News EA Releases Modding Guidelines for the C&C Franchise

[OWA]

Hi everyone! We usually keep news and information on what EA is doing on the light side of things here, but Jim Vessella and the team have just released something that does directly relate to what we do here at W3D Hub.

In an news post on Reddit, Jim outlined the intention to update and clarify EA's position on the C&C modding community by creating some new modding guidelines in coordination with EA's Legal team. The way that many communities mod Command & Conquer greatly exceeds the scope of how they were being modded when they were released (including us at W3D Hub and how we mod Renegade), so some assurances from EA have been met with appreciation from our side.

So what do these guidelines do? Essentially they are designed to protect EA's C&C franchise from people who seek to do harm to C&C through modding and commercial abuse of modding. For the modding community itself, these guidelines serve to strengthen it's legitimacy in EA's and the wider world's eyes as well as provide clarity in what is and isn't allowed.

But where does this leave communities like W3D Hub, OpenRA and Renegade X who essentially use content and intellectual property from existing C&C titles to create whole new standalone games? In this new document, EA classify our projects as "extensions of the C&C video games", which covers and protects our operations at W3D Hub.

This is fantastic news for us, as it allows us to push our projects forwards without the uncertain fear that we would get shut down at some point by a cease and desist order. Jim and the team at EA didn't need to do this, but they have gone above and beyond to create these guidelines with the community's interests at it's core. These guidelines strengthen EA's relationship with the community and in it's essence, EA has ensured that Renegade's unique position is honoured and we can continue to make games for many years to come!

For the full post from Jim, head here.

Also, here's the full document from EA as well, for your viewing pleasure:

 

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Want to take your game even farther? Find out what you need to know about creating and using Mods for the Command & Conquer franchise.

Command & Conquer™ Franchise Modding Guidelines

EA appreciates the passion that our players and community members have for our games. In particular, we celebrate the Command & Conquer community Mods that have helped fans engage in our C&C games for decades. Members of the C&C community have asked us what community Mods they can create and distribute. This Policy applies to all modifications, alterations, or extensions of the C&C video games and universe, including add-ons, modified UI and new levels, maps and updates. EA does not object to your use of the C&C video games, including the C&C Remastered Collection, in your community Mods, provided you comply with the following guidelines.

Not for commercial profit:  Community Mods are just that, Mods focused on coming together over a shared passion, not a money-making venture. Your Mods must be non-commercial and distributed free-of-charge at this time. Therefore, Mods cannot be sold, licensed, rented for a fee, nor can the Mod contain features that would support monetary transactions of any type. Mods may not be used to advertise any goods or services. 

In addition, your Mods must not be used to solicit donations, except as follows: EA recognizes that the time and resources needed to create Mods can sometimes be substantial. Accordingly, Mod developers are allowed to fund their development costs through donations, subject to the following restrictions:

• Requests for donations must be limited to the Mod website or distribution site and not appear within the Mod gameplay itself.
• Donors may not be provided with any in-game special advantages, such as private access to a Mod, special levels, graphical markers, special text, abilities, units, maps, etc. That is, all users must be able to play the same Mods without having to pay extra to do so.
• Donors that are corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, etc., cannot be listed in the credits section of a Mod; only individuals may be listed.

Respect the rights of others: Your Mods must not infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other intellectual property right of any third party and will not include content that is unlawful, tortious, defamatory, obscene, invasive of the privacy of another person, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful, racist or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate. EA requires that Mods not include any material that would not be allowed under the age ratings for any applicable C&C game(s). The C&C franchise usually has an age rating of ESRB T (Teen) and PEGI 16+, and similar ratings from other ratings boards around the world.

No EA affiliation: You must include the following statement prominently at the top of your website and in at least one root-level license file in any source-code repositories for your project (e.g., a README file or equivalent): “EA has not endorsed and does not support this product.” Do not promote your Mod in a way that suggests that it’s endorsed or approved by or affiliated with EA in any manner. Do not use EA artwork, logos or trademarks (including game logo treatments, the names Electronic Arts, EA or “Command & Conquer” or the logos or names) to promote your Mod. However, you may state that your Mod is for Command & Conquer and/or for a specific C&C game or expansion pack in the franchise (e.g., “Command & Conquer,” “Tiberian Dawn,” “Red Alert,” “Renegade,” “Generals,” and/or “Kane’s Wrath,” as applicable).

Safety & integrity: Your Mods must not jeopardize the integrity of the gameplay or harm the experience of others and must not interfere with or disrupt any of EA’s services, servers or networks, such as by introducing malware or by circumventing any of EA’s content protection measures for its services. To maintain the integrity of C&C and ensure the best possible gaming experience for our players, EA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to revoke permission to use, distribute or make Mods at any time, to disable any Mod within C&C and to take disciplinary action against players who take part in any of these activities.

Intellectual property ownership; license from EA: C&C assets, including game code, art, music, and all other content, are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of EA (the “C&C Assets”). To the extent any C&C Assets are used in Mods, EA grants the Mod creator a revocable, limited, non-exclusive, non-commercial license to use the C&C Assets solely in connection with, and as a part of, the Mod and subject to the terms of this Policy. Your Mod must not include any music files from any C&C games. EA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to revoke this license at any time.

Abide by all other EA rules: These guidelines supplement and don’t supersede any other EA rules that apply to your Mod, including the GPL license terms and conditions under which we have distributed our C&C Remastered Collection DLL source code and the EA User Agreement, which are specifically incorporated into this Policy. In the event that the terms of this Policy are in conflict with the terms of these other EA rules, the terms of this Policy will supersede and govern. For clarity, Mods constitute “UGC” as that term is defined in our EA User Agreement.  

Please remember that EA does not pre-screen, endorse, or specifically support any C&C Mod.  Please use Mods with caution and understand there may be a risk.

 

This is a great day for the C&C modding community as a whole and a great thing to announce in coordination with C&C's 25th anniversary! We hope to making mods here for many years to come and hope you'll all continue to join us on our modding journey.

Thankyou for your continued support!

- OWA[blurb]In an news post on Reddit, Jim outlined the intention to update and clarify EA's position on the C&C modding community by creating some new modding guidelines in coordination with EA's Legal team. Read more about this important development here![/blurb][thumb]custom_thumb_ea.png[/thumb]

[Nodlied]

 

This is some amazing news! Didn't think we'd ever get to this but man did this make my day.