THE TRUE FACE OF TSR: The dangers of visiting thesimsresource.com

May 1, 2013

TSR Leeches: Still trying to claim EA owned content as their own.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — coconut @ 10:22

Leech #1: Flovv

Oh dear, this is about the most contradictory tripe I have heard from TSR in a long time.

Dear Flow,

All the Sims rights DO belong to EA, we know that because we have taken the time to read the EULA, this is something you yourself should try to make time to do, so that in the future you could avoid breaking the law by illegally selling EA owned products on the pirate site, TSR. You seem very concerned that people should not USE  anything created by someone else and especially not SHARE them and yet YOU are using EA owned products, manipulating and selling them on a website in direct violation of the EULA. Even more disturbing is the fact that even though you are selling these products which do not legally belong to you you still state that no one can actually use them? ( although I do concede that in some cases, TSR CC is somewhat unusable )

“Even if it’s made by EA workers or not?” The sims and all it’s contents WERE made by EA workers, and  EA gives us fully transferable worldwide permission to reproduce, copy, adapt, modify, perform, display, publish, broadcast, transmit or otherwise communicate to the public by any means without further compensation to you of any kind. It is laughable that you think you own this content even though you admit it was made by EA workers and, in addition, you think you have the right to steal it, sell it and overrule their usage permissions.

When you boot up the Sims you agree to the EULA which states:  You hereby waive any moral rights of paternity, publication, reputation, or attribution with respect to EA’s and other players’ use and enjoyment of such assets in connection with the software and related goods and services under applicable law.

So in short YOU have no rights on content that does not belong to you, it is perfectly legal for you to upload it to TSR as EA have given you and every other player permission to do so, it is however illegal for you to sell it.  Baixe Sims has full permission from EA via the EULA to host this content, if you don’t like it, I suggest you spend a few years making your own game and only then will you have the right to call a multi million best selling game your own – or is that too much hard work for you?

Leech #2: Lulu

 

Dear Lulu,

As you have been lazy enough to copy and paste part of Flows mail, I’ll take a leaf from your book and copy and paste part of the reply.. ( Sheeeesh. Can’t anyone at TSR ever come up with something 100% their own work? Not even an Email? )

The sims and all it’s contents WERE made by EA workers, and EA gives us fully transferable worldwide permission to reproduce, copy, adapt, modify, perform, display, publish, broadcast, transmit or otherwise communicate to the public by any means without further compensation to you of any kind.

When you boot up the Sims you agree to the EULA which states: You hereby waive any moral rights of paternity, publication, reputation, or attribution with respect to EA’s and other players’ use and enjoyment of such assets in connection with the software and related goods and services under applicable law.

So in short YOU have no rights on content that does not belong to you, it is perfectly legal for you to upload it to TSR as EA have given you and every other player permission to do so, it is however illegal for you to sell it. Baixe Sims has full permission from EA via the EULA to host this content if you don’t like it I suggest you spend a few years making your own game and only then will you have the right to call a multi million best selling game your own – or is that too much hard work for you?

Refresher

 

Take this to a lawyer  so that he may laugh at you while he takes your money ( Ask TSR about that one, there is quite a funny story behind it – Well, not so funny for TSR..  but you catch my drift :)  )

 

 

Special Thanks to BaixeSims

October 31, 2012

Racist paysite CATcrap shares donators personal information. UPDATED 2 NOV

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , — coconut @ 23:54

Not TSR related, however this lowlife bottom feeder CATcorp seems to have all the credentials necessary to join the pond life over at TSR.

This began when the popular freesite Sunset Sims posted a ‘leaked’ payfile from the desperate Russian paysite, CATcorp. CATcorp reacted in a fashion that would make any TSR groupie proud  - She illegally posted the IP, full name, full home address and E-mail address of a random paypal donator. Twice. If that is not shocking enough here’s the reason why..  Sunset sims is a Spanish site, so CATcorp has now decided that the entire Spanish community are all ‘thieves’. The donator to this small time paysite is also Spanish, and even though this person was kind enough to give CATcorp money, she took the money and posted her PRIVATE info and labelled her a ‘thief’ simply because she is Spanish.  YES, you read that right, she was named and shamed as a thief solely because she has the same nationality as the free site Sunsetsims! This is absolutely disgusting and racist to the core. CATcorp has also banned anyone who is Spanish from using her downloads.

Anyone donating money to CATcorp should think again.  If you are not Spanish you may think that this does not affect you, but what if a site from the US/UK/AUS/Asia posts one of her downloads? You would be wrongly labelled as a thief if you share a nationality with any site she takes a dislike to and it could be your private details up on her site next.

The screencap below was taken on a translated page, translated from Russian to English. The private information she illegally posted has been edited out by me.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

She repeated the information again further down the page…  Click on ’more’ for more!

(more…)

July 19, 2012

TSR: Credit card fraud warning.

Filed under: Submitted Screencaps, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — coconut @ 09:52

I am sharing this awful situation from my comments section, and I urge anyone who has been the victim of credit card fraud to also file a police/FBI report.

TEXT version for translators

My reply:

Hi Skye,  It is certainly not the first time they have been accused of this, and it seems the more illegal activities they get away with, the more crimes they commit.  If you, ( like me ), never buy products over the internet and have only used Paypal once – which was for TSR, who are known hackers/fraudsters, I agree it is highly likely, if not certain, they were involved -( not forgetting you made a ‘complaint’ to them and complainers of TSR have a nasty habit of getting hacked. )

Something was very odd with this situation from the onset, your subscription should have been activated immediately if you paid via PayPal. The site did have some subscription problems due to a power outage on the 29th June, but this only affected credit card payments made on that one night and it did not affect any Paypal payments. I am confused why Anoeska dealt with it in this way.

I am also not sure of Swedish law, but a lot of European countries have a statutory cancellation period ranging from 3-7 days depending on the country. The USA also has a 3 day ‘cooling-off period’ under which you may be covered.  You should have had the right to cancel, although I am sure the $13 is the least of your worries at the moment. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/products/pro03.shtm

Good on you for filing a police report! They can be traced, no matter what proxy they used and you really need to keep chasing up on that report. There is also an FBI page you may find useful, it has tips about internet credit card fraud and to the right of the page it has links of how to report these crimes to the FBI.

Yes, you should absolutely report this to PayPal, and anyone else you can think of. They should not get away with doing this to you.

I am so sorry this has happened to you, and I hope you do get your money back as soon as possible, this is a dreadful thing to happen to anyone, people like this are truly the scum of the earth, I hope they get caught soon – and when they do, make sure you sue their ass. -Coconut

***** REMEMBER: TSR subscriber items are always FREE  on SunSet sims.  Direct links to TSR files:  All Sims 3 downloads  and   Sims 2 hairs *****

June 28, 2012

TSR surveys members personal info

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — coconut @ 22:35

TSR now have an open poll asking members personal questions such as your age, are you employed, how much your total household income is, how smart you are, what you buy online… payment for this personal info is an entry into their usually fixed prize draw and an old subscriber hair from ex FA Newsea. Apparantly, according to T$R, knowing how much money your family earns will help them plan the future of the site. Hmm…

If you need the hair, DO NOT GIVE TSR YOUR PERSONAL INFO! Just get it here for FREE, no questions asked :)

Survey screens below.

(more…)

June 22, 2012

EA mole gives IP of complainant to hackers.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — coconut @ 23:15

 

EA Has committed a huge breach of confidentiality and security by not only passing on the complaint, but also the IP of the complainant to TSR. Furthermore a complaint that was meant to go to EA’s legal department was blocked from arriving there by EA’s community manager,  Sherrie Dandan.  Sherrie also alerted TSR on the number of complaints they have received and how they were submitted at the same time as thanking TSR for their bribe ‘gift’ sent to their offices.

This resulted in the WRONG person getting the blame for making the complaint, causing a 13 year old girl to have her online accounts hacked. The girls mother had not made the complaint she was accused of, instead she complained to TSR over what she deemed was inappropriate messages between Thomas and her child over MSN.

I checked the IP’s myself and it is pretty clear that the girl and her mother have completely different IP’s to the complainant. Steve would know this, which makes me think that the whole blame game was manipulated by Steve/TSR in order to ’show off’ a series of Emails between Steve and the EA community manager to prove Steve’s point that EA really do not give a shit who gets hacked. The girls mother had previously asked for advice on the shoutbox here, ( 27th May ) it was a pretty safe bet she would be back in contact when she was blamed for something she did not do, thus showcasing Steve’s validation of EA support.

 Below are screencaps of the entire communication, with the childs name/email removed and IP of the real complainant. Sorry about repeat lines, it was the only way I could screencap this in several shots while showing that there is nothing missing from the original.  As with all fowarded emails, it may be a good idea to read from the bottom upward to get the full gist and context of the email exchange between Steve and the mole. Also available in TEXT versions for translators.

TEXT VERSION HERE!

TEXT VERSION HERE

 TEXT VERSION HERE

It is fair to add the deletion of this young girls account is NOT the issue here, as this was the wish of her parents. The issue is TSR hacking into her EA account to make her believe EA had banned her for making a complaint and that they also hacked her Twitter/google/youtube and deleted her personal videos of something they knew meant a lot to her.

TEXT VERSION HERE

We have learned many things from the communications between Sherrie Dandan ( EA community Manager ) and Steve Bonham ( TSR joint admin and part time prison guard )

  • Sherrie Dandan is willing to block all complaints intended for EA legal.
  • Sherrie Dandan is willing to share private communications intended for EA legal.
  • Sherrie Dandan is willing to share a paying customers IP with the group they have just revealed as hackers.
  • Sherrie Dandan is willing to give TSR the number of complaints received ( and blocked from reaching their destination. )
  • Sherrie Dandan is willing to accept ‘gifts’ from TSR.
  • Sherrie Dandan is willing to believe that all complaints stem from my blog ( which this did not ) despite Steve/TSR not providing proof that anyone connected with this blog sent it.
  • Sherrie Dandan is willing believe, then go on to accuse this blog of being  a ‘pirating site’ despite no pirated content being on this site, furthermore – I personally, until now, have paid for every game and expansion pack I own and have done since The Sims 1. It is false accusations such as this that make me, and other falsely accused players pay more attention to sites such as MOONSIMS or  FREE SIMS STORE when looking for future content.
  • Sherrie Dandan believes that because this site is hosted by someone who hosts another site that has ‘pirated’ store content submitted on his forum… that makes ME a pirate. That is like saying that everyone who has a blogger account with google are pirates because somewhere there is a blogger account that hosts pirated content….  That is beyond stupid.
  • Sherrie Dandan believes Steve when he says that all my screencaps are edited and can be clearly seen with pixel zoom. Clearly Sherrie believes this on face value and has never once examined any of my screencaps  to see that this is a blatent lie. She also believes the vast amount of the community and sites that supply information here do not exist because I made them up. Who does she think are buying the games?. Most screencaps come with a link to the site they are on and yet Sherrie believes I own all these sites too.
  • Steve has supplied several ‘quotes’ from Coconut including “well I don’t care, I still think it was TSR so our accusation stands” and a ‘vow from me to bring down TSR because I was a failed FA’. Both quotes completely made up and with no truth to them whatsoever, but Sherrie has chosen to believe this with no links or proof  that any of these ‘quotes’ where ever made outside of Steves imagination.
  • Sherrie Dandan believes that followers of this blog were asking TSR members for their passwords despite NO ONE ever complaining this has EVER happened, nor any proof showing that any reader of this blog was involved. Why would they need a pass to TSR anyway? FA accounts are IP controlled meaning that unless you are using a computer in that FA’s house you can not access the account, and on the notion that all our readers are ‘pirates’ they wouldn’t need a subscriber account when the booty/ Sunset sims  offers free TSR subscriber downloads with no account needed. No brainer really.
  • Sherrie Dandan believes Steve when he says that a site that runs a business by manipulating EA made meshes and reselling the content against the EULA is a fansite. You can get full stolen games for free from the pirate bay… they must be superfans!
  • Sherrie Dandan does not believe screencaps, witness statements, emails, complaints or Steves own contracting statements ( see myths and lies) only the word of one man(?) compared to the word of countless paying customers.
  • Steve believes his job description …” I work for the Government in Criminal Justice” Sounds better than “I’m a prison guard”
  • In all this we have learned that Steve is a liar, he will use any means to boast about his relationship with EA, TSR have once again hacked a childs account and that Sherrie Dandan is profoundly stupid.
  • You have also learned to use other means of complaining to get your complaints heard in the right department and to state why you do not wish your complaints to go through a half wit who accepts bribes gifts from hackers.
  • EA have left themselves wide open to legal action from the real complainant. Congratulations.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/sadandan

Sherrie A. Dandan’s Experience

Community Manager – The Sims

Electronic Arts

Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; ERTS; Computer Games industry

March 2008– Present (4 years 4 months)

- Managing and growing The Sims community on TheSims3.com and TheSims2.com websites and social networks
- Synch with PR, Development team and Marketing to push game and content releases to community
- Distribute daily, weekly, and monthly reports on community outreach and growth
- Composing copy for news items and descriptions for virtual goods
- Organizing fan events
- Arranged accommodations, venues, services while staying within limited budgets

I can not find anywhere in her job description where it says she has the power to decide what is forwarded to EA legal and what is instead forwarded to hackers. Most companies have a policy that all communications mentioning legal action should be forwarded to the legal dept, I have not heard of any company who deem it ok to forward the complaint to friends/hackers and ridicule the complainant while hiding the complaint from the legal dept.

Sherrie Dandan - EA Mole

If anyone at EA believes these sceencaps are edited I will be happy to forward the original mails to anyone other than Sherrie Dandan, who already knows these are real.

 UPDATE:

The person who did write the complaint to EA, and had her info shared with TSR by EA Mole Sherrie Dandan has now decided to take legal action.

 http://tsr.mustbedestroyed.org/?p=1746

May 30, 2012

URGENT WARNING: NEWSEA HACKED – 3,322 usernames, emails and passwords leaked online.

Filed under: The Sims Resource, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — coconut @ 23:51

NEWSEA, a rival site to TSR has been hacked and the data of 3,322 of its users has been posted online.

CHANGE ALL OF YOUR PASSWORDS NOW.

Unlike the last information leak, where 614 people had their names email address shared on the grapevine, this new leak is far more dangerous, the online list not only contains usernames and emails, but your PASSWORDS and your country of origin and and some full names.

I understand there are rumors already in the community, and in some cases these rumors are not being believed, I can confirm that I have seen the full list online and I can not stress how urgent it is that you take action to change your passwords. The information is listed in this format: id - username - email – password - firstname - lastname - country

On May the 10th, a few members of staff were approached, and on May 11th were given subscriber passes to Newsea. The idea was to download and share Newsea subscriber only files through torrent sites in an attempt to damage the Newsea business and limit their monetary income. I was under the impression that TSR had bought the subscriptions. Shortly after, I heard that Newsea was willing to sell the site to TSR and return as FA. Talks broke down apparently when Tom accused Newsea of being greedy and wanting far too much for the site, I have no idea what Newsea asked for or what he was offered, but whatever it was, Tom said it was too much but he was certain Newsea would be back with ‘his tail between his legs’. Yesterday I was told that every member of Newsea has had their username, email name and password leaked online. Shortly before this news went public, TSR posted a cryptic and confusing message on their front page.

“TSR members are being targeted in the community by people trying to cause trouble. Please remember that nobody from TSR will ever ask for your password for the site. If anyone approaches you on Facebook, Forums or Chat, claiming to be from TSR and asking you for your login details, do not give them out!”

You may wonder what is so cryptic and confusing about this message? For a start the first paragraph is the focus of events that have never happened, there have been no reports of anyone being approached on facebook, forums or chat by anyone asking for login details. This part of the statement is clearly just an opener and just an excuse to make an announcement so that they can get to the second paragraph..

Passwords stored at TSR are encrypted. ( No they are not. ) Staff, Admins and Mods do not have access to your passwords used, ( some staff and all admins do. )

“but not all sites work that way.”  Now we are getting to the point of this announcement .. Sites like Newsea?  How perceptive of TSR to know that a rival site was about to have it’s entire unencrypted data leaked online. How thoughtful of TSR to let us know how *cough* secure their site is and how unsecure rival sites may be.  We could have done without the demonstration.

This has not just been a hack, it has started with blackmail. With this being posted on or around April 27th

Followed by attempts from TSR to damage the business through sharing.

When Newsea refused to sell and rejoin TSR for what was probably a very low offer, the information gathered from the site was released to the public. ( ..after the careful removal of TSR FA accounts! ) You do not need me to explain what this means to the 3,322 people who have had their emails and passwords displayed for all to see, or the damage to the reputation of Newseas site.

 

Still not convinced that TSR are liars? TSR have even gone as far as writing words in Newsea’s TSR blog, that were not written by Newsea and replying to messages that were not replied to by Newsea -In fact Newsea have NO access to their own TSR blog. What kind of respectable site would impersonate an artist through blog posts and messages while locking them out of their own account. That in itself is illegal.

Newsea says: “Please do not give the newsea of TSR site message! because the account has been modified by the TSR, we do not have the permissions of that account, all speak of the newsea of TSR site not what we say!”

 

Hacking. Blackmail. Impersonation. This is how low TSR will go to destroy the competition. For those who have very little sympathy for a paysite like Newsea, remember that paysites are not the only rival to TSR.

 

 

May 22, 2012

TSR, EA and YOU!

Filed under: The Sims Resource, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — coconut @ 12:38

  You may think that reporting problems such as this to EA has never been of any benefit, that perhaps it is a waste of your time and that EA have done nothing. Think again. Since TSR adopted a ‘Mafia’ attitude and EA have been hearing about it in many corners, a whole lot has changed already. You would have to be blind not to notice that the glowing support EA once had for TSR has dwindled to nothing. When was the last time TSR had an exclusive on a new exp or stuff pack? ( Not counting the Medieval ‘exclusive’ Steve had to scan from PC Format magazine! ) Hell, EA did not even trust them to preview KP sweet treats! When were they last interviewed by EA? When was the last time someone… anyone? from EA appeared in their forums …..A long time ago.

  At the end of the day EA are a business, and yes it makes great business sense to keep on good terms with ‘the largest site in the sims community’. EA may be slow on the uptake, but even they can see now that TSR is only the ‘largest’ because they have been open for 12 years. ( not the longest, as TSR claim, but certainly a long time .) A vast percentage of all their members did not join TSR as it is today, they joined the free community site that it was in 1999, before it was sold off as a money spinning business to the Isakssons. None of the members amassed throughout the years can delete their own accounts or uploads. So that is 12 years of joining with 0 people allowed to leave, you do the math. If they were a regular cult they would need their own country by now. TSR masks itself as a happy place, no negative comments are allowed and until recently candy sweet good comments were rewarded with free subscription days. ( Kudos) Good artists appeared to be dumping their own sites just for the pleasure of working for the popular TSR, and the padded download stats look great. No wonder EA believed the hype. It was only after the dirty dealings and lies came to light that EA have finally distanced themselves from the monster they created. Many of these incidents only came to light because you, the community decided to tell them.

  What EA thought was a good business move in ‘turning a blind eye’ to the EULA ( for what seemed like the good of the community at the time ) ended up crushing a large proportion of the true fan community. The free pass that TSR thinks they have has gone right to their heads. Appearing as the largest sims site is not good enough anymore, they want to be the only sims site. This, thankfully, will never happen but while a money crazed madman believes this is possible, many fan sites are still closing due to the hackings, false file or site TOU reports, virus infections or buy outs. Yes, the community has survived and it will continue to, but think how much bigger and better the community would have been now if TSR had not attacked/targeted so many ‘rival’ websites, and continue to do so. This has a direct effect on EA/The Sims franchise. How many of these sites that TSR forced to close, the people TSR has hunted and harassed, the creators forced to quit and the children they exposed to goatse porn just for the shock value have given up on the game completely? CC and the community play a big part in the enjoyment of the game for many, and how many times do you read someone saying that the community is not the same and not fun anymore, reasons usually cited is because their friends have left, favorite sites/forums are gone, their own sites have been attacked or they are being bullied or dictated to. TSR are mentioned directly in 99% of these comments and not in a good way.

  The problem is that we, the community are fully aware of all this, mostly everyone has either been on the receiving end or knows someone who has. EA are only aware of what we tell them. How else can they find out? Most forums who speak about this do it in the members only sections for fear of TSR reprisals, Websites are afraid of becoming targets for hackings so they say nothing, those that do usually get the content removed via TOU reports/hacks. Not many post in the EA forums for fear of being ridiculed by TSR trolls. Websites are bullied for providing links to information sources such as this blog, the phorum or PMBD. TSR FA’s ever so sweetly join popular forums, this discourages any negative TSR posts from appearing. ( TSR refers to them as TSR ambassadors. ) With so much dust being swept under the carpet, you can see why EA may find it difficult to understand why TSR are so bad for the community, especially when TSR tell them again and again that anyone speaking against TSR are ‘pirates’ who pirate EA content, that anyone speaking against TSR are also against EA.

  This is where You can help. If you are one of the many unlucky people attacked by TSR, whether it is through hacking, TOU/TOS reports, take down notices, nasty messages/emails, demands for links or removal of links, lost money on a subscription, leaked private details or any instance where TSR have directly ruined or spoiled your enjoyment of the game and the community you need to tell EA about it. Be sure to show them screencaps of messages, forward emails of demands and threats, forward take down reports. Let them know how this affects you and your enjoyment of the game you paid for. ( Yes this will take a little of your time, but I am sure rebuilding your website, finding new hosts or begging Mediafire to reinstate your own content took longer. ) If you are too afraid, downhearted or TSR has made it impossible for you to make or continue with your Sims fansite, LET EA KNOW! This not only effects you, it effects EA and the exposure of their product.

 Do not expect direct action or even a good response from EA, your goal is to simply make them aware of the effect TSR is having on you and the community. EA already know enough to sever links with TSR, now they need to see the full extent of the damage TSR is doing. It is doubtful they will ever take legal action against TSR, they are probably still under the impression they would upset a lot of TSR’s fictional fans and ‘members’ but at the very least they should clarify the legality of a site that exists only to make money by manipulating EA made content. TSR are not fans of the game or the community, in any shape or form. You can not even truly describe them as a ‘business’ as they disregard any controls that would make a business legitimate. TSR are simply opportunists and leeches. EA’s reluctance to commit to their own EULA and say that such ‘business’ practices are wrong have created a monster and they need to stuff it back in it’s box.

 What TSR fail to compute is that the EULA still stands and EA can at any time pull the plug on TSR simply by clarifying that The Sims franchise is owned by EA and it was never designed to be exploited by 3rd party sites as a business venture, it was designed for the enjoyment of paying EA customers and should not be the subject of turf wars and the fallout associated with the criminal activities they use to maintain their cashflow.

Contact EA:

https://help.ea.com/contact-us

https://help.ea.com/contact-us?product=the-sims-3

 https://help.ea.com/en/the-sims/the-sims-2

support@ea.com

Electronic Arts Inc.
209 Redwood Shores Parkway
Redwood City, CA 94065

 

May 21, 2012

TSR Demands: EA suggest seeking legal advice. ( Updated )

Filed under: Submitted Screencaps, The Sims Resource, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — coconut @ 12:11

Note: Because non English speakers find it difficult to translate screencaps, I have included a text version of all the images in this article found here http://tsr.mustbedestroyed.org/?page_id=1532

As many of you will have noticed, aside from their frequent hacking and defacements of ‘rival’ sites, TSR’s ridiculous demands and downright bullying of other sites seems to be escalating. They are already in full swing telling fan sites what they can or cannot host, either by take down notices or by making false reports to Mediafire and other file hosts, resulting in the deletion of files totally belonging to the site owner and having nothing what-so-ever to do with TSR. In addition to this, TSR are telling site owners which sites they can and cannot LINK to! After receiving a PM at TSR, one such site owner was so disgusted she wrote to EA to complain. You can tell from the replies that EA was pretty shocked and in the end suggested she take legal advice.

Below are screencaps taken from the forwarded Emails, I have censored out all personal details, I am still awaiting to see if I have permission to name her website, If I have that I will gladly uncensor that part.

This is followed by an auto response with an incident # ( not published ) and then another general response.

EA push the fact that TSR is no way affiliated with them and ask “what is going on?” ( Ref # censored )

She goes on to explain to EA that she got a message from TSR stating they cannot allow her to place a link to her blog. They also LIED to her by stating that the link she had on her site was also to EA pirated content. There has never been pirated content at http://paysites.mustbedestroyed.org/ In fact that link takes you to a large copy of EA’s EULA where readers might just notice that TSR is illegal. ( Website censored )

 

EA: “That is completely wrong of them to do that and in no way accepted by us as far as we know.”

EA: ” it would be best to seek professional legal advice on whether or not you are violating their terms of service and whether or not the website is doing anything wrong on their end”

TSR may be in their rights to ask anyone not to promote certain links on their TSR Minisite, but they have NO RIGHTS to order anyone to remove links from their own website. Clearly EA do not have a problem with PMBD links, they suggest you seek legal advice if TSR do.

Just for the lulz, here is TSR’s statement once again..

“Respect for creators is something very important for TSR. … LOL respect is earned and seldom given to bullies.

That is the exact reason why no CC can be included in lots from creators who do not allow it to be included… OH sorry they meant re$pect.

The link you show on your own blog, is about a site that is all about disrespecting creators, specially (FA) creators from TSR. They upload their creations without having their permission. ..How many creations are hosted at TSR despite the creators requesting they are removed. Why can creators not remove their own creations or accounts? There are more creations hosted against the creators wishes at TSR than on any other site anywhere.

We cannot allow you to place a link to your blog when you actually advertise this site on your blog…. Simples. Just delete the TSR link.

You will need to remove that from your creations and from your minisite… Some bullies never leave the school yard, seriously have you heard yourself? How old are you?

 And just for your information: that site is not made by EA,… and are they are trying to give the impression that TSR is?

 they are in fact very much against them….. Which is why that link takes you to a huge copy of EA’s EULA which states that stealing their stuff and putting it on paysites is illegal? I would have thought the business illegally selling EA content and demanding the removal of links to the EULA was more against them!

..since that same group of people is also pirating EA creations.”   TSR=Commercial, Paysite, Business, Pirates.  PMBD=Free, Gratis, Noncommercial. Fans. http://paysites.mustbedestroyed.org/

The EULA clearly states that “You may include materials created with the Tools & Materials on your personal noncommercial website for the noncommercial benefit of the fan community for EA’s products” TSR are the only ones commercially selling EA creations, and not for the benefit of anyone other than themselves.

Update

 I have included the Url of the website, with permission. Many thanks to the webmistress of  lesimsdesigns for coming forward and sharing her experience with TSR and her contact with EA.

 

February 3, 2012

Newsea

Filed under: The Sims Resource — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — coconut @ 02:29

  I have often been asked what happened between Newsea and TSR, I have been asked again today, and this has prompted me to write a few lines on what I know and what I have heard.

  For those that do not know, Newsea are a duo of hair designers who are now former FA’s at TSR.

Story #1

  The initial story from TSR was that Newsea got ideas well above their station, with diva-like demands. Apart from a raise, they demanded their own personal subscription section on TSR and wanted 100% of the profit for those additional subscriptions – otherwise they would leave TSR and open a rival paysite. Tom had no choice but to let them go as TSR were unable to afford to pay them any extra on their already massive wage of $500 per set also they did not want to have a separate subscription set up for just Newsea. Upon leaving Newsea demanded payment for the next 3 months in advance, Tom refused and Newsea was banned from the site after posting bad things about TSR on their TSR blog.

Source: Thomas@TSR

Story #2

  The other story is that when Newsea were asked to join TSR they were offered an initial £300 per set starting pay and told that after they got established their wage would go up to $400-$500 per set depending on demand. Later in the year TSR would offer an additional subscription service for Newsea hair, where Newsea would get a minimum of 30%. This sounded like a good deal and Newsea signed up. However the raise and the subscription deal never materialised and when Newsea asked about the raise Tom turned nasty. Newsea decided to leave as Tom had gone back on his promise and they wished to open a new site. When they advertised their new site on their TSR blog, they were banned from the blog and Tom withheld payment for all their last completed sets uploaded that month. Newsea opened their own site.

Source: A friend of Newsea

  Although it seems unclear on the surface which story is true, I believe the second to be much nearer the mark:

  •     It would not be the first time Tom has gone back on a promise, in fact he will promise anything to get a creator to upload at TSR. The worst possible outcome to him is that they eventually leave TSR when they realise they have been conned, however by then they have closed their own site/left MTS and uploaded everything to TSR, which he then keeps, labels as his own property and no longer has to pay the artist. Kind of a win/win for him. The situation with Newsea sounds all too familiar.
  •     This is not the first time I have heard the extra subscription idea, for Premium Artists ( PA’s ) Tom has been talking about this a lot as a way to get well known artists into TSR, so it is totally believable that Newsea was offered this as a sweetener.
  •     I have yet to speak to anyone who saw the ‘bad things’ Newsea allegedly posted on their blog, I am inclined to go with the second story where posting a site link got them locked out of their site.  I also think the current cheery message on their TSR mini site may not have been written by them, it looks to me like the standard editing done by Tom after an FA gets kicked.

  It is evident to me that Newsea was well and truly screwed over by TSR.

  Now you know what I know, but the only one who really  knows the truth is Newsea. If Newsea would like to put their story forward, I would be happy to publish it and set the record straight.

May 4, 2011

TSR FA In real life fraud conviction!

Filed under: The Sims Resource, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , — coconut @ 03:49

   A TSR FA has been convicted of fraud in the UK, this is the second time this FA has appeared before the courts for the same crime. I am still awaiting more details on the outcome of the first trial, which took place in January of last year; lack of information on the outcome prevented me from reporting on this at the time. Thomas flew out to the UK in the same week as the first trial took place, whether his flight was in fact connected to the trial is unknown. Details of the outcome still remain sketchy.

  The same FA, already famed for allegedly stealing  meshes of plant pots from MTS and selling them on TSR, has continued to commit the same crime of defrauding the UK government and has been brought to justice once more.

  The fraud took place when this FA officially claimed that she was not working. She Shake and Shafted the UK government into paying her full welfare benefits by claiming she did not work and cannot work in any capacity due to ill health and has no other income, when in fact she was earning a set payment from her work at TSR and was paid $800 per month, which has risen up to $1000 per month.  This fraud has been going on since Jan 2, 2006, so even at the lower rate of earnings I calculate she owes the UK tax payers over $50,000 for the period ending March 2011 when she was convicted.  She has been ordered to return the money she has stolen, although it is not clear if she has to pay back the full amount, I imagine she would have to. She also has to pay the court fees and complete work in the community by cleaning public toilets.

  She is still working as an FA, and still earning her fixed monthly payments, so either she has taken a cut in payments from the welfare system, or she is heading for her third fraud conviction.

 

  I wonder how many other FA’s at TSR are committing the same crime; many countries all over the world have welfare systems just waiting to be abused by the greedy and the lazy.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment_benefits  Such benefits are paid for by the taxes of hard working citizens, and it is sad to see this system being abused.

  This shows TSR’s obvious disregard for the law by illegally employing workers and failing to obtain and register a social security number from any of its employees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_identification_number

  Which brings me to tax, how many FA’s, or indeed TSR themselves are paying tax on their earnings? Not many. For reference, this page shows the Swedish tax system including business tax rates, click on the list on the left of the page to see the tax rates in other countries. How much are TSR and its FA’s stealing from you?

http://www.taxrates.cc/html/sweden-tax-rates.html

I have a feeling this will not be the last fraud conviction we hear about.

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress