And to answer your question, the plugins will NOT carry a TOU preventing their use on payfiles.

Anyone who I was in contact with through that account need not worry, I delete my inbox and sent messages. The only messages compromised were the last 3 or 4 that I sent out a couple of days before.

I could have easily re opened the account, but I chose not to, as LJ accounts must be easily hackable. The password to that is different from any that I use anywhere else, and was not guessable.

I have been assured that it has been fully investigated although Telia SE has refused to supply the name of the hacker to myself or to the authorities.

TSR NEWS: Watch out for a shocking announcement that TSR hopes will “rock the free community” It probably will.

TSR MERLIN NEWS: Yes – It still contains a keylogger, it may be undetected at present, but I have every confidence it will be discovered.

ATWA ANTICS: She is deep undercover at The Black Pearl, under the name ’sunshine’ This is a secret, so let us hope The Black Pearl never find out
She also claims to be submitting to MTS under a different name with Delpys blessing. She maintains this is to make a name for herself, so when she comes back to TSR, ‘no one will believe any leaks that it is really her’ This may or may not be true, as the source is Atwa and Atwa is not very truthful.

TSR $$$ NEWS: Did you know that T$R have been fiddling the download numbers? This saved them many $$ and lightened the payload for a lot of unhappy FA’s. It’s also been used to boost some flagging downloads.

“TSR is confident that the launch of The Sims 3 will secure its monopoly. EA have allegedly given their blessing for TSR to make it’s own exclusive meshing/CC tools. TSR are hopeful that they will have the tools ready shortly after the launch date and be the first to have such a tool. They plan to make the tool available for FA use only and not sharable with any other creators throughout the community, thus making TSR the only site to offer true CC for TS3, and therefor taking most, if not all, of the market. This is to be kept secret as they know this will piss off not only free creators, but other paysites as well, ( so don’t tell anyone or they may sue you! ) As a site that makes barking mad amounts of money using the tools created by other community members, this is a selfish and greedy move by TSR, but are you really surprised? I am not entirely convinced this is with EA’s full blessing as TSR claim, but EA must have provided them with ’something’  to work with as they say they have made a lot of headway already with this project. Did EA provide the freesite reps attending the camp with the same?”

Since this article TSR has suddenly backtracked on their unpopular plan, and while now admitting they have been working on it all this time,  they have suddenly decided to give the tool to everyone for free! But at what cost..

What you may already know

As you may be aware, TSR has made 2 announcements a few days ago confirming that they are making a sims 3 tool, and stating that this one will be made public and not kept to themselves as was the sims 2 tool.  ( The first news announcement was originally made by Tom was replaced by a more carefully worded effort by Steve. ) View

The second part is in the new workshop section confirming that work started on the tool in January 2009 as soon as Steve returned from the creators camp at EA, ( Steve makes sure he mentions that twice on the same page ) and that the tool will be ready within days of the game release date.  It also confirms they will have their own EULA. View

What you may find surprising is that Steve also stated that the tool will be public, free and   “Our development will be quite public, inviting support and input not only from our staff artists but from the entire community”  That is quite surprising I admit, if only because with less than 1 week to go before it’s launch, and Steves admission that the tool has been in development for 6 months, what could the public possibly offer towards the develpment apart from their names to a public endorsement and their upwardly pointing thumbs.

What you may NOT know

Steve is putting more work into snaring future downloaders than he is actually making the tool, by all accounts the real version of the tool is already complete with just a few finishing touches. Steve and Tom are holding chats with several members of staff to discuss how they can get as many people to download the tool as possible, especially from the ‘free community’ They have came up with several ideas including advertising, letting the community think they are contributing to the development and putting “trusted free community faces” to spearhead the campaign, and to get the trust of the free community.  2 ‘respected’ community tech members are already on board. Both seem to be oblivious to the fact that they are working on a completed tool, and that this ‘work’ may be distracting them away from working on any tool of their own. At least one of these people seems to be blissfully unaware of Steve ‘face’ plan and actually thinks that no one will find out they are ‘working’ on the tool.  The only real use TSR has for these people is their public endorsement of the tool, and the fact they think they have worked on it will make it seem more safe and trustworthy to the free community.

The real questions you need to ask before you download

Why is Steve so keen to get “as many downloaders as possible” for this tool, and why is he specifically targeting the free community members to download it?

Why is he going to such lengths to get people the community trust on side?

Why are they asking ‘trusted’ community members to work on a tool just one week before its launch, when work started on it in secret 6 months ago.

If this is simply for the good of the community, why is he in a race against other sites and even with EA themselves to get this tool out to everyone.

DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT.

My advice to you all is DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT. Even out of curiosity. Remember this tool comes from the people that:

• Shared members personal and private information gained from Paypal in their forums.
• Carried out DDos attacks on websites.
• Hacked into a free creators account on a rival site to change her TOU and deleted items that Shakeshaft stole and sold on TSR as her own.
• Shared someones full address and phone # and encouraged abusive phone calls to them.
• Added trackers and trojans to their downloads.
• Coded those trojans to crash users computers if shared, as publically admitted by their own FA Black Garden.
• Used a dying man for a bogus charity scam.
• Hacked sim secret.
• Hacked a petition against them to EA.
• Have YOUR unencrypted passwords on their site.
• Brought down Reflex sims forum. ( Now fully restored as the black pearl )
• Sent an Email virus to their OWN STAFF, in order to blame and discredit pirates.
• Built a very large luxury 2nd home with your $$
• Lied until they tied themselves in knots ( see their ‘myths’ failure )
• Make their own artists sign a confidentiality agreement to stop them from talking.
• Faked a screenshot of this blog and featured it on their front page news  in a very desperate attempt to make their followers think I had confessed to making everything up!  Yes really! check it out.
• LIED that EA gave them the means to develop such a tool, or that they were even working on it, only to ADMIT this week they have been working on it for 6 months and have still not explained how they can complete a tool for a game that has not even been released yet, without the special help from EA they DENIED having.

ARE THESE THE PEOPLE YOU WOULD TRUST ENOUGH TO DOWNLOAD A PROGRAMME TO YOUR COMPUTER FROM? IS IT WORTH IT?

Do you really think that people who were caught red handed putting trojans in their downloads are all of a sudden going to give you something out of the goodness of their hearts? NO people, there is a catch, be sure of it.

Chill out and wait

There is something clearly not right about the whole tool. Instead, take time out enjoy the game and wait for a clean tool completely unconnected with TSR. Even EA themselves are bringing one out. so no need to infect your computer or leave your personal files wide open to criminals.

“Secondly, it was announced and has been made public by those who attended the Creators’ Camp that we will release custom content tools. However the dates and specifics for these have not been finalized”

Not everyone who attended the creators camp are shouting about this to their flock. WHY IS THAT?

Update 02 June 09

Just as planned, TSR have gone ahead and exposed their endorsers or ‘faces’ as Steve like to call them, it is hoped that the free community targets will trust these names and their avid endorsements on this tool that they are ‘working’ on. Keep in mind you are trusting these people who will have worked on this ‘tool’ for anything from a few days to a week, while TSR have worked on this in secret for over 6 months.   Also keep in mind that not all of this tool is ‘open source’ just a small part, the majority of this tool is more of a  ‘closed up sims resource’ and we all know what that means! They can not possibly know the full intended contents of this program until after TSR put the final version for download, assuming they re download the final version upon its release. Not forgetting that some on that list are not even working on the tool, TSR simply lied. Again.

Here is what Tom had to say..

Not everyone agrees..

I can confim that I personally have seen nothing to suggest Mootilda is involved in any way. Although the mention of one name on that list has solved a lot of unanswered questions I personally had.

Virus

TSR have hardly been upfront with any of this, when I first reported that they were working on the tool back in Feb, they denied it.  Now they admit they have been working on it since they left the camp in Jan. It reminds me very much of that nasty little virus Steve sent out  recently via Email to all the staff and artists in the guise of a new version wizard, what followed were many questions on how easily it was detected by our AVs and a claim it was sent by ‘pirates’. Oddly enough TSR were more interested in the AV detection then they were with the fact that someone with Steves Email was mailing viruses  hidden in their own tool! Dummy run anyone?

Naive

The ‘faces’ are very naive to think TSR will allow them any credible recognition after they have served their purpose of endorsing the tool, and why should they, after all, TSR have ‘worked’ on the tool for 6 months, the endorsers will have only done anything between 1 week to a few days.  TSR are giving them nothing they would not have gained anyway by simply downloading the finished tool next week. They are also naive to believe that after 6 months on the tool, and many other tools and programmes under their belt, that in the final few days TSR suddenly needs the free community to put it all together? TSR could easily do that themselves, which again brings forth the question of why do TSR need them so badly. The TSR man made famous for the words ‘bait’ and ‘lure’ certainly knows the answer to that one.

TSR will certainly be a blight on the sims 3,  any future tool produced by the free community, and indeed all creations made from these tools, will always have Steve bleating his own praises  in the background. Then there is the question of their EULA, which they will naturally deem more important then they did any EULA belonging to EA.

My personal hopes for the near future

• My main hope is for a tool by Pescado, the only person I would personally trust at this moment in time. ( Note: My personal opinion only )
• I hope EA release a tool.
• I hope the ‘faces’ will download the finished public product directly from the TSR site and not just blindly endorse the version they have been ‘working’ on.
• I hope that the free community release is a trojan free version of the tool that has been 100% coded or cleaned by themselves, and not just a rehash of TSRs shady program.
• I hope the free community starts to ask more questions on why EA gave such a huge ( and up until now secret ) advantage to a site with such an illegal track record.
• I hope that whatever is in this tool that Steve wants the free community to have so badly is found quickly and destroyed.
• I hope Steve finds a better name then ‘the faces’ It sounds too sci fi, I would suggest ‘endorsers’ or ‘mini tools’.

]]> http://tsr.mustbedestroyed.org/?feed=rss2&p=791 20 http://tsr.mustbedestroyed.org/?p=770 http://tsr.mustbedestroyed.org/?p=770#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 17:41:09 +0000 coconut http://tsr.mustbedestroyed.org/?p=770 Here we explore the lengths Atwa will go to in order to prove she has ‘hackers’ stalking her.

Her story

She had a photographers account ’somewhere’ ( later identified as ‘webshots’ ) which I and my fictional team of hackers hacked, deleted thousands of her photos, locked her out of, and then defaced it with pictures of her. This caused her great emotional stress as she can not remove these pictures and the site host will not respond to her so that she may gain control of her account.

Her proof

A couple of days ago she handed out a link to a screencap showing this ‘attack’, which she hosts on her photobucket account.

http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/simsbild/

Before I go any further it must be noted that when I point out her failings here, she will realise her mistake and alter or delete the screencaps from her above account, she will also claim that any saved shots I have are fake. I have asked some members at P.M.B.D to view this link before publication of this article. They can verify the following screencaps were taken from the above link and have not been altered. I know that at least one person has  taken her own screencaps of them. If you are lucky enough to read this before Atwa deletes or alters them, you can also verify this yourself.

She handed out the link to the picture here:

http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/simsbild/?action=view&current=Untitled3.jpg

Upon closer inspection you will see her first mistake!

Clearly she was still logged into the account when she screencapped her own fake hack.

I screencapped the pages I saw when I looked, in the event of deletion,  see  HERE and HERE

Yesterday I checked to see if it was still there and I noticed it was and she has added a further 2 to her collection.  For updated page cap see HERE

Found here:  http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/simsbild/?action=view&current=pic1.jpg

This time she has made a slightly different version. You would have to be blind not to notice that she is indeed logged into this account, that she claims she is  ‘locked out’ of  by my hackers!  ( Page cap HERE )

And now to her third version, found here  http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/simsbild/?action=view&current=pic2.jpg ( Page cap here )

This is by far the most puzzling version of them all as it has been clearly, and badly, photo shopped.

This raises many questions, some of which leave me without answers. The motive is clear, Atwa is using these caps to make people believe she was ‘hacked’, The how is also very clear. Notice her account name is Atwa2? What happened to plain ‘Atwa’?  It is a safe bet that is her main account, where her ‘thousands’ of photos still remain. Atwa2 is an account she created so that she could herself add photos and write a hacked looking profile. The puzzler is why was there a need to photo shop one of them? Perhaps the account was deleted and she created another to look the same, or perhaps she photo shopped all of them and only the last one is apparent.  Trying to understand this womans mindset would prove difficult, even for the trained eye,  so I would not hold out much hope of us ever understanding much of her behavior.

I have also noted the albums in her screen caps were created on different dates, the first being Feb 11, the last 2 on Maj 5  ( May? ) The date on the last seems to be Swedish, yet the rest of the account language is in English.

Also, forever loyal to her friends, Atwa has been shouting from the rooftops that Murano is the FA that has been secretly helping her get back in, she claims he has told her things “that he should not have” ( As if Tom has not told her enough already! ) It seems that now Atwa is going down, she is going to take her faithful friend with her!

For quite some time now Atwa has claimed she is a victim of hacking, the hackers identity varies from me to anyone who has ever argued with her. Her latest claims tie everyone in, as according to her, I am not one person and I have a ‘team of hackers’ working for me. The story of my identity changes dramatically with each of her versions, however ‘my team of hackers’ more or less remains the same.

Her stories?

I am detimgi ( again ) I was/am being paid megabucks by Pescado to leak information from the FA forum and from mails I received from Atwa. After being exposed and evicted from TSR, I now rely on my team of hackers – Gayle, Dinad, Sherriesim and Paleonath to gain information for me. It was they who hacked TSR and MTS2 for me, after hacking the TSR main database and stealing Tom and Buggybooz passwords. Darqstar and Zillah are also involved in some way. ( Note to Pescado: Where is my paycheck? )

A slight deviation of this urban legend is that I am Pescado, being fed information by De who gains intel from her team hackers.. ( the rest as above ).

A more recent version is that I am Sherriesim and I am being paid megabucks by Pescado to bring down TSR and De leads my ‘team of hackers’

She says that TSR can back up all her stories with IPs given to her by Per and Johan and that she has spoken to Delphy at length and he can also back up all her claims. She also has  lists of IPs she claims was given to her by her Email host, the IPs on this list have changed 3 times! The first list was compiled with IP’s she gained from Per. She asked Per for some IPs to compare to ones she had been ‘given’ She only made her list public after she had been given them and they all were an exact match to the ones he gave her from one person. The second list which was passed off as being the same list, gave a mixture of IPs from different people, she has claimed Johan and Per gave her these to ‘compare’, again her list became public after she claimed to have ‘matches’. The third list, which amazingly she still claims is the same one, came after a public post by Delphy containing IPs off his database, she amended her list and made it public after that post, and it contains IPs from that list as well as other IPs she says match the ones he shared in private to her and TSR. She claims to have shown the list to the police ( it is unclear which list she decided to take ) who arrested me! She also claims in another story that the police can not do anything, that may be because they are too busy with all her other past ‘crime’ reports, ranging from Ex friends washing their hands of her to P.M.B.D featuring her in their ugly creators  thread.

The most recent ‘crime’ being a report of stalking and harassment by Kath and Tug.

Important note

None of the above claims by Atwa are true. All the people named as me and ‘my team of hackers’ have been made aware of her false claims and I would like to thank all of those who gave permission for me to re-tell Atwas lies here, and thank the person who contacted them for me.

I also would like to point out  ( needlessly really- due to the fact I am still here ) the story of me/one of my ‘identities’ being arrested is another Atwa/TSR fabrication.

Next:  I will show you just how far Atwa will go.

This started when we noticed Atwa had made yet another new account, this time under the name of JenniferNine.

http://www.thesimsresource.com/members/JenniferNine

Within just a few weeks Tom suggested her for SA. everyone,  even the ones unaware of her real identity, thought this was strange as Jennifer was so new to TSR and her work was, quite frankly, awful.  It consisted of mainly paintings, and later, as featured in her blog and gallery, a rather odd looking dead giant bat nailed to a wall.  She was clearly no where near the standard for SA, and yet Tom was suddenly hinting that FA was on the cards soon. It very quickly came out that everyone knew what he was up to, although to be honest no one knows why he continues to do this.  But to say the MODS and other staff felt very let down by his actions would be an understatement. If this continued, it was made clear that TSR would soon have a sudden staff and artist shortage.

It was thought that Tom would have let her know that the game was up for now, but no, Atwa was still boasting to her ‘friends’ that she was going to be FA again very soon and that she was now very popular on TSR again, and how members could not wait to get her creations into their game. She said that Tom and Johan had arranged the whole thing for her.

When her submission was not approved on the night she submitted it, she complained in her blog, and whined to her friends that the people waiting for her creations now had to wait a full weekend because of Kaths slowness.

Her submissions were not going to be approved, but instead of telling her that, she says Tom assured her that the slowness was down to the server problems TSR was experiencing and they would be approved soon. We can only guess he was playing for time.  5 days later, she was not happy and Tom still had not told her the truth.

By the 27th she was getting more impatient, but according to Atwa, Tom was still reassuring her everything was OK, but she was telling her friends she was suspicious of the ‘evil witches’  Kath and Tug.

She then went on to spam the TSR forums, and PM boxes with complaints.

Back to the blog, and she starts to doubt Tom, she has done her own detective work and saw that other creations were being approved before hers. Still Tom hides his head in the sand, despite spending, according to Anita, ‘hours on the phone’ reassuring her that he will sort this out.

5 days ago Atwa/Jennifers account got deleted, and Atwa was foaming at the mouth.  She said she has been on the phone all morning to Tom, who blamed Tug and Kath. She says she wrote to Tug and Kath demanding to know why and Tug reacted to this by ‘purging’ her from the forum She has told everyone that they both acted behind Toms back, and “who the hell do they think they are”.  She said that they are both in deep trouble because Tom gave her permission to have the account and the last time she checked, Tom and Steve were the owners of TSR and not Tug and Kath! She says that Tom will restore her account soon and Tug and Kath will ‘wish they had not been born’.

5 days have passed, and Tug and Kath seem very happy in their jobs and Atwa’s account was not restored.

She also said that TSR needed her as it was her still her job to sort out all the bug issues on the site and there was no way Tom would let her go as she was far too valuable to them.

That job has now been given to Illiana.

Now it gets interesting, Atwa’s account was subjected to further tampering, if we go back and look at her last blog entry, her name has suddenly changed to ‘MadMadge’ and the colors have been changed.

A search of this member brings up 46 downloads appearing to date back to 2005  http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/browse/category/sims2/search/madmadge

and one  screenshot http://www.thesimsresource.com/screenshots/browse/search/madmadge

Here is a screencap for when they inevitably delete these links

So who is MadMadge? none of these downloads have been used on any of Atwa’s known accounts and ‘MadMadge’ has no actual account.

Atwa still blames Kath and Tug who are, in her opinion, jealous of her to the point of stalking.  She claims Tom told her they have some sort of tracker on her IP and she is going to report them to the police for stalking and harassment!

She claims none of this was her fault, in fact I and my  ‘team of hackers’  ( more of that story to follow ) broke into her private Emails and screencapped/gained information from them, so it is all ‘our’ fault!  Of course I have not broken into anyone’s Email and I do not have a team of hackers, but if you can imagine for one minute that her lies were true, she is overlooking the fact that those Emails exist by her own admission, and even if she can get people to believe every person who has ever argued with her has hacked her, It still does not excuse the fact she said those things and sent those Emails out. ( To a few too many people as it turned out! )
The real questions revolve around Toms inability to be honest with anyone. He lied to all the Staff and he lied to Atwa, Just how far will he go to bring her back, and more importantly, why?

How long will it be before the Mad Jenitwa returns? Stay tuned and find out..

Welcome to all the new readers who have found their way here after ‘googling’ names and phrases found on TSR’s ’statement’ Listed below are the myths, lies and truths of that statement.

TSR Lie: TSR has been on the receiving end of countless slur campaigns recently…. actually going back quite some time now, since the establishment of the Pirate site and the rise of Coconut. We haven’t been very public about our opinion of all this and haven’t been running around denying each and every lie because to be frank, it would be fruitless in many cases…
The Fact: …because the evidence is indisputable.

TSR Lie: ..But the recent accusation that TSR was responsible for gaining unauthorized access to MTS2 and deleting content [ Of a free artist who caught Shakeshaft stealing her  work and selling it ] is an accusation too far!
The Fact: TSR owner, Thomas got caught red handed, and they realize if they do not do something quick, their future bank statements will be written on the back of a postage stamp.

TSR Lie: So, whether you as a reader believe any of what we are about to say or not, this is our response. If you have no intention of believing it because you are on the Pirate bandwagon then you are wasting your time continuing, nothing we say is likely to change your mind ..
The Fact: ..TSR know these people will have either seen proof or experienced it themselves.

TSR Lie: But if you are actually in two minds, or have the sense to see that these constant attacks on TSR must have a deeper, underpinning issue,
The Fact: TSR know these people can still be manipulated.

Myth: Paysites are Legal

TSR Lie: The Pirates want the pay content but they don’t want to have to pay for it. It’s in their nature. Read their forums, they openly pirate Expansion Packs and they intend to do the same with Sims 3….
The Fact:  ‘Pirates’, as I am aware, do not pirate expansion packs or any software. This was a false rumor created by TSR to discredit those who speak out about TSR’s illegal use of EA products and tools. However taking a mesh from an expansion pack, converting it to, for example, elder, adult or teen and then selling it, is piracy, the same applies to any manipulated mesh that came with the sims games and expansions. This is on par with changing the fonts that come with Windows and selling the whole Windows product on your site, or cutting a scene from a blockbuster movie and having it up for sale as download on your site.  Pirates have never SOLD any pirated products, that goes against their whole core beliefs, TSR however make a lucrative business out of manipulating EA owned meshes and re-selling them against the EULA. Does the fact that most of the FA’s at TSR share the same activation code for milkshape 3D and other ( ‘pay for’ ) design software in the FA forum also not constitute to piracy? Posting on the BBS requires a product code, you see many, many P.M.B.D members posting there, not so many TSR FA’s though..

TSR Lie: They [the pirates] hide behind an Asian host because they know that what they are doing is wrong and that any Western host would remove them (that used to be a brag on the home page).
The Fact: TSR hides behind both their own hosting and their own ISP, get the picture? Of course P.M.B.D has to be somewhere secure, TSR will not even let my blog stay up!

TSR Lie: They [the pirates] hide behind the game EULA which originally stated “non commercial use”.
The Fact: It still does.

TSR Lie: This is the game EULA and does not relate to custom content tools which have their own EULA.
The Fact: This EULA also appears in bodyshop, a custom content tool.

TSR Lie: EA have been quite clear that they have no objection to fansites selling custom content.
The Fact: EA legal have never clarified the issue, and the original EULA still stands.

TSR Lie: Many of these sites have been invited to events at EA and are wholeheartedly supported by them.
The Fact: ..and some rival free content fansites were not invited due to smear campaign ‘information’ links provided to them by Tom, Steve and ‘associates’

TSR Lie: Paysites are not illegal, otherwise EA would have done something to stop them
The Fact: The booty is not illegal, otherwise EA would have done something to stop it.

TSR Lie: This is from the official statement composed by EA Legal (not a forum moderator as the Pirates like to claim)..
The Fact: Maxoid Drea is a forum moderator, and has never been part of EA Legal in any shape or form.

TSR Lie: as posted by EA recently:…”Whether players choose to share their original artistic creations with the community is up to them
The Fact: ‘Original artistic creations’ – not pirated and altered meshes from the sims game and its expansions, not stolen designs from real life designers, not stolen images from photographers, not stolen paintings from old masters, not stolen free content from MTS2 artists.

TSR Twist: These artists set their own terms for how they want to share their talents with the community at large. Those terms should be respected by other players.”
The Question: So this means that TSR will respect all artists rights to remove their own original artistic creations from TSR if they do not wish them to be there?

TSR Question: This is from the company that hold all rights to Sims game code. [ But not their own meshes? ] Does that read that Paysites are illegal to you?
The Answer: This is on a forum BBS, not posted by EA Legal and TSR still ignore it in the same way the ignore the actual EULA, so YES on that.

TSR Lie: Piracy is theft. Theft is illegal, selling CC for The Sims games clearly isn’t!
The Observation: TSR have just contradicted themselves there.

Fact: TSR shares PayPal information

TSR Lie: Initially it was claimed that TSR and other Paysites shared subscriber’s credit card details between themselves to create bogus accounts and take payments for them without the card owner knowing. When we pointed out that PayPal handles the transaction and the service provider never sees credit card numbers, that part of the accusation got deleted because it was realised for once, that someone making something up didn’t actually constitute a fact.
The Fact: It was proven that TSR were sharing paypal and personal details of users they suspected ( without proof ) of legally sharing content they had paid for. No retractions or deletions have ever been made to this or to any entry in the blog.

TSR Admission ( as quoted from Steve ) The rest of the accusation came from a screenshot of an internal TSR discussion.
The Contradiction: Steve later says in the same statement that the screencaps were a ‘fake’ so which is it Steve?

TSR Lie: It contained around a dozen names and addresses taken from our TSR member database that members had provided on signup.
The Truth: Viewers may like to count for themselves if they have the patience to crawl through the 459 post thread, split into 10 parts. One also contained a home address and telephone number, and one FA urged the others to make abusive phone calls to the victim. This victim was suspected of stealing from a TSR FA. Would TSR sanction the same punishment to their thieving FA, Shakeshaft, who was recently caught stealing and selling a free artists creations?

TSR Lie: Nothing from PayPal.
The Truth: This was both confirmed and bragged about by a TSR FA

TSR Lie: It was just assumed that’s where it came from by someone not knowing that we actually take that information from members who offer it.
The Truth: Members do not know the half of what information TSR takes from them, including their passwords.

TSR Statement: So, are we allowed to have private discussions as staff? Yes, of course we are!
Observation: Legal discussions yes, although if TSR is just an innocent fan site as they claim, what could they be hiding to the extent they have all FA’s sign a NDA ( non disclosure agreement ) with the threat of prosecution if they breath a word of what they see? although this NDA is not actually legally binding and does not apply to Atwa.

TSR Lie: Did we share that information publicly? No
The Truth: It was shared with all current, and some former FA’s, all staff, all mods, other website owners and Atwa, who shared it with everyone she knows, who then shared with people they know and it goes on.. The amount of people who saw the unblurred data published on TSR could amount in the hundreds if not more.

TSR Statement: You can thank Coconut for that, for half-heartedly blurring a little bit of data and then posting it for all to see
Acknowledgement : Thankyou Steve, Unlike TSR I believe that the personal data of innocent people should be blurred.

TSR Part Truth: ..This information was obtained unlawfully..
The Facts: Obtained unlawfully by TSR, obtained lawfully by Coconut

TSR Sillyness: ..without the permission of TSR, and distributed without permission also.
The Facts: I do not need TSR’s permission to partly distribute any information that does not belong to TSR and was illegally gained by TSR. TSR does not own any of the paypal data, names, emails phone numbers or home address they posted, nor did they notify or ask the owners permission to freely distribute their unblurred personal data. For TSR to state I need TSRs permission to expose this is ludicrous but amusing.

TSR Lie: TSR has never and will never share PayPal information. We don’t even use it ourselves
The Truth: They did, and it was proven they did. ( Not that it is even relevant, but they also DO use paypal themselves, TSR even pays it’s FA’s via Paypal! )

Fact: TSR place trojans in their downloads to gain information

TSR Story: In the early days of the Pirates and pay content file sharing, we put watermarks on the files at the point of downloading.
The Truth: Another name for their ‘watermark’ would be TROJAN.

TSR Lie: This simply applied the TSR user ID, IP and time/date to the .package file of the downloader, so that we could take the files from the booty and see which user shared it. This was done server side, our end. It gathered no information about the user once they downloaded that file. This hardly constitutes a Trojan or virus.
The Truth: It did a lot more than that, see what their own FA’s had to say about that, and how Black Garden even revealed how the trojans were coded to crash users games, and why.

TSR Lie: TSR, as a professional business..
The truth: So is the mafia.

TSR Lie: …has no desire to add malware to its downloads and takes no part in such activities.
The Truth: TSR has put malware in it’s downloads for years, and continues to update the coding in it. TSR FA’s also plan and admit preforming DDos attacks on rival sites and openly suggest sending them a virus and a ‘ping of death’ We have proof of this.

TSR Lie: The Pirates didn’t like that we were on to them so cooked up this story because at the time they didn’t know how we were catching them.
The truth: Did the pirates also put TSR FA’s up to admitting about the trojans, DDos attacks and everything else? I think not.

TSR Statement: They hated it even more when they found we used their own shared files against them!
Observation: No shit Sherlock. Trojans coded to crash games and gather personal information are bad, so no one should actually enjoy them.

TSR Lie: Of course they now know, but wont retract their claim because it adds too much value to their smear campaign.
The truth: They will not retract their claim because it is the truth, has been proven to be the truth, and it continues to happen.

FACT: TSR attacks other sites and tries to take them down

TSR Lie: The owner of Reflexsims approached Thomas privately about the growing piracy situation, asking for advice on how to deal with it. Thomas’ first advice was, quote: “you need to stop allowing them to trash paysites in bigforums such as yours”. She tried just this and in return got kicked out of the very forum she started! What happened after this had nothing to do with Thomas nor TSR – the person she gave the forum to a long time ago was the person who pulled the plug on the forum as a courtesy towards the previous owner. To try and blame TSR for this, Coconut faked a photoshopped “forum post” where Thomas seemingly does a countdown for the forum to go down
The Truth: The screencap, like all the others, is 100% genuine. The post was deleted after it was screencapped, and now TSR are trying to pretend it never existed.

TSR Statement: It’s that easy to manipulate people into believing something! (see screenshot section at bottom)
Observation: TSR know this only too well, they have been manipulating money from the unsuspecting community for years, which is the ultimate purpose of their whole ’statement charade’

FACT: TSR hacked an account on MTS2 and deleted content

TSR story: Delphy initially accused Thomas of gaining unauthorized access to an account on MTS2 and deleting content. This was based on 2 IP addresses and screenshots were posted as “conclusive evidence”, claiming that they are Thomas. In fact, both these addresses are used by ‘Hide my IP’ cloaking software and also appear in TSR’s member database hundreds of times, over several accounts. An account on TSR used those same IP’s the same day on TSR using the same browser details as the screenshots posted by Delphy on MTS2, we know that these are cloaked IP’s and are not enough to accuse anyone. After several discussions and cooperation between our sites, Delphy is no longer sure that TSR was involved and has retracted his allegation. We continue to investigate the source of the attacks on both our sites.

The truth: Shakeshaft was caught stealing a mesh from a MTS2 artist, TSR had a chat meeting to discuss how they were going to discredit this member. Hours later the artists account on MTS2 was ‘hacked’ the evidence removed and her policy changed. Delphy noted the same IP that had logged into her account to do the dirty deed, was also connected to another account, that account was called hamillton, The account was verified as belonging to Thomas from TSR. Some IPs on that account traced to Tom, some were traced to a proxy server that has indisputably been used by both Tom and Atwa numerous times. This proxy programme is a pay service and was bought by TSR for use by Tom and Atwa, Atwa admitted this on a non sims related Swedish board she administrates. Delphy retracted his allegation while he investigated further, because the ‘user agent’ differed on the proxied IP to that of the un proxied IP of Thomas. TSR continually, and too obviously, distract all other evidence and questions and refer back to the ‘user agent’.  It has since been proven without a doubt that a user agent can be faked, changed or spoofed as easily as a proxy. Most proxies carry the ability to spoof your user agent, as do plug ins for firefox, and IE which is available at microsoft. Delphy is still investigating and a worried TSR ( Including Atwa ) have clearly injected themselves into his investigation, with offers of  ‘help’

TSR Lie: TSR had nothing to do with content being deleted from MTS2.
The truth: All evidence, not provided, fed back or tampered with by TSR points to the fact they did.

TSR Lie: We have had someone gain access to FA accounts and delete their content several times too (fruitless, as we just restore them from backups). We didn’t go accusing anyone of it even though we have a pretty good idea who is behind it.
The truth: TSR have not been hacked. This was a story they hastily put forward to explain how the MTS2 hacker must have gained both Toms and the hacked MTS2 artists password. When this provoked more questions such as TSRs lack of password encryption, and why the ‘hacker’ did not do any damage after gaining Toms TSR pass, the story was played down and changed an FA account only hack. All the FA’s supposedly affected were in fact either non updating or retired, the attack made at TSRs quietest time and no damage was actually done. The hacked artist is not and never has been an FA at TSR, so their whole password hack claim has just been refuted by themselves, leaving all the questions still unanswered, but cleverly deflected.

TSR Lie: We don’t play offensively, we aren’t out to damage the Sims community,
The truth: TSR hack, engineer DDos attacks, infect with trojans, share paypal and personal data, expose porn to minors, lie, cheat and steal. What part of any of that does not damage the community?

TSR Lie: we try and keep ourselves to ourselves and act professionally!
The truth: Try saying that with a straight face. – See you can not.

TSR TRUTH: We will continue to work with MTS2 to resolve this if we can.
Observation: Like any criminal who injects themselves into the investigation of their own crimes, TSR now have first hand knowledge of the investigation, giving them the opportunity to gain database ‘evidence’ supplied to them by Delphy, and they return the same evidence back to him as if they too have found it on their own database, and voila! it seems they were both hacked by the same person or persons. It also gives them the opportunity to ask for info they need as part of their ‘research’, If Delphy has the info, they have gained it for their own needs. If Delphy does not have the info, they know they can supply him fake info and he would never know.

Myth?: TSR’s security breach has compromised everyone’s account and identity
Fact: This is actually true, as there was no security breach, however TSR’s own access to an unencrypted database with your passwords on it, is another matter.

TSR Story: This is the newest one, and a direct result from my chat with Delphy…
Fact: That is right TSR, blame him! There is always somewhere else to lay the blame for your mistakes.

TSR Story ..He informed his community that TSR was subject to a security breach early this year. He doesn’t know the details….
Fact: And he never will until TSR decide which story to tell him.

TSR Story:….and never actually claimed to in his post, but it has been twisted and turned into the “fact” that all TSR member accounts had been compromised and that TSR did nothing to inform or protect them. Its now even suggested that subscribers credit card details are included.
Fact: TSR keep changing and twisting their own story as they dig bigger and deeper holes for themselves

TSR Story: The only accounts affected were FA and staff accounts. All FA passwords were immediately changed by us
Question: So how does this relate to how the hacker gained the passwords for accounts used on MTS2? None of them are or were a TSR FA. Remember the reasons why TSR offered up the ‘hacking’ story in the first place?, it was to account for how the hacker gained those passwords.

TSR Story: No user accounts were compromised and therefore no announcement was necessary.
Fact: No accounts were compromised by any outsider, and TSR are not going to announce to you they are reading your passwords.

TSR Story: We know this because of the information that was obtained. Nobody’s credit card details are at risk because, wait for the shock…. we don’t get credit card details from our “secure payment service provider” (the clue is in the name).
Fact: TSR often make up stories about themselves, so that they can discredit them, and hope this also discredits the truth.

TSR Boast: TSR is “in bed” with EA and have some kind of business relationship

The Boast: TSR has been invited to all of the fansite events at EA in Redwood Shores and on the odd occasion, to other events and meetings too. We have a great working relationship with EA, as do all the other sites that regularly get invited to these events, TSR is not the only one! I can’t explain why we get along so well, but I can guess that it’s because for the past 9+ years we have encouraged and supported the Sims community to grow, we have supported EA in what they do as any fansite does, and we act professionally in what we do.
Fact: Steve can not help himself, give him a platform and he has to boast about TSR’s relationship with EA, even when the whole purpose of the paragraph was to deny it!

Boast: We don’t allow bashing in our forums,
Fact: In the Public forums, no, they do not allow the truth, questions, criticism, complaints or even suggestions just happy happy posts from happy happy paying customers, until those customers are not so happy, then the sharks attack in the private forums.

Boast: we don’t have sick game hacks in our databases..
Fact: Just porn, and sick members openly advertising to date children in their profiles.

Boast: .. and we are enthusiastic about the game and custom content. Like all those other sites that get invited back, we are a fansite supporting The Sims games. That’s all.
Fact:  TSR are only enthusiastic about the sims as a business venture, they are not a fansite, the owners do not even make content themselves, TSR are fans for the money. That is all.

So what about this “coconut”?

TSR TRUTH: Someone who attacks TSR for being dishonest and being involved in shady activities.
Acknowledgement: correct!

TSR Lies: Someone who, through unethical and probably illegal means, gains access to areas of our site where they should not have been
The Truth: All information is gathered legally, I have been no where where I should not have been at anytime.

TSR Accusation: …(and others as it may turn out),
The Truth: a false, but not unexpected claim from TSR

TSR Lies: who reads people private emails right off their mail server,
The Truth:  I read all mails right off my own mail server, whether sent direct or forwarded legally from people who have recieved them. with a small exception of screencaps submitted through the blog, which I read through a public image server. I thought he said all the mails were fake? but now I am illegally reading them? It can not be both, make up your mind which lie do you wish to circulate?

TSR Lies: who posted our private, internal discussions publicly, who create fake so called “screenshots” in Photoshop to spread lies,
Question: Which is it? yet another huge contradiction of his own story all in the same sentence.

TSR Lies: who turns their own assumptions into “facts” for their own satisfaction…
The Truth:  TSR make the facts, I just report them.

TSR Lies: someone who themselves does all the things they accuse TSR of!
The Truth: I have no pirated EA products on my site nor on my computer therefor I can not make money from them, I have no downloads, therefor I can not put trojans into them, I have no paypal button, therefor I can not share any details, I have never DDos’ed, hacked or sent a virus to anyone, I have no membership requirement therefor I have no passwords to read. I have no money empire to protect, therefor I do not need to go to illegal means to protect it. How are we alike?

TSR Lies: They even have to hide now behind the Pirates dodgy hosting because they have been kicked out from all the legitimate blog hosts they ever used for breaking their terms of use.
The Truth: TSR unable to DDos or hack my Live Journal sites, resorted to making false claims such as the ones seen in this ’statement’ in order to file false TOU reports. TSR hides behind their own private host an ISP because they are illegal.  P.M.B.D hides behind their Asian host because they are a target for TSR.

TSR Question: is this someone acting in the best interest of the Sims community?
Question : Is this someone acting against the best interest of the Sims community?

TSR Lies: If our information is correct we actually know who she is,
The Truth: No they do not.

TSR Lies: ..and given that she once wanted desperately to be an FA at TSR but didn’t get it, we think it explains quite a lot about her bitterness towards us, don’t you?
The Truth: Ignoring the clear information gathering trap and without commenting on my actual status/position within TSR, I can say this is incorrect, but if this were true, you would have to ask them why they allow access to their shared paypal thread to failed FA’s in addition to current and former FA’s?

TSR Lies: To demonstrate how easy it is to create a fake screenshot, take a look at this update from Coconut that was up for an hour and then removed (or was it?). This goes to show how much you can trust her “facts” and “inside intel” not to mention her “screencaps”. Click on screenshot below for a larger image.
The Truth: This obviously faked screencap by TSR goes to show extraordinary and unprofessional lengths TSR will go to discredit anyone speaking against them. It also demonstrates the lies and the words they will put into someones mouth. This is a little like changing someones TOU at MTS2 do you not think?

What about TSR now and in the future?

TSR Lies: TSR is a professionally managed organisation.
The Truth: There goes that straight face again Steve

TSR Statement: It has been owned and managed by the same staff for almost 10 years. We have been around longer than any other Sims site and we have seen it all in this community. And now, enough is enough.
The Truth: so now is the time to kill the competition and the opposition?

TSR Statement: We will defend ourselves against this barrage of attacks, abuse and insults.
The Truth: They will attempt to lie their way out of this. Exposure damages subscriptions.

TSR Statement: We will also continue to do what we do.
The Truth: Secure your websites people!

TSR Statement: We won’t be beaten down by the bully element in this community who brag about their achievements of having Sims sites closed down with their accumulative actions.
The Truth: See TSR’s own thread, where they chant ‘another one bites the dust’ and revel in the downfall of other sim fan sites.

TSR Statement: Bullies are the lowest of the low, and we don’t think they have a place in a Sims game playing community!
The Truth: By ‘bullies’, TSR is talking about anyone who speaks or competes against them. They will do anything to destroy ‘them’ because for TSR there is only a place for one website in the Sims game playing community! Aside from all the illegal methods TSR use to damage the ‘game playing’ community, How often do TSR  encourage their own members to actually ‘play’ the game? TSR are so intense with their ever growing demands for more content to be produced, any of their artists who take a timeout to play the game instead of working 24/7 to make money for T$R, are fired or demoted.

TSR Statement: We do, and we aren’t going anywhere!
The Truth: And neither am I. TSR will stick around for as long as the money does, and they do not care what they have to do to keep that money rolling in.

EDIT: Forgot to say -

SHAKESHAFT IS A THIEF!

Read their forums, they openly pirate Expansion Packs and they intend to do the same with Sims 3.

ORLY?

Check out all the money I’ve spent on Sims 2 so far – all those boxes, from my desk, bought at full price.  It’s not for nothing that I’ve had the first pictures out of both Celebrations and Freetime. I purchase all my games as you can see – and I’m not the only pirate to do so.

This has long been the argument – right from the inception of PMBD – I couldn’t possibly have values or morals – I must just be a thief. An easy argument with no basis so that you don’t need to listen to what I might say – the coward’s way totally.  And unlike TSR, I don’t get to claim them as business expenses.

**Note – I can’t fit all the ones I’ve bought onto the screen.

And if you’d like to see all the other pirates who’ve bought their games – THE THREAD IS HERE – you need to be registered to see it. For those not registered – a slide show for your viewing pleasure: TAKE ME TO IT – thanks to falln_angel. :-*

Myth: They hide behind the game EULA which originally stated “non commercial use”. This is the game EULA and does not relate to custom content tools which have their own EULA.

Dude – STILL STATES. EA Legal can talk until they’re blue in the face – you can’t make a contract and then unilaterally change it afterwards.  That’d be like a shop selling you something and then coming to your house 3 days later and demanding money.  Doesn’t and can’t happen that way – you sign a contract, you abide by it.

Myth: EA have been quite clear that they have no objection to fansites selling custom content.

EA will object to nothing – they just want to sell to both sides.  They also have no objection to fansites sharing custom content – check out Pescado’s hatemail page – where is the EA protest against PMBD.  You’ll find protests that PMBD shares EA store stuff (which it doesn’t) but nothing about the booty itself.

Best line ever from TSR myths:

Not TSR you’ll notice – so until EA tells you off for sharing pay content, share all you like – TSR owns nothing.

Myth: It was just assumed that’s where it came from by someone not knowing that we actually take that information from members who offer it. So, are we allowed to have private discussions as staff? Yes, of course we are! Did we share that information publicly?

Which is it TSR – at the time you denied it, and said it was 5 – you then morphed it into 12 in your latest myths?

As for the information sharing – did DOT have a comprehensive background check – did Atwat? She was crazy enough for you to fire – but by all means give her the real names of internet people.  As for why – well – why? Other than malice and edification, why exactly do FAs need to gloat over information sharing of pirates?  If they’re banned, then why exactly are you sharing that information – other than careless disregard for the safety of pirates.

Myth: The owner of Reflexsims approached Thomas privately about the growing piracy situation, asking for advice on how to deal with it.

A woman, uninvolved with the site for months on end – who said herself TSR contacted her.

Remember this secret from an insider?

Myth: coconut creates fake so called “screenshots” in Photoshop to spread lies.

Fact: Guys – let me tell you – coconut has shown me a lot more than coconut has shown you all. coconut would need to be photoshopping day and night with the frenzy of a demon in order to make enough to fill the folders I have.

Chat

There was a chat called on Sunday evening ( Swedish time ), in which a meeting was held to discuss allegations that Shakeshaft had stolen a mesh from a MTS2 creator called BuggyBooz. Although it was clear that all involved ( except Shakeshaft ) accepted that the mesh was not all Shakeshafts work, they refute claims that the texture was stolen.  Shakeshaft, however still maintains that neither the mesh nor the texture is stolen. The purpose of the meeting was not about removing the mesh but about how they could discredit the true owner.  The most popular theory was to say that BuggyBooz was the thief, but as her mesh was proven to be created a long time before shakeshafts, they suggested saying that the mesh was stolen from shakeshafts ‘original’ which is no longer available. No decision was reached, and they retired to ‘do further investigations’. Shakeshaft is very angry because Tom was focusing more on covering TSR’s ass rather than entertaining the idea that, according to her, she did not steal it.

I can not personally state conclusively who stole whos mesh and back it up with evidence, as I have not seen BuggyBooz mesh myself yet, However from TSR’s own reaction, I do not doubt in my own mind that that the mesh and perhaps even the texture was stolen. I have heard that BuggyBooz has promised to send me the evidence and I will certainly be happy to post this when and if I receive it.

Hack

Sometime between that chat and the following day ’someone’ hacked into MTS2 or BuggyBooz account and deleted the mesh and changed her terms of use. The evidence that followed has changed dramatically over the past few days, so much so, it would be impossible to comment on it at this time because at this rate it will have changed again before I get to post this article. Conclusive evidence initially pointed to TSR owner Tom, via IP and other accounts held by him. but after Delphy held talks with Co-owner Steve, that evidence has since been discounted or ignored. TSR went with the story that a ‘hacker’ gained access to their site and stole buggybooz password and also Toms password. After realising this created even more unanswered questions, this story seems to have been withdrawn, changed or ignored. You will need to check P.M.B.D for their latest version.

Johan

When awkward questions were being raised, Toms twin brother Johan suddenly signed up to P.M.B.D, making a short and uneventful post. Was this a case of the child with the cookie jar still stuck to his hand sending his brother to fight his battles?, or was it more of a “look at me Pescado, see my IP, do not forget to look at my user agent” type of post. It is also worth noting that as Johan sits in the same office with his brother, they would no doubt share the same IP or computer. Can we be sure it was Johan? the plot thickens.

The ‘User Agent’ misdirection

When people start asking very awkward questions about TSRs on/off hacking story, the lack of encryption in TSR passwords, motives, timing and the fact that OJ Tom got caught red handed, Johan returns to P.M.B.D periodically to direct the conversation away from the evidence to the ‘user agent’

TSR’s user agent is set along with their proxy, it will not trace back to them, which is why Johan/Tom is pushing it as a form of redirection. Most people using a proxy will do this. They can set their agent string to anything they want to hide their identity, They can even set it to be a googlebot if they so wish. As owners of a website themselves, they are fully aware of user agents, their detection and of the merits of changing them to suit their needs. Atwa has passed user agents to people when recruiting trolls,  showing that even she is aware of the uses.

Changing a user agent is easier and more beneficial than just proxying your IP, with a proxy you can only change your IP to ones given from your proxy provider, as far as I understand, you can not make one up and you can not steal somebody else’s.  User agents are changed as easily as a proxy, they can be spoofed, invented or stolen, a little like a mesh.

I prepared a demonstration of screencaps of myself using several user agents changing the appearance of my browser and the full user agent, to prove a point, but to save DOT the trouble of yet another desperate tutorial on the fakings of screencaps I ask you all to try it yourselves.**

April Fool

TSR are now confident they have Delphy on side,  Delphy has given them some sensitive information, which they will use in a planned update to their ‘ statement’. It seems that their mistake in getting caught may have worked out to their advantage, the mesh theft has been forgotten, and Delphy himself has been used as this years biggest April Fool.

** UPDATE After some research: For those of you who do not own a proxy, or if your proxy does not give you the option of faking your user agent, you can still test this out

Firefox users: Get the plug in called User Agent Switcher.

IE users: Get the user agent string utility.

Other OS: Search google

Test your results at http://www.my-browser.net/

Here are some I tested myself. ( Click ‘more’ )

My first fake was IE 7:

I then faked a couple of known User agents:

I went on to change them some more:

Then I faked Opera:

End of tutorial on how to fake it like TSR.