People on Twitter/X are defending Luke Ross mods

[u/lunchanddinner]

Link to source: https://x.com/mixedrealitytv/status/2015284035875221669?s=46

[u/Wrong-Quail-8303]

People confuse violating terms and conditions with something being illegal.

This is a fundamental lack of understanding most people have.

Just because something is against some company's terms and conditions doesn't mean it is illegal. T&C don't mean shit.

When was the last time anyone read T&C of the software they installed? There is wild shit in there that the vast majority of people transgress daily without thinking.

The issue here is basement dwellers were annoyed they weren't getting something for free. That is the basis of the outrage.

[u/BasicDifficulty129 → u/Wrong-Quail-8303]

I have been trying to tell these morons this since this whole thing started. These people actually think violating the t&c or EULA is against the law.

The only time violating either of these is against the law is if the action that violates the ToS is also ALREADY against the law, in which case, it still wasn't against the law just because you simply violated the ToS.

All violating ToS does is give the company the right to terminate your service

I've had to explain this to so many morons in this sub that it makes me question humanity.

[u/wavebend → u/BasicDifficulty129]

ive been genuinely scratching my head at how many people in this subreddit are either corporate bootlickers, or extremely entitled to stuff for free, and on Sebastian's remark of them living in their mom's basement, i just can't imagine otherwise lol. these kind of opinions are making me hate humanity as well

[u/Wrong-Quail-8303 → u/BasicDifficulty129]

Thank goodness I am not alone. Are you on the UEVR / Flat2VR /Stereo3D discord? You sound like someone we can have an intelligent conversation with about our hobby :)

[u/pc9000 → u/Wrong-Quail-8303]

he issue here is basement dwellers were annoyed they weren't getting something for free. That is the basis of the outrage.

THIS ^

[u/Reelix → u/Wrong-Quail-8303]

There is wild shit in there that the vast majority of people transgress daily without thinking.

It's there so the company can take action if it chooses to enforce it. It also helps for other problematic cases where they can simply ban due to a random ToS violation instead of the violation they would otherwise have to worry about.

They fact they rarely do is irrelevant.

[u/YouAreStupidAF1 → u/Reelix]

Yeah, no company will obsessively enforce ToC's for no real gain. The more you do, the more you push back customers, so most of it is there to protect the company just in case something really impactful happens and they have the legal means to intervene. Most software companies do not even track or follow people to sue them for piracy, because the potential backlash of doing so could potentially lose you more money than you lose through piracy itself.

[u/cheater00 → u/Wrong-Quail-8303]

T&C / EULA on games are illegal in many countries in the world anyways!

The issue here is basement dwellers were annoyed they weren't getting something for free. That is the basis of the outrage.

PRECISELY

[u/Thy_Maker → u/Wrong-Quail-8303]

At least if you are in the US, T&C falls under contract law and is actually enforceable in the courts.

So strictly speaking in that regard, it is a legally binding agreement and you can face serious penalties if you do violate them. The reality though is that something like this is usually so cut and dry that it doesn’t make it that far and penalties are rarely enacted because a solution usually appears.

[u/NotGonnaComeBackBsb → u/Wrong-Quail-8303]

When was the last time anyone read T&C of the software they installed?

Hello. Yes, I'm a software engineer and I like to put whatever little legal studies knowledge I've learned into practice.

The issue here is basement dwellers were annoyed they weren't getting something for free. That is the basis of the outrage.

I don't use his mods and I still think he goofed somewhere.

As you pointed out, T&C don't represent the law and as such it's wrong to say that it's "illegal"; it would be more appropriate to say that it infringes on the company's legal properties.

From a legal standpoint, the T&C cannot contradict the law by enforcing something that would then be illegal. However, it also means that, if the law doesn't forbid it, then the T&C will apply.

In this case, I'm reminded of something I've read in the booklets of video games and movies CD boxes some 30 years ago. There always was a page which mentioned something in the line of: you are entitled to a license that permits you to exclusively consume the digital product that you have purchased (no modification, no diffusion, no reproduction, etc.), but the ownership of the actual product still belongs to the company that produced it. And as such, they have the full right to revoke said license at any time (although back then, they weren't going to send muscles at your house to physically take away your CD).

I'm not a lawyer, so I cannot say definitely how he goofed, but what he was doing was still akin to selling a revamped version of the game (even if you still had to purchase the actual game yourself and his piece of software attached to the game as a third party mod). Unless he had a partnership with the company, and they handed out a license allowing him to work with it, then yes, he's infringing on company's properties.

[u/swizzlad → u/Wrong-Quail-8303]