2011-12-29, 02:18
Update: Below you will find slightly updated rules based on the past week of conversation. Unless something dramatic happens, these rules will go into effect at 11PM, Eastern Standard Time on Friday, January 6th.
Hi forum users. Here's a note from your friendly neighborhood community manager. Up until now, we here at XBMC haven't really had a formal stance on how to deal with piracy discussion on the forum, other than to delete direct links to pirated content. Because we've decided that creates too much confusion for you, the user, we've decided to draft some more specific forum rules. While the decisions for how to police the forum ultimately lie with the admins and moderators, I wanted to give you users a chance to look through the proposed rules. If you have any useful suggestions or comments, feel free to list them below.
Our ultimate goal is to try to inhibit creativity as little as possible, while also being as morally respectful of the rights of content owners and creators as we can. So with that said, here are the proposed rules. We will let them stew for 24 to 48 hours. After that time, we will try to incorporate the best suggestions and revisions, and we'll go ahead and make them official.
XBMC's Official Forum Piracy Stance
1. All discussions dealing directly with or linking to add-ons, websites, or services that violate US copyright laws ("pirated content") will be closed when a forum moderator has been made aware of them. The original poster or add-on creator may provide a link to a website not hosted by XBMC for further discussion and inquiries.
2. Discussions for add-ons that link directly to pirated content and enables the user to access that content through the add-on will be shut down.
3. All links to pirated content will be removed.
4. "Pirated content" addons, websites, and services typically do not include the following (to be determined on a case-by-case basis if nessesary):
A. The add-on does not actually perform the act of accessing pirated content ("mistaken identitiy") [For example, Sickbeard, which performs no actual downloading or streaming.]
B. The add-on has the potential to access pirated content, but is potentially useful for downloading legal content as well. [For example, an add-on that downloads torrents is not, itself, a problem, since a torrent can cover a wide variety content, including legally distrubuted videos.]
C. The add-on links/accesses content in a similar way to a normal web browser. This is done under the assumption that if the content owner did not want the content streamed, the owner should have not made the content available to be streamed in their site. [For example, the Bluecop Repository.]
D. The add-on accesses content with permission of the content owner, the content is "copyleft" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft), or or the add-on accesses content without the clear disapproval of the content owner. XBMC will do its best to comply with DMCA-related takedown requests.
Thread originators or add-on developers may petition Forum Moderators to re-open a thread that was closed if he or she believes one of the above exceptions applies.
5. Fair use exceptions apply for issues such as small video samples for testing and debugging, fanart and related artwork, video and audio summaries, subtitles, etc.
6. These rules apply only to the forum. They do not apply to the XBMC Addon Repository. At no point will any user be prevented from using XBMC Media Center as they so choose, nor will they be prevented from adding additional Addons not in the XBMC Addon Repository or additional addon repositories.
Hi forum users. Here's a note from your friendly neighborhood community manager. Up until now, we here at XBMC haven't really had a formal stance on how to deal with piracy discussion on the forum, other than to delete direct links to pirated content. Because we've decided that creates too much confusion for you, the user, we've decided to draft some more specific forum rules. While the decisions for how to police the forum ultimately lie with the admins and moderators, I wanted to give you users a chance to look through the proposed rules. If you have any useful suggestions or comments, feel free to list them below.
Our ultimate goal is to try to inhibit creativity as little as possible, while also being as morally respectful of the rights of content owners and creators as we can. So with that said, here are the proposed rules. We will let them stew for 24 to 48 hours. After that time, we will try to incorporate the best suggestions and revisions, and we'll go ahead and make them official.
XBMC's Official Forum Piracy Stance
1. All discussions dealing directly with or linking to add-ons, websites, or services that violate US copyright laws ("pirated content") will be closed when a forum moderator has been made aware of them. The original poster or add-on creator may provide a link to a website not hosted by XBMC for further discussion and inquiries.
2. Discussions for add-ons that link directly to pirated content and enables the user to access that content through the add-on will be shut down.
3. All links to pirated content will be removed.
4. "Pirated content" addons, websites, and services typically do not include the following (to be determined on a case-by-case basis if nessesary):
A. The add-on does not actually perform the act of accessing pirated content ("mistaken identitiy") [For example, Sickbeard, which performs no actual downloading or streaming.]
B. The add-on has the potential to access pirated content, but is potentially useful for downloading legal content as well. [For example, an add-on that downloads torrents is not, itself, a problem, since a torrent can cover a wide variety content, including legally distrubuted videos.]
C. The add-on links/accesses content in a similar way to a normal web browser. This is done under the assumption that if the content owner did not want the content streamed, the owner should have not made the content available to be streamed in their site. [For example, the Bluecop Repository.]
D. The add-on accesses content with permission of the content owner, the content is "copyleft" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft), or or the add-on accesses content without the clear disapproval of the content owner. XBMC will do its best to comply with DMCA-related takedown requests.
Thread originators or add-on developers may petition Forum Moderators to re-open a thread that was closed if he or she believes one of the above exceptions applies.
5. Fair use exceptions apply for issues such as small video samples for testing and debugging, fanart and related artwork, video and audio summaries, subtitles, etc.
6. These rules apply only to the forum. They do not apply to the XBMC Addon Repository. At no point will any user be prevented from using XBMC Media Center as they so choose, nor will they be prevented from adding additional Addons not in the XBMC Addon Repository or additional addon repositories.
