The legalese at CCP/FC could really use an update for 2026. First updating to FC all around.
Simplifying the abti user agreement EULA. What’s with that talk about CD-Rom updates, or that accounts inactive after 90 days are up for deletion. We know returning players are the common phenomenon in EVE. The overlap with the privacy policy, almost duplicate but weaker, keep them separate it only creates more confusion.
Also I didn’t lob a request at the DPA at FC but there is no clarity why personal data needs to be sent to China and South Korea.
Anyway that brings me to the developer agreement. Unfortunately couldn’t sign it, because it’s pretty bad. Abysmally bad. Almost as worse as RedHat’s IBM’s developer agreement.
Why are there ad-hoc NDA and non-solicitation clauses in there. Is internal information shared with all developers? And why isn’t it using a normal NDA for those people, like other mature companies?
I can understand the desire to not allow others to profit from your products. But you’ve built a license that is against GPL code in which it can be normal to take payment for distribution of software. The recommandation to use ads on websites, to self-sustain, in hosting costs, makes these eve websites significantly a worse experience. I use an adblock so inadvertedly I’m helping in their ultimate demise.
Make comunication with CCP/FC digital. Completely unbalanced that ccp can send developers email to comply in short terms, yet developers need to send physical envelopes to some country.
Idk if the lawyer drafting up that agreement wanted to make fun of developers, but besides the unnecessarily one sidedness of it (if care about community are not only words to be thrown around at fanfest), no need to include ridiculous major force terms like “orbital bombardment”. Is it an agreement or satire to see who signs it?
I won’t go on about other things in the agreement, which have zero considerations for the human at the other end. I hope you can get a lawyer with more empathy than Saul Goodman, at drafting up something more reasonable and thoughtful.
Less of a rant, more of a request, the tone is only because I was tilted at the way things are imbalanced, and the kitchen sink legal approach.