Bioware Release Neverwinter Nights Beta Toolset

Max writes "Bioware, the company who have been working on Neverwinter Nights for many years, have recently released a beta version of the NWN toolset for all to download. The toolset is a brilliant feature of NWN, as it allows players to create and script their own custom made adventures. This beta version is limited, but designed to give players an insight in to the massive customisation available in the game. The file itself is 241mb and can be downloaded from Bioware " Update: 05/19 04:10 GMT by M : Zed Pobre submitted an important note concerning the EULA of this toolset, appended below. Update: 05/19 14:16 GMT by M : Derek French of Bioware has a response below. I respectfully disagree with him; I've just read the SDK EULA's for Starcraft and Half-life, and neither of these would permit the company to redistribute your mods for their commercial gain, while Bioware's would. Update: 05/20 05:16 GMT by M : Bioware is going to take another look at the EULA.

Zed Pobre writes "Careful review of the EULA of the Neverwinter Nights Beta Toolset reveals the following clause:

• Section 4(b):

  "By distributing or permitting the distribution of any of your Modules, you hereby grant back to INFOGRAMES and BIOWARE an irrevocable royalty-free right to use and distribute them by any means. Infogrames or BIOWARE may at any time and in its sole discretion revoke your right to make your Modules publicly available."

This is more or less the same as if a company producing a compiler wrote into the EULA that by distributing any program compiled with that compiler, the company would permanently get the rights to do whatever they wanted with that program, including reselling it for profit and then forbidding you to publish it yourself.

Derek French, the Assistant Producer for Bioware, confirmed that this section of the EULA is not going to change for the final release. Although he noted in the same message that similar clauses have been used by other companies providing tools for users to create their own content, NWN has a much greater scope than any of them by far, and it's now a profoundly bad idea for someone who wants to keep control of their writing, characters, or game ideas , or use those elements elsewhere, to make a NWN module using those elements publically available.

This kind of clause falls just short of "Bioware Owns Anything You Make", since if they want to sell a module you created themselves, the clause even allows them to forbid you from distributing your original version for any reason. The sole comfort in this is that the clause apparantly does not allow them to make a derivative work of your module, so it would have to be distributed "as is" -- but if the module contained enough "objectionable" material that they wouldn't want to take it for themselves, they could still forbid the owner from distributing it.

Once again, it seems that companies are only against piracy as long as it's their material being pirated. If they can pirate some individual's material by throwing an unreadable EULA up for a second at install time, it's perfectly fine.

The full forum thread discussing this can be found here."

Comments

Good thing its not from Microsoft

[davmoo]

At the point where I am reading this thread there are 55 replies. Of that, only ONE comments on the EULA. Everyone else is foaming all over themselves trying to download the thing.

If that were an EULA from Microsoft, everyone would be calling for a downloading boycott and legal action...

Protect from what?

[Yogurt]

What I don't understand is how the right to royalty-free distribution of modules protects Bioware and the end users. Can you give an example of where this provision would come in handy?

I understand that you may need to stop people from making Lord of the Rings modules and such, but there's a separate provision in the EULA for that.

Also, Sanuj's main concern on the BioWare thread doesn't seem to get addressed. I don't really care if Bioware distributes my module, but I would care if they used one of my characters in a spin-off novel. This isn't what the EULA is meant to allow, I gather.

Yogurt

Re:Protect from what?

[Zathrus]

That's like claiming that the program you just compiled should belong to the compiler maker, the standards committee, and whoever wrote the editor. After all, all you did was string words together and throw in some creative parts (e.g. - the logic).

Or maybe all books should belong to the font maker and the word processor vendor. Again, all you provided was the "creative part".

Perhaps music should belong to the instrument makers and other electronics companies involved. Once more, just using someone else's tools. The creative part is obviously irrelevant.

Sorry, things are provided for an intended use. When they are used for that intended use then you should retain intellectual property -- because that is all you're providing in the first place. The IP laws are written with this concept clearly in mind. I'm sorry that you, along with numerous companies (Activision amongst them) have completely missed out on this.

Oh, and finally, yes Id did see many, many pennys from those people "reselling their mindshare". They had to buy Doom afterall.

Re:...and if I don't distribute my modules?

[ZxCv]

If you make something with it (in, say, a week), you owe them at least giving them unrestricted access to it - they put in 5 years X x Developers and you, a week and $50.00. right?

Hardly. That's like saying that because Apple has invested years into developing iMovie, I owe them unrestricted access to movies I make with it. Wrong. Their compensation from me came when I purchased their product. Why should I compensate them any further by giving them any rights to my creations?

Re:Greetings from BioWare

[Danse]

Here's what the Starcraft EULA has to say:

C. You are entitled to use the Program for your own use, but you are not be entitled to:

(iii) use or allow third parties to use the Editor and the New Materials created thereby for commercial purposes including, but not limited to, distribution of New Materials on a stand alone basis or packaged with other software or hardware through any and all distribution channels, including, but not limited to, retail sales and on-line electronic distribution without the express written consent of Blizzard;

Aside from that, there is no other limitations on what you or Blizzard may do with any "New Materials" that you create. (It said earlier that "New Materials" refers to custom levels created with the editor.)

So, yeah, I think he's full of crap when he says that these other EULAs contain the same control freakiness as Bioware's EULA. In fact, I'm going to send him an email and a link to this thread and maybe he can come back and explain himself.

Re:Greetings from BioWare

[Alsee]

The EULA is an outright licence to steal.

BioWare can take my creative labors, sell it themselves, and yank my rights to to my intellectual property. Not just comercial rights, but the right to distribute it at all.

Because its suicide.

This seems to admit that the EULA grants BioWare powers that "shock the sensibilities". The EULA is disgusting and you know it.

Pardon me for not trusting BioWare not to actually USE the disgusting aspects of the EULA. We've all seen companies commit suicide. They also try to get away with as much as possible just short of commiting suicide. And companies get bought out. If you really have no plans to use the licence in a suicidal manner, just REWRITE it.

Quake 3, Half-Life, StarCraft, etc. All of them say the same thing that we are saying.

I'll take your word for it. I never bought those particular games. NeverwinterNights sounded cool, but I can tell you there's no way I'm going to buy it, much less make content for it, so long as that EULA clause exists.

-

Re:Chill ...

[jgerman]

The issue is that it is another attempt by a corporation to take away rights that they can't (shouldn't) be allowed to take. Original content created by me is MINE, regardless of the tools I use to create it, or how I view it. We've been through this all before, when Nintendo (unsuccessfully) tried to sue a company for making games that worked with their system. Regardless of the EULA I CAN sell my modules if I like, just as I can sell a document I made with Word (not that I'd use word ;)) or a JPG I made with The Gimp.

This is equivalent to Ford saying that because I used Ford tools to machine after market engine parts for my Mustang that they can take ownership of those parts (or at least the design) at any time, and that I can not sell those parts to others.

I'm fine with the concept of selling software, I may believe in OSS but not exclusively, and as a coder I won't begrudge other coders the oppurtunity to make a living selling their software. What I am not ok with is Bioware turning corporate thug and trying to tell me what I can or cannot do with MY creations. Furthermore, I believe that despite Derek's statements to the contrary I CAN use copyrighted characters and settings provided that I don't make a profit from them, I'm reasonably certain this falls under fair use hence fan fiction.

Regardless of whether I agree with the license included, I don't have to live without the product. Bioware is (will be) selling a tool, once that tool is in my posession I can do with it what I like, when I like. I've agreed to the only license term that should be legal, I've paid some monetary price for the use of this tool, I will not copy it and circumvent Bioware's ability to make a living selling this tool, by distributing the copys, but that is the ONLY moral obligation I feel I owe once the product is purchased.

All I can say is that I wish I had the cash to fight them on this. It would be a worthy cause to start a company who's whole purpose is to expose the shit that software developers are trying to pull. I'd love to create a module, sell it for a penny and fight Bioware in court over my right to do so.