Please explain this change in TOS

Posted: 09 September 2016 11:08 AM Is this only for those buying the monthly dilithium or are you going to start charging us for playing the game? Virtual Items and Currency You acknowledge that the Services may include a component of in-game fictional items and/or fictional currency (“Virtual Items”), which constitutes a limited license right to use the Virtual Items feature of the Services when, as, and if allowed by Disruptor Beam. Disruptor Beam may charge fees for the right to use Virtual Items, or may distribute Virtual Items without charge, in its sole discretion. This paragraph will not apply if you are a resident of Germany: VIRTUAL ITEMS ARE A LIMITED LICENSE RIGHT GOVERNED SOLELY UNDER THE TERMS OF SERVICE, AND ARE NOT REDEEMABLE FOR ANY SUM OF MONEY OR MONETARY VALUE FROM DISRUPTOR BEAM AT ANY TIME. YOU AGREE THAT DISRUPTOR BEAM HAS THE ABSOLUTE RIGHT TO MANAGE, REGULATE, CONTROL, MODIFY AND/OR ELIMINATE SUCH VIRTUAL ITEMS AS IT SEES FIT IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, IN ANY GENERAL OR SPECIFIC CASE, AND THAT DISRUPTOR BEAM WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY TO YOU BASED ON ITS EXERCISE OF SUCH RIGHT. This paragraph will not apply if you are a resident of Germany: Notwithstanding any other language or context to the contrary, as used in these Terms of Service and throughout the Games in the context of Disruptor Beam transfer: (a) the term “sell” means “to transfer for consideration the licensed right to use Virtual Items in accordance with the Terms,” (b) the term “buy” means “to receive for consideration the licensed right to use Virtual Items in accordance with the Terms,” (c) the terms “buyer,” “seller”, “sale” and “purchase” and similar terms have corresponding meanings to the root terms “buy” and “sell. “Disruptor Beam may limit buyers of Virtual Items to any group of users at any time. If your are a resident of the European Union you are entitled to withdraw from these Terms or any purchases of goods or services made under this agreement subject to the following provisions: Right of Withdrawal You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason. The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day of the conclusion of this contract. To exercise the right of withdrawal you must inform us of your decision to withdraw from this contract by an unequivocal statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax or e-mail). You may use the linked withdrawal form but it is not obligatory. Cancellation Form

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Posted: 09 September 2016 11:11 AM It’s hard to know what they changed, and that is a big document to read through. Signature Peace, Love and Fuzy Wuzy Tribbles. Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 11:22 AM I simply didn’t see this in the old TOS that was linked. Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 11:37 AM It means you don’t own anything. You didn’t buy the crew you have, you bough a license to use the crew and DB is free to change the crew any time they want. If DB decides to re-balance and lower skills/ship abilities of crew, you can’t complain and say you bought the crew because of the old value. Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 11:48 AM AviTrek - 09 September 2016 11:37 AM It means you don’t own anything. You didn’t buy the crew you have, you bough a license to use the crew and DB is free to change the crew any time they want. If DB decides to re-balance and lower skills/ship abilities of crew, you can’t complain and say you bought the crew because of the old value. If we made our purchases before the change in TOS and no longer wish to abide these rules, do customers in the United States have any right to receive a refund based on purchases made before the new TOS went into effect? Signature Disruptor Beam at court, the court of silence. VIP 12 Admiral of the 7th Tactical Wing Member of the VIP 0 Heroes as Darmok Mk 0.5 Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 11:50 AM After the move to created crew and the survey about would you play without the Trek license, it almost looks like they are covering bums against a massive change to the game and existing assets. Signature This week Frank and Roonis talk about extra long shuttles, the concept of F2P pain to convert to spending customers, discuss how Odo is not a Dax, and discuss the worst Starfleet Department to work in, HR.

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Posted: 09 September 2016 11:53 AM DaiMon Darmok - 09 September 2016 11:48 AM AviTrek - 09 September 2016 11:37 AM It means you don’t own anything. You didn’t buy the crew you have, you bough a license to use the crew and DB is free to change the crew any time they want. If DB decides to re-balance and lower skills/ship abilities of crew, you can’t complain and say you bought the crew because of the old value. If we made our purchases before the change in TOS and no longer wish to abide these rules, do customers in the United States have any right to receive a refund based on purchases made before the new TOS went into effect? It is not likely as CS would point out that the original TOS had a “these terms are subject to change” clause (weasel word in Architectural plan terminology). Signature Sincerely, Lilac Erosion Maybe the irony is that we play because we’re Star Trek fans, those hopeful idealists that like to think things will get better when we raise valid concerns about fairness and balance, etc and we forget that DB’s greed openly mocks the values espoused by the franchise they have a license

-Lord Wizzlestix IT Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 12:47 PM The ToS change is most likely a consequence of my dispute with DB regarding the Community Reward from the “Liberty for All”-event which we finally got out of a sudden a week ago after they denied everything for a month. As they have chosen to go the hard and complicated way there, I had (amongst other things which shall not be named here) a little talk with them about their ToS. Regarding European customers their old ToS was in large parts invalid and towards German customers it was even entirely invalid as we have different and more strict costumer protection laws in Europe and Germany than in the USA. So the new ToS basicly contains all kind of mandatory laws, regulations and informations which are required by EU/German laws. If I’m correct, their European law firm is now Fieldfisher in London (http://www.fieldfisher.com/locations/london) which probably provided the new ToS in English and German. The withdrawal form and paragraph is just a mandatory information the ToS have to contain by EU/German laws. But this doesn’t imply any actual changes here in the future as you don’t have a right to withdrawal from purchases of virtual goods which get delivered immediately and where you agree to resign from your right to withdrawal before you are able to buy anything (to take another example, you can’t buy a movie on iTunes, watch it and withdrawal 2 hours later to get your money back) but they have to provide the general withdrawal informations anyway. Only mentianble change I have seen is that European customers have a new arbitration-possibility by contacting the European Commission Online Dispute Resolution website if they have a dispute with CS. It says that it applies for all customers outside of the USA and Canada, but you have to be a permanent resident of the EU to be able to use the form and process. If you live outside of the United States or Canada:

Alternative dispute resolution is a process where an independent body considers the facts of a dispute and seeks to resolve it, without you having to go to court. If you are not happy with how Disruptor Beam has handled any complaint, you may want to contact the alternative dispute resolution provider we use. You can submit a complaint to the European Commission Online Dispute Resolution website (“ODR”) via their website at https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/odr/main/index.cfm . ODR will not charge you for making a complaint and if you are not satisfied with the outcome you can still bring legal proceedings. If anything of my post is wrong, Becca, Shan or Nod are welcome to correct me. Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 01:59 PM All this is saying is that the content of the account you use isn’t yours. all the work you have put in to achieve your collection of characters is irrelevant, you can’t trade your account for monetary gain as it isn’t your property to trade it’s theirs and it’s pretty much standard in online gaming. Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 02:27 PM Just to keep you trekkies in the loop, we have our own discussion on the new ToS occuring over in the Thrones forum. Take a peek if you’re interested. There are some good points in there. (you don’t need a new forum account or anything) https://forums.disruptorbeam.com/gota/viewthread/55612 Signature Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 02:34 PM The only major changes I noticed were additional protections for EU and German residents, however it seems to only be clarifying language that is commonly used in those regions to have the same impact as the original TOS. Still limited license to use and access the goods provided. Some areas have additional protections beyond what DB is required to notify us of, and may offer opportunities for refunds. All that said, I’m wondering if this new TOS is valid at all. The first section dictates that Disruptor Beam is required to provide at least 30 days advance notice to any updates to the TOS. This TOS takes effect October 9th (as stipulated on the top of the document), and we were notified midday into September 9th (for the Americas). September has 30 days, thus if my math is right the earliest they could claim the TOS enforceable would be October 10th (potentially Oct. 11th for those in far-east time zones where receipt would have been on Sept 10th). If true, DB failed to properly fulfill their requirements for the TOS and would be in violation. There are also stipulations for this that DB will notify us of the changes via posting of the amended TOS to our ‘account’; we weren’t sent a complete TOS, rather a link. I’m also trying to recall if the in game message specified if the TOS ‘has’ changed, or ‘will’ change… Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 02:37 PM Tauntaun - 09 September 2016 02:34 PM The only major changes I noticed were additional protections for EU and German residents, however it seems to only be clarifying language that is commonly used in those regions to have the same impact as the original TOS. Still limited license to use and access the goods provided. Some areas have additional protections beyond what DB is required to notify us of, and may offer opportunities for refunds. All that said, I’m wondering if this new TOS is valid at all. The first section dictates that Disruptor Beam is required to provide at least 30 days advance notice to any updates to the TOS. This TOS takes effect October 9th (as stipulated on the top of the document), and we were notified midday into September 9th (for the Americas). September has 30 days, thus if my math is right the earliest they could claim the TOS enforceable would be October 10th (potentially Oct. 11th for those in far-east time zones where receipt would have been on Sept 10th). If true, DB failed to properly fulfill their requirements for the TOS and would be in violation. There are also stipulations for this that DB will notify us of the changes via posting of the amended TOS to our ‘account’; we weren’t sent a complete TOS, rather a link. I’m also trying to recall if the in game message specified if the TOS ‘has’ changed, or ‘will’ change… It was posted in announcements on September 7th.

https://forums.disruptorbeam.com/stt/viewthread/55566/ Signature This week Frank and Roonis talk about extra long shuttles, the concept of F2P pain to convert to spending customers, discuss how Odo is not a Dax, and discuss the worst Starfleet Department to work in, HR.

Brand New Twitter Page!!!! https://twitter.com/FrankAndRoonis Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 02:43 PM Tauntaun - 09 September 2016 02:34 PM The only major changes I noticed were additional protections for EU and German residents, however it seems to only be clarifying language that is commonly used in those regions to have the same impact as the original TOS. Still limited license to use and access the goods provided. Some areas have additional protections beyond what DB is required to notify us of, and may offer opportunities for refunds. All that said, I’m wondering if this new TOS is valid at all. The first section dictates that Disruptor Beam is required to provide at least 30 days advance notice to any updates to the TOS. This TOS takes effect October 9th (as stipulated on the top of the document), and we were notified midday into September 9th (for the Americas). September has 30 days, thus if my math is right the earliest they could claim the TOS enforceable would be October 10th (potentially Oct. 11th for those in far-east time zones where receipt would have been on Sept 10th). If true, DB failed to properly fulfill their requirements for the TOS and would be in violation. There are also stipulations for this that DB will notify us of the changes via posting of the amended TOS to our ‘account’; we weren’t sent a complete TOS, rather a link. I’m also trying to recall if the in game message specified if the TOS ‘has’ changed, or ‘will’ change… There is also a clause stating that DB may scan your system at anytime they wish. Another that says if your account is hacked, and the hacker destroys the DB servers, you are financially liable for it… I did a diffcheck of the two documents… So far, the only answer from DB is “consult your own attorney for clarification” so… if you don’t want them in your system, time to go. Signature Give Lord Commander the SAME 2nd Chance that has been granted to many others who did far more with far less honesty about it.

#FreeLordCommander Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 02:43 PM Roonis - 09 September 2016 02:37 PM It was posted in announcements on September 7th.

https://forums.disruptorbeam.com/stt/viewthread/55566/ There are two issues with this;

1) Users were not notified via their account at that point of time (Sept 7th).

2) The TOS amended date is today’s date, Sept 9th (at the start of the document). So whatever happened with that earlier notice no longer applies. Profile

Posted: 09 September 2016 02:44 PM Roonis - 09 September 2016 02:37 PM Tauntaun - 09 September 2016 02:34 PM The only major changes I noticed were additional protections for EU and German residents, however it seems to only be clarifying language that is commonly used in those regions to have the same impact as the original TOS. Still limited license to use and access the goods provided. Some areas have additional protections beyond what DB is required to notify us of, and may offer opportunities for refunds. All that said, I’m wondering if this new TOS is valid at all. The first section dictates that Disruptor Beam is required to provide at least 30 days advance notice to any updates to the TOS. This TOS takes effect October 9th (as stipulated on the top of the document), and we were notified midday into September 9th (for the Americas). September has 30 days, thus if my math is right the earliest they could claim the TOS enforceable would be October 10th (potentially Oct. 11th for those in far-east time zones where receipt would have been on Sept 10th). If true, DB failed to properly fulfill their requirements for the TOS and would be in violation. There are also stipulations for this that DB will notify us of the changes via posting of the amended TOS to our ‘account’; we weren’t sent a complete TOS, rather a link. I’m also trying to recall if the in game message specified if the TOS ‘has’ changed, or ‘will’ change… It was posted in announcements on September 7th.

https://forums.disruptorbeam.com/stt/viewthread/55566/ Posting in the announcement is not valid because less than 1% of the playerbase visit the forums. The only thing valid is the posting on the changes in an in game message. But the message did not say anything but only there were changes and the players were expected to deduce what these changes were about. There was also no opt out option for those who don’t want to accept the new terms of the TOS. Profile