This is all extremely disappointing and frustrating - it’s like your best friend turning out to be a massive jerk.
Be sure to let us know where you’ll be hosting your content.
I do absolutely loathe having to go back to keeping track of a million different little websites to find my favourite content again, but with flightsim.to continuing to alienate both creators and ‘content-enjoyers’ the end does not appear in sight yet. More creators will follow suit, no doubt
What a ridiculous reply from flightsim.to! It is an insult to doubt that your excellent work is copyright worthy. They certainly have no clue what they are talking about. I really wonder why they treat one of their best content creators like this. Unbelievable.
At least the theft has basically removed his file.
I hope you will find another place to share your great work.
Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. Keep up your great work.
original page: Is FlightSim.to defending copyright infringement? - Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) - The AVSIM Community
two gifs created by Tim
everything is summed up in a single image
they will seriously have to equip themselves with glasses at flightsim.to
Thanks. Every picture tells a story.
I received a another response from Flighstim.to. My only comment is I think they need to stop their lawyer writing their emails.
We understand that you have concerns regarding the alleged copyright infringement of your content on Flightsim.to. We appreciate your prompt response and want to assure you that we take such allegations seriously. Flightsim.to will disable access to copyright infringing content and notify the uploader of the content of the infringement. Our response may include blocking access to or removing allegedly infringing material and/or terminating accounts. Flightsim.to has always protected intellectual property of creators and we do process dozens of copyright infringement notices daily.
We have reviewed the link you provided, and while we cannot verify the allegations made by other content creators, we are committed to investigating the matter thoroughly. We encourage you to provide us with any evidence that you may have of the alleged copyright infringement.
Please note that, however, copying parts is not equal to copyright infringement as per copyright law. Copyright protection is a legal concept that provides the creator of an original work with exclusive rights to control the use of that work. Copyright protection generally applies to works that are original and creative. It does not apply to ideas, implementations of already created concepta or works that are based on fair-use doctrine. For example, you cannot use a third-party logo and claim that you have rights to this logo - any other user can also use the logo, even the exact same logo. In addition, some works may not meet the threshold of originality required for copyright protection. For example, works that consist solely of basic or functional elements, or have been based on other works, may not be eligible for copyright protection. While copyright protection applies to a wide range of creative works, not every work is eligible for copyright protection if it does not meet the threshold of originality.
At the time of reviewing your request, we could not find any copyright violation in the version of the file available on Flightsim.to. We have no access to the previous version of the file and law prohibits us to take action if the copyright infringement has already been removed from our platform - we consider the case closed if there is no violation online anymore. Nevertheless, we have a repeat infringer policy that allows us to terminate user accounts that repeatedly involve in copyright infringements. This is not the case here.
Criminal law is not to be equated with international copyright law. A qualified lawyer can certainly explain the differences and available options to you. We want to clarify that while we make every effort to protect our users’ intellectual property, but it is equally important to us that we do not unjustly delete works that do not constitute copyright infringement. In matters that are clear, the appropriate action will be taken to eliminate the copyright infringement, which we believe has been done here.
If you wish to challenge this decision, we require you to send a formal DMCA takedown complaint addressed to legal@flightsim.to. Our legal team will then look at the matter again. Please make sure to provide a notice that complies with all information required by the DMCA: Flightsim.to » DMCA Procedure. The DMCA requires that you swear to the facts in your copyright complaint under penalty of perjury. It is a federal crime to intentionally lie in a sworn declaration - see U.S. Code, Title 18, Section 1621. Submitting false information could also result in civil liability — that is, you could get sued for money damages. If the DMCA Takedown notice is valid, the file will be removed. We exercise little discretion in this process other than determining whether the notices meet the minimum requirements of the DMCA.
We would like to assure you that we value our association with you and regret that you have had a negative experience with our platform. We are committed to addressing your concerns and working with you to find a satisfactory resolution. Additionally, we have received your request to have your content removed from our platform and have processed it. This does affect your uploaded files on Flightsim.to which are no longer available to the public. If you wish to have all contents such as comments etc. removed, please delete your account by navigating to User Settings → Delete Account.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions or concerns.
Best Regards
Exquisite / Christoph from Flightsim.to
I won’t bore you with my full response but here are the highlights.
The community backlash on this matter from content creators who have skills like myself was swift, supportive, strong and universally negative to Flightsim.to. They and you had access to the same information. My concerns were real and recognised as such by my peers (who also create your content). I just don’t understand why you still can’t see that.
…
In recent times your reputation has taken a severe beating when you changed your terms and conditions without considering the people who create your content. To my great regret, many of those very talented people are never coming back. Now is the time to be putting out bushfires, not still playing with matches.
…
Your penultimate paragraph says that you are committed to working with me to find a satisfactory resolution. How?
I feel like I’m reading copy-pasted text when I read their last answer.
To believe that they do not livery to admit that there is indeed a flagrant concern for concordance of the lines between the two versions! I, who don’t do livery, noticed it at first glance thanks to Tim’s editing
It’s really bad faith.
Frankly Chris, have your beautiful creations hosted elsewhere
You spend too much energy talking with them, it seems hopeless.
I know I only have a dream… Make your own website and host all the great people who left flightsim.to. Iwould like to be the first customer…End of dream
Wow, so in the end, the nail drives a little deeper in over at FS.to. It is obvious to me that the paint was aped and modified. Anyone can see that. So, in the end, FS.to appears to be hell bent on destroying their site. And that hurts us all. Every day that goes by at my age, I have less and less faith in humanity. There are just too many idiots out there.
I had a similar thing happen to me back in the Strike Fighter days. I was a pretty good skinner back then too and helped create a Top-Gun campaign with another community member, where I painted something like 15 Aggressor A-4 Skyhawks. That work was distributed (with our permission) with a very reputable computer gaming magazine. All I asked for was a copy of the magazine with the accompanying mod we created on their CD that came with the rag.
Long story short, the guy I worked with on that went on to create/moderate a site named Combat Ace. We had a pretty good relationship. I uploaded an A-7D Corsair II in Ohio National Guard colors to his site for Strike Fighters. It was the blue camo one. Took me forever to do the camo. Several months later, I’m browsing (who I though was) my buddy’s site and there was my skin, with only different decals and tail markings applied. I reached out to him, and told him my work was uploaded without my consent. He did the same thing that is happening here. I can emphatically tell you, that was the immediate end to that relationship.
I just don’t understand people. And as in my case, I just don’t understand how FS.to can sit there and be so ignorant from a business perspective. So what if it is not (in their view) a complete copyright infringement, it is obvious your work was used and they could simply pull the offending file. The stupidity of responses just blows me away. I can say, after my subscription runs out on FS.To, I won’t be renewing. It was such a great place at first. What a shame for our hobby. And my faith is humanity is notched yet again. Seriously. People are just too stupid now days. Paralyzed with idiocy is what I call it.
From FS.to’s perspective, any news is good advertising (good or bad), and the number of downloads this and other authors who’ve left is miniscule compared to all that’s there, so, from a business perspective, this behavior will soon be forgotten across the whole usership of FS.to, and their business will not likely suffer.
It’s easy to forget how small the viewership is here compared to the user community as a whole.
I’m sorry about what happened to you, I understand how you feel, and I hope you find someplace else to share your work.
Flightsim.to’s final reply. As with all their other replies they keep telling me they are committed to supporting content creators, while their actions prove they are not.
Thank you for your prompt response and for sharing your concerns with us. We appreciate your feedback and want to assure you that we take your concerns seriously.
We understand that there has been a community backlash regarding the issue with our terms of service update. We acknowledge that the content creators on our platform play a crucial role in our success, and we are committed to supporting and protecting their intellectual property. Unfortunately, a lot of false information was spread and targeted fake news campaigns were carried out by individual users. However, I can assure you that this scattered information accusing us of criminal activity and criminal intentions is baseless and inappropriate. Flightsim.to has always worked with creators, be it before, after or during the Terms of Service change. I have no knowledge of a time when we have ever taken advantage of a single one of our creators or misappropriated, abused or otherwise disrespected their work.
Regarding your specific concerns about the alleged copying of your work, we understand that this is a serious matter and we want to assure you that we take all claims of copyright infringement seriously. If we discover that a file has been copied, we will take action if reasonable and appropriate. Basically, absent a formal legal complaint under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we would not have any obligation to act at all and could have ignored your request, but this is not our philosophy and we have always worked for and with creators. For example, we’ve also created guides on how creators watermark their work to help us track down rip-offs, already back in 2021: Copyright Protection: How to watermark your Add-Ons | Flightsim.to Help Desk
We’ve also helped creators remove their works that have been distributed on other websites, and to date have submitted approximately 500 requests on behalf of our creators to stop illegal distribution of their works on third-party websites. Nevertheless, as a platform-provider, we also have the obligation not to prematurely delete files that do not constitute copyright infringement. We receive dozens of requests every day, and while the majority are legitimate and we remove files behind the scenes without anyone seeing it, there are also requests that are insubstantial. For example, we can’t delete files just because another creator uses the same colors, or the same logo that’s freely available for download on the internet. We understand that creating liveries can be a time-consuming affair that requires a lot of diligence and effort. We would like nothing better than for the creator to receive their justified appreciation from the community - that’s why we founded Flightsim.to. You can be assured that we will review each case individually and if we determine that your copyrighted work is being distributed unlawfully, we will act accordingly.
We recognize when another user copies your liveries en masse and uploads them as their own liveries with only minor changes, and will act accordingly. I can understand your concerns that someone might use your work and present it as their own, but that is why you can always reach out to us to report such a case, and have it investigated. The user has already updated the file at the time of our review and we have only reviewed the most recent and currently only available version. It may be that if we had seen the previous version, we might well have removed the file. Flightsim.to is is just a platform for creators to showcase their work, we do not take sides. We don’t take sides at all and try to be as neutral as possible as a platform - we’re neither on your side nor on his side. To us, you are both equal creators, and each creator is equal to us.
We are committed to ensuring that our terms and conditions and policies are fair and equitable for all parties involved. We value the contributions of our content creators and are committed to protecting their interests. In terms of finding a satisfactory resolution to your concerns, we would be happy to work with you to remove infringing content, providing additional protections for your intellectual property, or exploring other options as needed. I linked you to an article above that describes how to put a watermark on your liveries. It would be a first step to make it easier for us to track down copyright infringements. Nevertheless, we would like to point out that, as already mentioned, not everything you create is automatically protected by copyright. Unfortunately, sometimes the legal situation may not be favorable to everyone’s liking. I think I still have your file on my computer at work. I will check the files again tomorrow against the reported files to see if they warrant suspension even though you have already deleted your files on Flightsim.to.
I can understand your concerns as a creator and I respect your decisions. Thank you again for your feedback and for your contributions up to date.
Best Regards
Exquisite / Christoph from Flightsim.to
You could be right about Flightsim.to. But I have noticed that many of the big uploaders of the past are not showing up in the daily uploads list. They haven’t removed their work, but haven’t added anything new either.
Oh, absolutely, a bunch of people have left. I was just saying they likely don’t really care from a business perspective. It hurts at the moment, but not a huge dent in their library. And, in the end, in a few months, people won’t notice what’s not there anymore.
I’m not saying you’re wrong for your actions in any way shape or form. Just stating what is likely their point of view. I’m sure they wish you won’t leave, but, at this point, I doubt very much they’ll change their practices.
I’ve noticed that too. Also get the impression updates have slowed down too
The people will notice what´s not there anymore. Because the quality has gone. It takes time, but I think people will notice.
Yes, I certainly have - and very little of what is uploaded there now is of any interest to me since I don’t own GSX or any PMDG stuff.
I usually stop by fs.to every couple days and check if any of my downloads have new updates. Anecdotally speaking, the last several weeks have had very few updates show up.
Am really rather annoyed and disappointed by the way Flightsim.to have behaved throughout this whole episode and I remember how the community got behind them when Captain Sim got on their high horse with regard to freeware repaints. The replies they have been given you are so impersonal and cold and don’t give the impression that they really care which saddens me. I am going to stop uploading any new content to them too and I hope a better website can be made that actually values the people that create the work that is so valuable. It’s a real shame as they had created a really nice site with some great ideas I just think they have gotten too big for their boots and maybe too interested in money
The Flightsim.com Library was founded in 1996 and is still going in a brand new format. The Avsim.com Library is almost as old, so is the Sim Outhouse Library. None of them have ever had the need to impose the legal requirements that FS.to have introduced, because they’re older and wiser.