I hope most of you already saw this on Tumblr, I however didn't see any thread about this here, while I was quite shocked about it.
There seems to be a site, sims4forum , that steals free CC for the Sims 4 and asks people to pay for it. What shocked me a bit, is that they just copy paste stuff from MTS. Quite a lot in fact. They don't seem to take down the downloads on request of the original creator and ask quite some money for a piece of stolen cc.
So I would ask you, please do not pay this site! And if you are a creator, check whether your creations have been stolen too, because they clearly don't give a *** about policies.

PS. this is my first thread, so I hope I did everything right. Just wanted to warn you guys.

With the amount of awesome creations on this site and of course in the Maxis Catalogue, I can't imagine anybody would think of paying for something like that!

Sadly, some people do pay...

There's an old saying, "you get what you pay for". It took me a long time (I was 38) to learn that indeed many people would rather pay for something than get it for free.

Even though I don't agree with the whole, "I'll just take this and put in on my site without permission of any kind." thing, it would appear that the bulk is free if you are registered (otherwise you can't download at all) with a 'wait' time (don't know how long?) unless it is adult content in which case there is a (I think) monthly membership fee of about $5.99.

Some people wanting the naughty stuff and not being able to find it elsewhere would probably be the type to pay I imagine? I'll give it a wide birth however, you only need to look hard or ask questions.

Free or not, if it's without the permission of the copyright owner, it's actually illegal.

I'm not fond of the DMCA because they often force the takedown of information which I disagree with, but in this case I think the DMCA could be used for good.

CC owners who find their stuff stolen and posted on that site without permission might want to look into ways to send a DMCA takedown notice.

I looked at one of the mod posts. They do give credit to the original creator at mts.

The question isn't whether they give credit -- although it IS commendable of them to -- but whether they have permission. Personally I release all my stuff (FO3/NV/Skyrim, I don't mod much TS) into the public domain, so everyone can do whatever they wish with it, but most other people don't. And unless they specify some different license, by default they own the copyright to their work, which is to say, they're the only ones who can make copies or authorize that. While uploading it to a downloads site can be construed as granting it the right to distribute it, that doesn't mean it's fair game for everyone else too.

This issue was mentioned by Shimrod101 in an earlier thread, he/she didn't even know they were there. Crediting the creator and then require people to pay for it is only ok if the creator has said ok you can do so. Who would say it's ok to earn money on my creations and you don't need to pay me anything to do so?

Probably anyone who is already visiting this site won't be too likely to fall for paying for stuff like what's posted on here even if they don't know whether something has actually been stolen or not. That scam is probably catching some new comers who don't know any better.... Or at least I would never pay for a piece of fan made CC or a mod for this game and if for some reason I stumbled across something I wanted that required me to pay for it i'd definitely be looking to see where I could get it for free.

Just for giggles I ran a quick domain search on it

WHOIS information for sims4forum.com:**

[Querying whois.verisign-grs.com]
[Redirected to whois.godaddy.com]
[Querying whois.godaddy.com]
[whois.godaddy.com]
Domain Name: SIMS4FORUM.COM
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Registrant Name: Chris Mayberry
Registrant Organization:
Name Server: NS1.BLUEHOST.COM
Name Server: NS2.BLUEHOST.COM

DNSSEC: unsigned

For complete domain details go to:
http://who.godaddy.com/whoischeck.a...=SIMS4FORUM.COM

Pretty detestable behavior to take items that innovative , talented , hardworking and generous creators make , and share , for free , for the general enjoyment of the simming community and "appropriate" these items ( which aren't their creations) for their monetary gain.

Which isn't a smart move on their part as its akin to saying "hey. pay for our product even though you can get it for free over at this other site by the original creator"

Considering all the people asking me where the file is I'm not sure I agree. It might give a shiney surface "see we have everything in order", and then they can't find the file

I'm not really keeping up with TS4 news- not much point, as I don't have the game. I heard about this though in a chat thread on the Off-Topic Discussion forums. I just checked out the mods that are there, and I recognize a few from over here. The "Babies for everyone", "Realistic Bills", "No Friendship/Romantic Decay", "Build Buy mode Unlocker"...need I name anymore?
However one or two of them say "@MTS" which stands for Mod The Sims. Only two, I think. Even if you are giving credits, did they get permission first? I don't think so.
And you have to login or register. Ugh, I hate it when you have to do that!
I'm not sure about the CC as I didn't check out any CC here or on that website yet. Anyway, bottom line is that I disapprove.

This is still going on! Way back when I had Sims2Noir website I was fighting against people who would steal my free content and sell it. That battle consumed a lot of my time. So I closed my site, and I guess I assumed people had given up. But I guess there are always some people who will steal, and others who like to pay for stuff others are getting for free. I think it is a losing battle. In this case, the forces of evil seem to win.

More info (if indeed we are allowed to say...)

<snip>

Hey, could've sworn he came from Scotland. Also, how do you know all that? Do we have a FBI agent in our midst?

I just kept on reading the Whois info that Mookie posted. Looking at the site, there is a person claiming to have created the TwistedMexi mods.

i've just looked at the site
and i have also seen mods from mts
do you have to be a registered member to see the prices of the mod?

Well, I think that adult content has to be paid for. At least, that's what it says at the site, I think.

Posting someone's address online, regardless of what they've done or the ability to find it elsewhere is in poor taste.

Isn't this just Pandora sims with a different name. I'm sure the owner of Pandora Sims is called Chris as well, and it sounds like the same thing, charging money for stolen cc and adult items as well.
Pandora sims has been pulling the same trick since TS1 through all the main versions of the series and they also had a pack they were selling for TSM, all the stuff was taken from MTS for that pack too.
I think it might be the same people involved with the 'Sims 4 Forum'.

I registered there out of curiosity. The download I picked was free, so that much is.. fine. What isn't fine is that they're hosting the files. And it's without permission, which is definitely not fine. I've found my stuff on sites similar to that one before and didn't bother complaining. Why? Because the sites I found my stuff on didn't host the files. Their download link led to the actual download. I don't mind that. This site though, they can stick it where the sun don't shine.

The TS4 EULA is worded differently than the TS3 EULA and it's hard to tell if the actual copyright stuff still applies.. but the TS3 EULA says that creations shared through the official site/through the software becomes the property of EA and they can do whatever they want with it. So can anyone who downloads it. If someone didn't share their stuff through the official site- they retain the copyright over it and have the right to say what's done with it. If that still applies to TS4 then any creator who finds their stuff on that site has every right to tell them to take it down. BUT- if they've shared it on the official site/through the software (gallery) then they'd be out of luck since it wouldn't belong to them anymore.

None of my stuff (a whole 3 things, lol) is on the site. But if the copyright stuff still applies for TS4.. well, I ain't shared anything through the official site/through the software and never intend to.

That information is public. Registered domain. Anyone can find that information out. All you gotta do is go some place like here:http://www.register.com/whois.rcmx and enter the website. I doubt he used his real address though. A lot of places use a PO Box or a business address.

Guys: We (MTS) have already taken some action but no luck, a news post will follow.

General comment: even though that information is readily available via whois, do not quote names and addresses.