The beta toolset for Neverwinter Nights was released over the weekend and it looked pretty impressive until a raging debate was started on Slashdot over the phrasing of the toolset’s EULA. Section 4(b) of the license says,
By distributing or permitting the distribution of any of your Modules, you hereby grant back to INFOGRAMES and BIOWARE an irrevocable royalty-free right to use and distribute them by any means. Infogrames or BIOWARE may at any time and in its sole discretion revoke your right to make your Modules publicly available.
Now the first part — that Infogrames and Bioware would have an “irrevocable” right to redistribute publicly available mods is pretty standard in the EULA’s for these sorts games. Which doesn’t mean that they are right. As people on Slashdot noted, this is like someone who makes a compiler asserting a property interest in programs compiled using that software. Or, Microsoft claiming a property interest in documents created with Word (well, give them a few years there).
What is unusual is Infogrames and Bioware’s assertion that they have a right to revoke the ability of an individual to make his or her modules for the game publicly available. People are always going to want to make content and mods that somebody finds objectionable. For these companies to assert this right is a bit like Microsoft asserting that it has the right to force people it disagrees with to stop using Word.
Software tools are obviously used by individuals who most of us find despicable. I was reading a story the other day about white supremacists using commonly available audio compression schemes available from Real, Microsoft and others to distribute their hateful message. Should those companies include clauses that bar people with certain viewpoints from using their software? That would be an enormous mistake.
Part of the problem here with Neverwinter Nights, though, is the additional intersection of copyright and trademark issues, with Bioware and Infogrames probably relying on lawyers concerned that the companies do not dilute their intellectual property through dilution of same over the Internet.
The controversy did have on positive effect — Bioware said that it would have its lawyers reexamine the EULA and respond sometime later this week.