That is not happening.
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Thereâs just a few problems with your message here:
You assume that âThey arenât trying to sell it. They arenât taking it modify it for their own use.â
Fair, they are not trying to sell it or modifying it for their own use, but since the subscription model got released at the same time, they technically are making money. Yes they are not selling freeware add-ons with a price tag where you purchase directly, but they are generating income thanks to the thousands of add-ons contributed. They are also not modifying add-ons for their use, but they did make the license agreement to protect their database of addons on which the subscription relies upon.
The terms leave the sole discretion to flightsim.to to remove a creator addon.
You are granting each other user of the Service a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, and royalty-free license to access, download and use your User Content through the Service.
We reserve the right to keep your User Content indefinitely and are not obligated to remove it or stop distributing it if you request so, in accordence with the licenses you have granted us described above.
The stealing people complained about (which i agree isnt very well worded - and some false statements exist out there too, im not defending those), is that work that cannot be deleted and now profits the platform. Some developers have mentioned that the money streams seen from addon sales in the store section of flightsim.to and the cut flightsim.to gets is plenty to get the site running, hence that rationale used. The site always made sure it was seen as âby the community and for the communityâ.
My issue with this whole license story is that addons are held hostage by the current license in place (Feb 19th 2023) and only flightsim.to can revoke the license under their terms.
We may permit the deletion of your User Content in our sole discretion. If we grant such deletion, the licences granted will termine once the User Content has been removed, except where you permitted the further use of User Content after your removal, or the law requires otherwise.
The current license allows flightsim.to to keep your content even if the license is revoked, which in that case feels closer to stealing.
If you decide to end this Agreement with us, to close or delete your User account, or if we discontinue your access to the Website, Flightsim.to will either archive your User Content, or, in Flightsim.to's sole discretion and based on its legitimate interest, transfer your User Content to an account set up by Flightsim.to if you decided to close or delete your User account. If your account is deleted, deactivated or suspended, this will not affect or terminate the licenses you have granted.
Flightsim.to should simply allow content owners to delete their content upon request (and a reasonable time limit to warn users and let them donwload before deletion) and have the ability to revoke their license and revoke any rights to the creator content with flightsim.to.
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Thank you for everyoneâs continued efforts in keeping this post civil while discussing the dispute at hand. Appreciate it!
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My understanding is that flightsim.to are currently actively addressing your concerns in a positive and constructive way and consulting with interested parties to create new and acceptable T&Câs
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I believe that it is not possible to consider the issue without looking at the Legal Context.
It is an issue, at heart, of excercising rights.
The developer retains sole copyright. The Hosting owner has ownership and complete rights to the Website. They can close it tomorrow and there would be no legal recourse. (for example).
By prohibiting the copyright owner from deleting his files, they infringe his ability to execise his copyright.
So I believe that this would be held to be unlawful.
However, the hosting owner can argue that giving the developer the right to delete files might endanger the security of the server.
BUT I have no doubt that it would be held that the owner must provide suitable arrangements both in time and execution so the copyright owner can withdraw his consent that the files continue to be hosted.
This raises the question â what is meant by âhostingâ?
I think it is generally accepted that hiding the files as proposed isnt removing them from hosting.
Although I kinda understand where Flightsim.To are coming from, I believe that in this, by stopping the copyright owner from execising his rights, they are on the wrong side of the arguement.
The most appropriate way out of this could be that posting files on the site isnt for ever and that the files, if not renewed after a certain time will automatically be removed.
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This whole issue changes by the hour. Flightsim.to has an updated proposed TOS. In that, they state that if a developer requests their files be removed, that there will be a waiting period before the deletion is done. 30 days if the content is a library (giving those other developers that use the library time to make adjustments), popular downloads 14 days, and 7 days for others. That gives users the ability to download before it is removed (or perhaps archived). In this, flightsim.to is not keeping the content forever, they are just giving users and other content developers that depend on that content the ability to make whatever adjustments they need to. I think that is fair. If I have a large amount of money in the bank, and I go to withdraw it all, most banks have a waiting period to acquire the funds and not have the bank short on cash for the day for other customers. It is still your money, its just the bank is making sure that its removal doesnât adversely effect its other customers.
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That was already written yesterday, as I read in their statement that @AviatorDown8227 here reposted.
It sounds very reasonable. And if that was the only âissueâ I canât see that there can really be a better outcome.
The question is, is it too late for all the devs that have already reacted and made their decision, to turn around and go back. Does it come down to principals and the initial bad communication⊠plus the fear that they might once again change the terms in future (we canât live in fear of what might be). I hope there is some light at the end of the tunnel 
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Probably not, but if it is, oh well. Others will fill the void, or they could start new.
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for some it is to late, gotfriends for example has stated on another board that they have severed all commercial connectins to flightsim.to and for example also the freeware hornet by dc-designs is also deleted, as well as a multiple payware aircraft not being available anymore and I cant see payware developers who have just in anger terminated a contract just relist their payware stuff, both from a pr perspective but also from a legal perspective
But I hate to say it, every freeware addon that is not on fs.to is dead for me, I just cant go back to the fsx times where you searched 20 sites with no update notice for updates of you addons and had to keep folders full of bookmarks up to date with what you had downloaded and not yet deleted so you even had a chance to check your freeware addons for updates
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Which is quite disamusing actually. I bought 2 GotFriends addons from flightsim.to which now I canât download from flightsim.to anymore, and I have no idea how it is I even show that I have purchased a license anymore. So they have done nothing but hurt me as a user and consumer of their products.
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Have you tried? Their (GF) statement said they would continue to send updates for their Payware bought on fs.to. I have literally every one of their paid products bought there, and the Wilga direct from their new website.
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Though as has been discussed earlier in this thread they are making money to help pay for a website that must cost a phenomenal amount of money to run and host. The amount of data flightsim.to must be munching its way through on a daily basis doesnât bare thinking about. Also, again as has been mentioned before, its a very well put together and run website that must take a lot of time and skill to maintain and keep developing. Are we as the flight sim community all realistically saying that should just be done for free?
As a scenery content creator myself I absolutely donât get the impression the folks that run flightsim.to are somehow massively profiting off my free scenery creations. Because basically thats what the gist of this seems to be about for some people. Its a slightly strange and certainly unrealistic way to look at it I think.
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My new monster PC comes tomorrow. How do I even download the products anymore. I bought I believe the Discus and the Edgely. I donât have a GotFriends account. How do I go onto their site and download the products I purchased on flightsim.to? The update process if it is on your machine probably recognizes it is there, but how do you initially download it again with no account?
No it is not.
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It will still be in your My Purchases section in .to if you bought them there. As I understand it!
And itâs just a folder you unzip. If you still have access to your current (old) PC, just copy everything you want onto a USB drive (all your other freeware too) and transfer it to the new one tomorrow.
I have a 4tb USB-C drive where I keep all downloaded Zips as backup (all versions of everything Iâve ever downloaded - free or paid). For ÂŁ100 itâs worth it!
Definitely not, and the money is not the issue here.
The problem is that Flightsim.to does not allow creators to delete files, and even if deleted, Flightsim.to keeps a full license to the content. I do believe these terms were made as part of Flightsim.toâs upcoming and now released subscription, to retain control over their content. If creators leave the platform, the whole value of the subscription dies with it.
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I agree, dilution will not help the end-users of the community, especially with the interconnect between multiplayer and modding. Itâll be rough to say to a group of fliers âokay, go get this airplane from this site, that airplane from that, etcâ to make sure weâre all model matched.
âŠbut theyâve said they WILL delete files on request. After a maximum of a month.
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But there is a good reason for them not allowing people to delete files as and when they like. Deleting libraries wrecks other peoples sceneries. It does seem like a rule thats for the good of the community rather than FS.to simply wanting to steal content, which is what some people seem to be interpreting it as.
Why would anyone want to delete libraries anyway? If someone has put them up there for general use then they should just leave them up there.
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Translated: We are watching this thread very carefully! 
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