Sulake cracking down on VIP

[Jordy]

Thats pathetic.

Sulake/Habbo can not legally stop people from giving money to fansites. Its just not allowed.


If habbox is going to look for a route of conservatism but want to keep VIP then I would suggest maybe an alternate way of conacting staff in control of giving VIP to users (possibly through an external site not linked to Habbo in ANY way) and then user's would pay a fee there. The payment would be recorded on the site automatically and would alert the VIP-Staff to give the user VIP on the forum.

As the VIP staff act as a 'middle-man' then nothing can really be done as they are just working on two seperate sites.


However, if Habbox arent going to budge on this then im sure all users would be behind them 100% even if it means changing to a new domain and remove all links to Habbo.


If Habbo think this rule can just be instated without any change in fansites then they are very wrong. Fansites will either change or disband due to lack of funds.

The point is Sulake currently own copyright to Habbo Hotel and all their images, at their request they can get them to be removed for any reason.

I would try contacting the media very soon yes, the sooner the better. I wouldn't try Watchdog though it doesn't seem the right thing for them.

To be fair I think if so much of you have a problem with it, perhaps you should buy VIP? I was hoping I wouldn't need to say that but how can people moan about it when they don't support HabboxForum fianicially anyway.

I think it will have a slight affect on Habbo but if you get the UK Office or Press on your side you have a good case. I'm quite confident though this will only be a problem to ClubHabbo or Habbox though because if any other fansites do it they'll be so small they'll be over-looked.

[Supersam]

Problem with that though, is HabboxForum will have to get rid of Habbo News, Habbo Alterations, Trading Forums and any direct links to Habbox.com - because Habbox is affiliated with Habbo, it is official and uses their images so any thing like www.habbox.com in links, even if it has a name like "Official Fansite" and links to "habbox.com" would have to be scrapped.

This is what SkaterChu dragged up:




You can't call it donating when you get charged £1 and get VIP in return. You'll have to donate and get nothing in return to call it donating.

The Habbo discussion wont have to cease. Habbo cannot stop the discussion of their site on forums.

And donating doesn't have to be selfless... if Habbox wish to return the generousity of members then they should be able to.

[JackHb]

Habbox should do a big campaign with every other fansite, get big banners on the websites and forums getting people to e-mail sulake or a ceartin media etc complaining, otherwise if they dont there is chance of closure.

[GommeInc]

I meant - On Habbox.com don't they have a thing where you can use Paypal to donate to habbox?
Or is this only at christmas? :S

Ooo, you've discovered a possible loop hole Allow donations on Habbox.com, and award the member on HxForum.com with VIP (obvs a made up name for now). Technically you're getting a small reward from another source on another site, which is technically avoiding going against donations But the forum will have to be owned by someone else, the domain and the license. I believe that's how it works at least... I read something like that somewhere

The Habbo discussion wont have to cease. Habbo cannot stop the discussion of their site on forums.

And donating doesn't have to be selfless... if Habbox wish to return the generousity of members then they should be able to.

True, but you can't have permanent forums, especially like HabboxForum has now with Habbo Trade forums, alt forums, and news forums. It will look like a fansite and will come under a fansite. They would all have to be removed or put into one catagory and make the forum look like a gaming chat forum if anything.

Habbox will have to give everyone VIP, when they donate money, to avoid arguments. In doing that, it's not a donation, it's buying VIP. It's an exchange, not a donation

[Tintinnabulate]

Maybe its worth considering servers run from the backstreets of some lawless dump of a country where habbo's only chance of getting anything removed is if they can get the isp's in the uk etc to ban habbox.com (i am sure gordon brown would sanction terrorist laws for sulake for a small donation)

Hong Kong =]

[Favourtism]

If they just said Donations and then gave a special usergroup to Donators but don't sa you will or put "WE MIGHT GIVE VIP TO SOME DONATORS" but give to them all :p

[Jordy]

Hong Kong =]

Gordon Brown would struggle to sanction the People's Republic of China because they host some forums.

[GommeInc]

If they just said Donations and then gave a special usergroup to Donators but don't sa you will or put "WE MIGHT GIVE VIP TO SOME DONATORS" but give to them all :p

That would be crafty, but knowing Habbo they will complain about that. They seemed to of complained and even banned a member who used this forum when they made a remark about Lost_Witness (or someone in the offices at least).

[FlyingJesus]

Ok darlings, I'm here to save the day.
Sulake clearly think they're just messing with kids who want to earn a few bob from running a fansite, but scare tactics don't get around my skills and truths :8

Take the risk? Sure. The site would then be closed as we are using habbo images.

Incorrect. Sulake own the copyright to the images, yes, but copyrighted images can still be displayed by those other than the holders as long as credit is given. Think about the multitude of Runescape, WoW, Final Fantasy, Pokémon and every other type of fansite around - all you have to do is have a footnote saying "images copyright Sulake.ltd" etc etc

I think Habbox should get legal advice, because I don't think it's right to be expected to run a site without any financial help. The money that it costs owners to run sites is quite a bit of money and the owners do not make a profit, while it's a very tiny splash in the ocean to the likes of Sulake, who make millions.

No need darling, we have a free genius

I'm afraid no matter what work around you think of, if you are are reciving money and users are reciving something in return, Habbo will take legal action against you.

Again, if you give credit to Sulake for any images you have on your site you'll be fine. Receiving money for something that's actually illegal such as a retro/backwards engineered client would leave you extremely open to legal action, but images and names don't fall under that. I've got no love for your site specifically but I don't think anyone (let alone someone who has actually done fairly well with their site as opposed to a 10 year old with a web domain) to get pushed under by this.

They cant stop anybody mentioning habbo :s a newspaper writes a bad article on habbo but are not allowed to use the word habbo? haha

Truth. They can't make us change our name any more than they can force images off our site if we give proper credit. Copyright on something simply means that no-one else can claim ownership or creation of it, it doesn't mean no-one else can so much as say something.

UkchaserAl said that no service what-so-ever can be given in return for a donation otherwise it would be considered breaking the Habbo Way.

..And so we come to my final piece for now. Sit back ladies and gentlemen as a simple yet entirely legal loophole is mentioned to you.
"Donations" whereby each person will get extras does count as selling a service - this is the same anywhere you go. However, a competition with a cost to enter is not the same thing.

Here's a little story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down: at a school fayre when I was young, I was told of the wonders of the beer tent. Of course, I couldn't go in, but it was pure genius that I learned that day. Being a children's event and not having an alcohol license, they could not legally sell beers, so a "raffle" was set up whereby anyone with a ticket ending in 5 or 0 would "win" a beer. Of course, every ticket ended in a 5 or 0, and because alcohol can indeed be given as a gift or prize to anyone over 18, it was entirely legal.

If worst comes to worst and we are forced to remove VIP, we can implement this in its stead without any legal worries. Sell competition tickets with a prize of VIP priviledges and make it so that each ticket wins. It's not illegal to set your own competition rules, and if people still want to see that as selling a service, a seperate domain for it could be set up (not directly affiliated with Hx of course) whereby THEY sell tickets to an online competition, the prize being HxF VIP.

[Yonder]

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