EULA Rank Loophole?

Discussion in 'Bukkit Discussion' started by ccrama, Jul 14, 2014.

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  1. Offline

    ccrama

    Hello Bukkit,

    I have recently heard about/discovered the possibility of a loophole for the EULA requirements set forth in Minecraft 1.7.10 +. The EULA states that you cannot:

    1. Use real currency to purchase ranks
    2. Use real currency to purchase soft currency in game
    3. CAN use soft currency to purchase ranks.

    What if a website had soft currency you could purchase, and you used that soft currency on the website to purchase a rank for in game? Would that indeed bypass Mojang's requirements?
     
  2. Offline

    Src

    ccrama
    You can purchase a rank with real currency ;)
    You just can't give them gameplay changing features

    However, you can give them stuff such as particles, hats, etc.
     
  3. Offline

    Necrodoom

    If you arent spending real currency, i dont see how its a loophole at all. If you are, its against rule 2, because you are buying soft currency for ingame, and you are still purchasing non-cosmetic perks.
     
  4. Offline

    ccrama

    Necrodoom You are buying soft currency for the website. Say I have 0 "points" on the website, I pay the owner $5 and get 100 points on the website. I, then, purchase a rank for $5, which runs a command in-game giving me a rank. I never spent any money on the server, just spent it on the website and the owner of the server "decided" to give me a rank.

    I have no plans on using this, just thought it was interesting to share. I think this sort of action SHOULD be blocked by the EULA.
     
  5. Offline

    Necrodoom

    ccrama it IS blocked by the EULA. All you did is word is different, which makes absolutely no difference. All you do it put a middle man.
    What is really looks like:
    "Pay $5, get soft currency, buy rank"
     
    aidan573 likes this.
  6. Offline

    ccrama

    Necrodoom But it isn't soft currency IN GAME. From Mojang's website:


    Here it clearly states that you CANNOT spend hard currency to get soft currency, but what if that soft currency never touched the game? The currency lives inside a website, and never touches gameplay. You can then get a supporter rank off your website with that online currency. The key word in their Q&A was "you cannot sell in-game currency for hard currency", but if the currency is not in-game, in theory it is ok to buy. It also states that you can give perks to players separately, which a website middleman would allow for.

    I am bringing this up because Enjin, a very large gaming website system with a huge Minecraft playerbase said that their system doesn't break EULA, and in theory it doesn't. According to them and their "legal team", if the currency doesn't touch the server it is 100% ok.
     
  7. Offline

    Necrodoom

    ccrama That is absolutely just bull - you pay money, you get ranks. All these attempts dont impress mojang at all.
    Also, speaking enjin, its points ARE ingame, making this whole thing pointless.
     
    ccrama likes this.
  8. Offline

    ccrama

    Necrodoom Exactly what I was saying, but they insist it will work. Even if it DID work, I believe Mojang would have them shut down within days. I think all that is just a last ditch attempt to keep megacommunities that run off of Enjin (like Mineplex, some of Shotbow, etc) up because this EULA goes against pretty much every donation/sales policy they have.
     
  9. Offline

    xize

    even though its not possible, the EULA stated it very clearly 'Hybrid/dual currency systems are not allowed' taken from the quote.

    soft currencies are allowed, but not when paying money to convert it to soft currency.

    any of these bypasses or possible loop holes does mean you are feeding mojang which could cause to make the EULA even worse at some point, maybe even on the stage we aren't allowed to make mods because people could abuse that aswell.

    and p.s I disslike enjin for various reasons, but i'll keep that in private.
     
    ccrama likes this.
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    ccrama

  11. Offline

    Syd

    You always should remember that the EULA hasn't been changed yet. At the moment every such transaction is "not allowed". Mojang just tollerates them.
    So loopholes might be not even possible, except Mojang accepts them.

    But in this case it's clear:
    You buy soft currency on a website and you can buy ranks with soft currency.
    To get the rank you have to interact with the ingame part, therefore you violate the rules set by Mojang.
     
  12. Offline

    ZanderMan9

    I'm no expert on international law, but the problem with your idea is that the "soft currency" is in fact hard currency, because it was converted from actual money into that form, therefore it has actual value. Soft currency is something you earn in a way that has nothing to do with hard currency.
     
  13. ccrama Regardless of whether you agree with this or are going to do it or whatever, posts like this are completely pointless. This isn't some game or anything, this is a legal issue. In the unlikely event that you do find a loophole in it, exploit it, and get away with that without repercussions, how long do you think you'll be able to do that before Mojang decide to fix said loophole?

    If servers become reliant on finding and exploiting loopholes to continue, they're very quickly going to run dry, and if not there probably would have been more money in it for them if they'd become the legal professionals that they appear to be - have you seen Mojang's revenue? What do you think the odds are that they've got enough money to hire someone who knows what they're doing for their EULA?
     
  14. Offline

    ccrama

    AdamQpzm If you read the entire thread, you would see that I was NOT trying to find a loophole. Rather, I was reviewing the legality of what many large server networks have in plan to bypass the EULA in 1.7.10+
     
  15. ccrama Sorry, that's what I meant to convey as the first sentence - regardless whether it's your loophole, or a large server's. I simply address it to you since you were the one making the thread :p
     
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