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CCP Dev Blog: Client modification, the EULA and you

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lax

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Post Thu Apr 18, 2013 12:12 pm

CCP Dev Blog: Client modification, the EULA and you

Today CCP has issued the following dev blog update: Client modification, the EULA and you

I've been asked by an ISBoxer user to interpret it, as he thought -- incorrectly -- that the dev blog implied that ISBoxer would no longer be allowed in EVE Online. I encourage you to read the post yourself, that's why I linked it, so you don't have to just take my interpretation...

Here's the skinny: They are reiterating everything that has been stated before about multiboxing, both by myself and CCP, including portions of their EULA, and they are explicitly warning people not to hack the game client. Hacking the game client is never okay and is definitely against the EULA and you should expect to get banned if you're hacking the game client; ISBoxer does not hack the game client (that has never changed and will never change).

So here's the most important part as it applies to ISBoxer:
This extends to multiboxing software. Some of the multiboxing software out there is powerful enough to count as “client modification” if used for that purpose. Our stance on third-party software is that we do not endorse such software as we have no control over what it does. As such, we can’t say that multiboxing software isn’t against our EULA. But the same goes in this case, that unless we determine that people are doing things beyond “multiboxing”, we will not be taking any action. We only care about the instances where people are messing with our process for the purposes of cheating, and running multiple clients at the same time is not in violation of our EULA in and of itself unless it involves trial accounts.


So first of all, as is expected from game publishers, they have to state that they have absolutely no control over any third-party software (including ISBoxer) and therefore cannot endorse or promote it, or specifically tell you that the software does not violate the EULA. They can't do that because, from their point of view, whether it is against the EULA or not could change at any time and without notice to CCP. (But, we have always done our best to stay within the rules and will continue to do so! And, sometimes the details of how ISBoxer actually works are lost on people and they genuinely have no idea.) So that's fine, and nothing new -- standard disclaimer.

The important part is that as far as banning people goes, "unless we determine that people are doing things beyond “multiboxing”, we will not be taking any action. We only care about the instances where people are messing with [the running game] for the purposes of cheating, and running multiple clients at the same time is not in violation of our EULA in and of itself unless it involves trial accounts". Note that ISBoxer purposefully does not sandbox EVE's trial accounts (and has never).

So, to be clear, standard ISBoxer usage is not cheating, but if you go looking for hacks (such as one they mention in the dev blog) or try to exploit EVE trial accounts, or other illicit activity that we all know is against the rules, then you should expect trouble. And, as stated by CCP, this is effective regardless of whether some guy with his infinite wisdom believes that ISBoxer *must* be violating the EULA because it *looks scary*.


TL;DR: "Our policy on ISBoxer has not changed in a long time."

Multibox away, my friends! And as always, Be a Good Citizen!
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lax

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Post Wed May 22, 2013 11:59 am

Re: CCP Dev Blog: Client modification, the EULA and you

GM Lelouch posted a fresh response (with nothing particularly new, but a clear re-iteration) on this topic today:
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=3069125#post3069125 (emphasis and links are from the original post)
Hello ya'll, hope you're having a good day.

CCP Stillman recently wrote a dev blog about client modifications and our stance towards them. The dev blog also touched on the subject of third-party programs and I feel it is very relevant to the discussion in this thread. I encourage those of you who haven't read it to give it a look, this blog actually makes for great coffeetable reading and those of you who've already indulged may even want to print out your very own copy to share with friends and family!

Multiboxing is not inherently in violation of our EULA, a player is not breaking the EVE game rules by virtue of simultaneously operating multiple accounts alone. Multiboxing software can however be in violation of the EULA.

CCP can and will not officially endorse or condone specific pieces of third-party software and ISBoxer is no exception to this. I will make this very clear: CCP does not officially endorse ISBoxer or any other multiboxing software. Use of third-party programs is, as outlined in Stillman's blog, done entirely at your own risk and we'll quite simply not be able to state outright that this software or that software can be legitimately used under the EVE EULA since they are after all third-party programs.

Let us make an example to illustrate why:

'Hypothetical Software v1.0' is released to the joy of all and is eventually endorsed by CCP as a fine supplement to EVE; the program is officially declared to not be in violation of the EVE EULA/ToS. Some weeks later, the developers of 'Hypothetical Software' releases an update, version 1.1, an update which adds macro mining functionality to the program's existing features. Automating the mining portion of the game is obviously in violation of the EVE EULA so use of 'Hypothetical Software' would suddenly become a EULA violation despite prior endorsement by CCP.

There are a lot of great third-party developers creating fantastic tools to supplement the EVE experience and this is all fine and dandy. As EVE grows, so does the amount of third-party programs developed for EVE and we cannot realistically review and condone these tools on an individual basis and use of such programs is therefore done at your own risk.

We can prohibit and warn against the use of software which we know without a doubt to contain components which violate the EULA. Any program which enables the Autopilot to 0 client modification falls under this for example: if you use a piece of software which enables you to autopilot to 0, you can expect a permanent suspension of your account as you are in gross violation of the EULA.

In addition to CCP Stillman's blog which I linked at the top of this post, I'd also like to bring your attention to the following page which outlines our official policy on third-party programs:
Third-party policies

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