficult choice. Pay $99 A YEAR or cut the service. How many websites are there that don't really make money that are out there to help players? You of all people should be aware of this.
ReplyDeleteAny web service that charges isk only (thus they don't make real money) is subject to paying up a dumb fee or shutting down. Thus any podcast you listen to that offers advertising for isk. Or takes isk donations for their effort. And podcasting is a HUGE effort.
Last time I checked, you can convert $$ to isk but not isk to $$ unless you are one of the RMT guys. Why should those guys that do good for the community and only take isk suffer this ridiculous strong-arm robbery?
You know, the EVE community was just rolling right along just fine until CCP decided it was time to "do" something about it. And that's what I'm having a problem with. And instead of just making it so guys like the Capsuleer guy can now make money, they come up with a blanket policy without really even thinking it through and I feel it could hurt the game more then help.
Here's a really good take:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.evenews24.com/2011/06/16/the-cosmopewlitan-ccp-lets-celebrate-the-creative-player-and-monetize-from-their-apps/