Pmdg Releases Statement Regarding Eulas For P3D

[mutley 4,495]

Tom over at AVSIM has posted news on PMDG's position re Prepar3D.

The decision to limit the EULA on PMDG’s products to prevent their use in Prepar3d has everything to do with our contract with Boeing, our insurance carrier and our business model. In the context of the first two items, the decision involves the process of limiting PMDG’s liability in the face of legal action related to an accident outcome, or a violation of our contracts with the described parties who support the development of our products.

Read on

[jaydor 345]

Do you remember the days before Lawyers and things like Litigation (never new that word years ago). Ambulance chasers, PPI pilots etc.

The get rich quick Lawyers will soon think up something else to curtail us from? (FSXer's in Multiplay who collied with each other) Lookout..

I used to play conkers in school, now kids have to wear safety glasses to play it.

What happed to Freedom?

[britfrog 180]

(Oh, I'm not getting any more add-ons I can't use in P3D. If they go down the tubes, my hard luck - but after seeing what its used for in the US military (see A2A video) already, we'll say goodbye to PMDG first I think) As for the training only bit - that's just lawyers.

Shame on PMDG!

Perhaps not so LM have today clarified their stance and clearly state that Preap3d is not for entertainment, i quote a response to their statement with which i completely agree as read on avsim

vipgroup

Yesterday, 10:09 PM I sincerely hope that LM reads this thread.

What are you afraid of LM? Are you scared that by embracing the hobbyist you are going to be over-run by pimply-faced teenagers who will use P3D once, and then forget it?

Open your eyes to some truths.

1. The program you are now working with would never have existed had it not been for the amazing supportive culture that was created by the serious hobbyists. In the mid-90's I was one of the first people to go commercial in the third-party addon business for MSFS. My company was Visually Incredible Panels, thereafter known as The VIP Group. In a meeting with the lead developer of MSFS at Oshkosh, in those early days, he told me that some people were buying MSFS just to fly some of the creations that my little company made.

I share this not to boast about ancient achievements, but to make a point. Without the serious hobbyist and the now massive army of third party commercial and freeware developers, and the websites like AVSIM, MSFS would have been as dead and stillborn as MS Flight many many years ago.

LM, think about that as you so blithely shut the door on the people to whom you owe your very product.

2. LM, you are failing to perceive the existence of a very important group. We are not those teenagers who just want to shoot em out of the sky. Microsoft showed how small that market is through the failure of Flight. We are the market that MS failed to listen to, and at their peril. Will you now repeat their mistake while building on the legacy of our collective goodwill?

We may not be professional educators, or students, or military men and women, although many in our ranks are. But we are very serious hobbyists who live our dream of flight through the vicarious pleasure of serious simulation. We join Virtual airlines, undertake serious training, build massive communities and even now provide you with the feedback with which you are developing the product.

What harm would it cause to be mature enough to trust us with the legacy we have helped to build?

What harm would it do to your professional reputation, let alone your bottom line, to create a new licence that enables the SERIOUS flight simulator enthusiast to continue to support the development of the line of products they have supported for more than two decades? If you are not marketing to the masses, your product could only be enhanced by our continued official patronage.

3. LM, take a look at the companies that are getting behind your product. The Harvard 2 and Mooney in version 1.4 come from companies that existed because of the serious hobbyist. If we had not existed as a hobbyist group, neither would they as developers. The meaning is clear, your current edition speaks volumes upon the silent debt that your product already owes this group. Would you ignore us now?

This becomes more important when you think of FSUIPC. There is an interface that forms a major foundation for third party development. Yet, without the serious hobbyist, it is unlikely that FSUIPC would have continued to be developed. What if the developer of that program decided to withdraw the right for people to use FSUPIC in P3D because LM is refusing to make allowance for the hobbyists that have supported his work?

Make no mistake about it LM, there is a sub-culture of serious hobbyists here who have supported and enjoyed the MSFS line for decades. They were shafted when MS cared more about profits than people, and they were ignored when they tried to advise MS about the obvious mistakes that were being made in FLIGHT.

Do you want a better product for your big commercial customers? Then your best resource is staring you in the face and begging to be noticed.

We are a marketers dream. We not only give seasoned advice that aids in product development, we do it for free, heck we even pay for the right to do it. How many businesses would just about kill for such a vested-interest group of people behind them?

So I challenge you, on behalf of the community that once supported me (a long time ago)... LM, get over whatever fear you have that we are going to wreck your business model, see the truth of the resource that is asking for the right to support you, if you will only support them. Create a new segment or new licence for the serious hobbyist.

I challenge you to be courageous in this matter, to be forward thinking and mature, and to recognise the people on who's goodwill you are standing as you develop P3D.

Are you willing to rise to this challenge? If so, we are here for you as a community. I request a written reply, after you have taken this matter to the highest level of management in the company. Please reply via AVSIM, for we are waiting for your reasoned, thought-out (not knee-jerk) answer.

Kenneth J. Kerr

Former owner of The VIP Group, published author and freelance journalist.

[brett 2,310]

All this hub bub is either because of a clause in MS contract with LM or LM not wanting their Simulator being thought of as a game. Either way it is still available for a decent price and I doubt anyone from LM will be checking under my mattress to see if I'm having too much fun entertaining myself with it. Buy it, use it, be careful what you write in forums about how it is being used. It's only a big deal when folks make it that way. The thing with PMDG is lawyers being lawyers. All these developers seem to have press releases that are sounding like little babies crying to anyone that will listen. This stuff sure was alot more fun when people were developing addons for fun and pride and not for money.

For myself, I'll look closer at it when it has been perfected. Unless I'm mistaken and from what I have read, it is at this point still basically like FSX with only some minor fixes. After they come out with the new version i might have to change my mind but until then FSX is fine for me. It has many addons, free and payware and I have fun playing around with it. Most of all I have it set the way I want it. As to its bugs or limitations, as a mission fan, only a lack of attachpoints and some unused variables are a problem for me. Most of that can be fixed using simvar.exe.