The Fansite Way

[AgnesIO]

This Forum counts...

Uh oh.

This is starting to look like a bribe... habbo Graphics are copyrighted by them, they can kick up a fuss about it. If some other organisation is making money, and they don't like it, they can just say 'well you can't use our graphics then!'.

Habbo are the ones who rip everyone off to charge them for creds, and then they stop others from making money from the sites? Like someone else said, how on Earth are they supposed to run the site without VIP payment?

I'm pretty sure they'd somehow stop us from doing that too. Come on, it's Habbo. Home of the lamest excuses on the planet.

I think this is ridiculous.

We could just use graphics that graphic designers have made... Yhen say the avatars were made my the graphic designers..

I am aware DJ-Dominator first posted about this. I just made this thread to discuss the solution. If you want to discuss the actual news go to his thread. If you're here to discuss the solution post here.

The new Fansite Rules have been posted. To see them click here. The rules have declared that Habbox Forum are not allowed to:I know several of you will think that this does not apply to this Forum since it's not a Fan Site. However, the rules also said that:

This now means that the Fansite Way applies to any unofficial site (By that I mean any site not run by the Habbo Staff).

So what's the solution? If this really does mean the Forum can no longer charge for premium service, there are a few obvious ways to solve this.

I did not think of all these ideas - I've seen ideas mentioned by many other members. I take no credit for the solutions, I'm just putting them together. Sorry i can't give the source, there's too many.

1. Ask habbo if the Forum VIP is an exception since it is not a fan site. (As I've explained, it appears that it doesn't but we might as well ask).

2. As one member suggested, we could change the 'VIP' access to 'Donators' access, and they get 'extras' for donating. (This however would still come under 'premium services').

3. Remove and ban all Habbo graphics from the forum - This would just defy the whole point of having a Habbo Forum.

4. Ignore the Fansite Way

5. Give up and remove VIP access. But then the people who run the forum have no way of maintaining it if they don't get any money.

6. Bombard the Staff with complaints until they give in.

7. Cry

As you can see, the solutions in red are undesirable, and would either ruin the forum or result in mass banning.

Please discuss any other ways of bypassing this tricky problem.

I amaware that you are advertising another thread in my thread

It still comes under 'premium services' if the donators get extras.

No. It could be 'If you donate you might get a few cool features!'

UGH What the hell? The whole point was to discuss the solutions, not the actual rules. Ugh I just wasted so much time. I wish people actually read what I said, instead of just moving it to some irrelevant thread.

*Removed*

I'm sure Habbox would never let it get to a legal stage especially as Habbox doesn't even have a legal team. If Habbox were at any stage threatened to be prosecuted by Sulake I'm sure they'd meet their demands or work round it, they wouldn't be stupid enough to take them on.

I wouldn't get all excited about having a HabboxForum vs Sulake high court case, it would never happen, none of this legal stuff would ever pursue.

I would be quite interested, to see habbo take on a group of kids, waste there money, just to get us to close

----

If it DID get extreme we could just completely change the name iof the fporum n stuff.

I mean most users would still come to us even if it was non-habbo.

Perhaps call it:

Gamerxforum.com

Then we could still have habbo sub forums, but habbo could do nothnig about it..

Edited by ,Jess, (Forum Super Moderator): Please do not be rude towards other forum members.

[Jongo]

Couldn't you just ask Habbo what needs to be done instead of presuming it?

[Holofoil]

No. It could be 'If you donate you might get a few cool features!'

Exactly? Any feature which is given to a member, having payed a sum of money, will be considered premium service.

We could just use graphics that graphic designers have made... Yhen say the avatars were made my the graphic designers..

Even so, say goodbye to screenshots, rare value reports with images, signatures, etc.


My long post was originally a thread, which was merged. Use your brain. Oh wait.

[samsaBEAR]

Straight up, I don't think they care that much. Habbo Staff have and did use our site. I am 99.99% sure that they know that we have VIP Access. I could be wrong but additionally we were vetted when we were going official. I think we may be misinterpreting the rule or they may just not be enforcing it. However I am hard pressed to believe that in the four years Habbox has been operating staff have not become aware of the fact that we offer VIP.

Yes, the new rules only came out recently (they were out when Habbox was first contacted about being official, about a month before we were made official I think) and I know that because I saw it then. But they must know.

As far as what they can do, they could take us down for having the images, however we could simply come back up sans-images, with only content and makeshift images in the meantime, while we figured out what to do and perhaps new graphics to make. I doubt we would be forced to change our name, because you can't copyright every extension of a name.

The reason they hold this unfair domineering hold is their graphics. They tie us in with their graphics and then lord copyright infringement over us and give us a set of rules to obey. However the "cannot charge thing", if it ever got to a legal stage (which it won't) could be argued as making an unfair monopoly, and the Microsoft case from many moons ago would be a fair precedent.

Still, we will probably contact Habbo to see what the deal is with that rule.

i think we are misinterpreting it, now that ive thought about it more.
i reckon what it means is charging people to access the normal site. like making people pay to view the content, and it's just worded differently. which habbox doesn't do obviously.

[GommeInc]

i think we are misinterpreting it, now that ive thought about it more.
i reckon what it means is charging people to access the normal site. like making people pay to view the content, and it's just worded differently. which habbox doesn't do obviously.

Charge users for premium services such as VIP access.

I seriously doubt you can misinterpret that... Habbox sells VIP, that's your lot. HabboxForum is a Habbo Fansite, with images and the words "Habbo" plastered about, so it clearly falls into the fansite catagory. If there was only 1 forum, or 1 catagory for Habbo, then it'll be different, but the main subject for the forum is Habbo. The forum offers VIP, which is a premium services (read the sentence, it's one of these ones where you get the main point at the end, and have to drop back to the central point to understand it). Read the sentence like this:

Charge users for VIP access to premium services.

They cannot be suggesting VIP access to Habbo, how would that work?

[Moh]

Easy Way around this:
Say your not a fansite for Habbo UK, but your a fansite for Habbo USA.

Habbo USA actually think of the users, not making money.

Since these rules aren't posted on Habbo USA, and your a fansite for Habbo USA, you have no way of knowing these rules.

[Favourtism]

they loose official status already then lol ^

plus they do uk values

[Mrs.McCall]

Easy Way around this:
Say your not a fansite for Habbo UK, but your a fansite for Habbo USA.

Habbo USA actually think of the users, not making money.

Since these rules aren't posted on Habbo USA, and your a fansite for Habbo USA, you have no way of knowing these rules.

But by posting Habbo UK news etc it'd still be classed as a UK fansite.

[Moh]

tbh, Im going to be contacting our Fansite Director for Habbo USA to contact hight management about these rules.

[Neil]

No they can't, no images have copyright acts on them.

All habbo could say is:

'Habbox are not paying us, to make money.'

Every image from Habbo is copyrighted, they own the images and if you're using the images without permission then you will be breaking the law and that is something that Sulake can do, if your mum is a lawyer she should know a business is right if they have copyright and Sulake will obviously put copyright on anything they publish because they own it and don't want it to be stolen