money | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Wed, 05 Oct 2016 11:15:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png money | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 4chan is going broke, may need drastic changes https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/jon-martindale/4chan-is-going-broke-may-need-drastic-changes/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/online/jon-martindale/4chan-is-going-broke-may-need-drastic-changes/#respond Wed, 05 Oct 2016 11:15:55 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=307878 Message board 4chan is in serious financial trouble and unless some drastic changes can turn the ship around, much of the site may need to close. The current owner told users on Sunday that the site may need to implement pop-up adverts, a cap on upload sizes and potentially even close down a number of popular …

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Message board 4chan is in serious financial trouble and unless some drastic changes can turn the ship around, much of the site may need to close. The current owner told users on Sunday that the site may need to implement pop-up adverts, a cap on upload sizes and potentially even close down a number of popular boards.

Purchased from original owner Christopher Poole in 2015 by Hiroyuki Nishimura, the founder of precursor site, 2Chan, 4Chan has been in somewhat of a flux since. It was Nishimura who posted to the community that the site was in real trouble, titling the piece “Winter is Coming, ” a reference to the popular Game of Thrones meme of the same name.

In the post he apologised to the community and said he had hoped to keep the site as it was, but that financially that just wasn't going to be possible. He cited the costs of the site's infrastructure, as well as network fees as the main cause for concern over 4chan's future.

4chan

Moving forward, Nishimuru said that he thought more adverts were likely, as well as shuttering some of the site's user boards. There was also the suggestion of new, paid for features for certain members.

The response from 4chan users has been mixed. While some showed support for Nishimura, many kicked into self preservation mode and began to suggest their least favourite boards for closure. The sheer number of pornography based boards was brought up, with many suggesting that their focus on images and video made them a good candidate for closure to help save on costs.

As the Guardian points out though, when the suggestion of closing /b, the site's most visited board and certainly one of its most inflammatory, this caused even more concern, since it suggested those users may flood into other boards.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The other part to this story is that a certain price-hiking, pharmaceuticals head wants to invest in the site, but he's not someone we'll be mentioning in the future. He thrives on the attention. 

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Uber hits the billion journey mark in just five years https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/jon-martindale/uber-hits-the-billion-journey-mark-in-just-five-years/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/generaltech/jon-martindale/uber-hits-the-billion-journey-mark-in-just-five-years/#respond Thu, 31 Dec 2015 11:56:22 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=279286 Uber is laying claim to having completed more than a billion journeys with its ride sharing, app-based taxi service in just five years since it began operation in 2010. Although it has faced stupendous opposition from traditional taxi firms and transport authorities, and makes giant losses every quarter, it continues to grow and has expanded …

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Uber is laying claim to having completed more than a billion journeys with its ride sharing, app-based taxi service in just five years since it began operation in 2010. Although it has faced stupendous opposition from traditional taxi firms and transport authorities, and makes giant losses every quarter, it continues to grow and has expanded to almost 70 countries all over the world.

Although this number would average out to around 600,000 rides per day, things were understandably a little slower when Uber first started. In 2014 Uber claimed to be making over a million trips per day, so the figure as of the close of 2015 should be even higher (as per The Telegraph).

Despite its meteoric growth though, Uber is not a profitable company, not even close. Leaked documents earlier this year showed it losing more than $100 million in a single quarter, with that number rising every few months. Despite that insane amount of cash being lost so regularly, Uber has a value of more than $62 billion (£42 billion) thanks to continued heavy investment and speculation at its potentially profitable future.

uberchristmas

Uber was so confident that it even released a sarcastic statement around the time of the document leak, expressing sarcastic surprise at its loss making ways.

While its future seems likely to be bright though, much of how it will perform over the next few years is dependant on regulatory and transport authorities. Although some have shown forward thinking in revamping taxi legislation in response to Uber's disruptive business practices, others like Transport for London, have proposed limitations on how fast or convenient a taxi service can be in order to level the playing field.

While that might make things more competitive for Uber, it would also slow or even halt future developments of the technology, hampering Uber's growth.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Did you take part in one of those billion rides? If so, what did you think of Uber's service?

 

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Apple’s profits break all records for all companies ever https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/apples-profits-break-all-records-for-all-companies-ever/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/apples-profits-break-all-records-for-all-companies-ever/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2015 11:48:16 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=273369 If you thought Apple was rich before, having the biggest, most financially settled company in the world, think again, as this year has eclipsed all others that came before it. In-fact it's eclipsed every single company's most profitable year ever, netting the fruity firm a staggering $53.4 billion (£35 billion). This puts it almost $10 …

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If you thought Apple was rich before, having the biggest, most financially settled company in the world, think again, as this year has eclipsed all others that came before it. In-fact it's eclipsed every single company's most profitable year ever, netting the fruity firm a staggering $53.4 billion (£35 billion). This puts it almost $10 billion ahead of the previous record set by ExxonMobil in 2008, though Apple has warned stock holders and investors that it is unlikely to keep up this current financial boom.

2015 has been a very strong year for Apple financially, as along with this monstrous profit it's total revenue is edging closer to $250 billion ($233.7 billion to be a little more exact) and the company's value has sky rocketed to more than $750 billion, prompting many to speculate whether Apple could become the world's first trillion dollar company. If current trends continue, that looks more likely than ever given the recent earnings reports.

However as with all giant corporations, Apple has urged caution in the wake of such financial success. It highlighted how sales of the iPad have fallen by 20 per cent to their lowest levels since 2011 and that the Apple Watch hasn't quite been the success story it was hoping with a slow uptake so far, as per the Telegraph.

applemoney

Still, this is all in the context of Apple's stupendous sales volumes. Despite these minor set backs, Apple's overall revenue was more than $51 billion in this past quarter alone and with more than 48 million iPhones sold in the same three month period, that represents a 22 per cent increase over last quarter.

The only real worry Apple has right now is whether it can expand into new growth markets like China, where its devices are seen as being too expensive to be viable for the average consumer. Indeed while Apple continues to face competition from Korean firms like Samsung, it may be Chinese competitors offering comparably powerful, but much cheaper hardware that prove to be its biggest challenge in the years to come.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Do you think Apple can become a trillion dollar company? It seems amazing that it's seen such growth since the death of Steve Jobs, as many thought that would have spelled doom for the company he headed for many years.

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Don Mattrick ousted from Zynga, stock bombs https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/don-mattrick-ousted-from-zynga-stock-bombs/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/don-mattrick-ousted-from-zynga-stock-bombs/#comments Thu, 09 Apr 2015 08:10:39 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=244136 When Don Mattrick made a pig's ear of the Xbox One unveiling, suggesting that users without decent internet should just buy an Xbox 360 among other things, no one thought he would be hired on by another large gaming company, but that's exactly what happened. Just a short while after his big gaff, Mattrick was …

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When Don Mattrick made a pig's ear of the Xbox One unveiling, suggesting that users without decent internet should just buy an Xbox 360 among other things, no one thought he would be hired on by another large gaming company, but that's exactly what happened. Just a short while after his big gaff, Mattrick was hired by Zynga for millions and now, less than two years later, he's been ousted and Zynga stock has taken a beating.

Although the split has been described as “amicable,” it seems hard to imagine that the mood at Zynga is a happy one. Mattrick was brought on to help turn around an ailing business, as it's continued to lose market share and profits throughout his tenure. With him now leaving, original CEO and founder of the company, Mark Pincus will be taking over the role as CEO, having left it to bring Mattrick on board.

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Mattrick (right) showing how he works the strings

Still, perhaps it's easy to see why Mattrick isn't too bothered about the split. He was initially signed on from Microsoft for $5 million in cash, $1 million a year for his salary and over $40 million in stock options; so he's done very well for himself as of late. As if to rub salt in the wound though, getting rid of him has cost Zynga even more, with the outgoing CEO being given a further $4 million, another $1 million as an annual bonus and Zynga will even help him sell some his shares, which could account for up to another $13 million.

That's almost $20 million for failing to do the job you were hired for and lots of industry veterans can't believe their ears. Todd Weidner, founder of Big Daddy Games stated: “These guys continue to fail all the way to the top. How much money did he get paid to be bad at his job? Must be nice to be in that club.”

Following the news, Zynga's shares fell by more than 10 per cent, dropping to $2.6o per share in after-hours trading.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It's bizarre that at a certain level you can be paid such large sums despite doing a poor job. The same certainly doesn't go for many other Zynga employees who have been let go in recent years.

[Thanks GI]

Image source: Kris Krug

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Rat on your business’ pirating to the BSA for a possible cash payout https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/rat-on-your-business-pirating-to-the-bsa-for-a-possible-cash-payout/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/rat-on-your-business-pirating-to-the-bsa-for-a-possible-cash-payout/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2015 10:51:55 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=241410 Do you want to earn some money for ratting on your employer? Well now you can! Thanks to a scheme by trade group the Business Software Alliance, those that snitch on their bosses, co workers and other business professionals for using pirated software can now “pay off [their] credit card debt,” as any successful court …

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Do you want to earn some money for ratting on your employer? Well now you can! Thanks to a scheme by trade group the Business Software Alliance, those that snitch on their bosses, co workers and other business professionals for using pirated software can now “pay off [their] credit card debt,” as any successful court cases against firms that use pirated software can mean those that reported it can expect a monetary reward.

The idea behind this system is to help crack down on companies using unlicensed software, which are perhaps even as numerous as end user piracy – we know the US military has been doing it for years. However while that's an understandable goal, the way in which the BSA is going about it seems rather underhanded: offering cash incentives to people – most likely employees – that might know about such software license side-stepping.

It even tries to appeal to those cash-strapped around Christmas, with an advert posted online late last year that stated “money can get tight during the holidays. If you know a company using unlicensed business software, file a report today to be eligible for a cash reward.”

vacation

Unfortunately for those that think cashing in on this is a great idea, as TorrentFreak points out, the smallprint reminds you that you will only receive any money at all if the eventual court case is successful, which is not exactly certain. On top of that, if the company you reported is your own employer, that internal investigation could get pretty uncomfortable.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Giving your employer a financial headache is never a good way to secure your job, especially if you're the one that caused it. These campaigns are trying to tease people into putting their jobs at risk with the vague promise of potential money. 

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Dotcom regains some of his assets, is ‘back in business’ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/dotcom-regains-some-of-his-assets-is-back-in-business/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/dotcom-regains-some-of-his-assets-is-back-in-business/#respond Fri, 13 Mar 2015 10:44:01 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=239778 Kim Dotcom's future has been shakier than usual as of late. Just a couple of weeks ago he claimed to be destitute, and “penniless,”  having eaten through however many millions he made off of the launch of the MEGA file locker, and began requesting access to his frozen assets from the courts, or risk losing his …

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Kim Dotcom's future has been shakier than usual as of late. Just a couple of weeks ago he claimed to be destitute, and “penniless,”  having eaten through however many millions he made off of the launch of the MEGA file locker, and began requesting access to his frozen assets from the courts, or risk losing his rented home. Now though he seems to have bought himself some breathing room, by securing some of his recorded millions still held by authorities, to help pay for legal fees and living expenses.

megaracer
Meanwhile Dotcom has been staying busy…

Kim Dotcom has been a rich man for a long time, having made tens of millions from his MegaUpload file locker site before its shut down in January 2012. However he's been in litigation since then and spending upwards of a million NZ dollars a year on his mansion home's rental. He also purportedly spent $9 million upgrading and refitting it, as well as $4 million on sponsoring his Internet Party political organisation. While his home was paid-for until April 2015, that date is rapidly approaching and with funds running dry, Kim Dotcom faced the potential of being kicked out of his home for the past half decade.

However yesterday Dotcom announced via his twitter that a judge had released funds from his frozen assets.

This isn't a one time payment though. The reference to “tranche,” suggests that this will be some form of regular allowance It will need to be too, as Dotcom currently owes legal representation at various companies over $2 million NZ for past services and with his house costing close to $85,000 a month in rent, it won't take long to chew threw that $700,000.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: There is an argument to be made that since Dotcom purportedly – according to authorities – made his money from illegal acts, that he shouldn't have access to the money until he's proved innocent. However, with the old adage of innocent until proven guilty, that seems like a difficult argument to win. Especially considering how strung out his extradition trial has become. 

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‘Penniless’ Dotcom asks court to release funds https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/penniless-dotcom-asks-court-to-release-funds/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/penniless-dotcom-asks-court-to-release-funds/#comments Thu, 26 Feb 2015 11:11:24 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=237746 Kim Dotcom is a larger than life personality, known for his extravagant displays of wealth as much as he is his entrepreneurial ventures and political aspirations. Still, while you can find plenty of pictures from the past decade showing him on private jets, with heavily modified cars and lounging in hottubs on yachts, the founder …

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Kim Dotcom is a larger than life personality, known for his extravagant displays of wealth as much as he is his entrepreneurial ventures and political aspirations. Still, while you can find plenty of pictures from the past decade showing him on private jets, with heavily modified cars and lounging in hottubs on yachts, the founder of the defunct MegaUpload file locker has recently asked courts to release some of his frozen funds, describing his current financial situation as “destitute.”

This might seem hard to believe if you were to look where Dotcom is living: a giant mansion in New Zealand, featuring acres of land, helicopter access and a small lake,  but the enormous house, despite costing the man over a million NZ dollars a year in rent, was pre-paid up until April. Now though with little liquid funds to speak of, Dotcom is struggling to find the money to pay for ‘basic' services and food, which is why he's requesting the court unfreeze several million dollars from his assets so that he can continue to live life as usual.

yacht
Dotcom seen here in more lucrative times, pre-Megaupload arrest

While some have suggested he move – which he will have to do if the funds are not granted – Dotcom stated that his children had grown up at the home and having invested several million in improving it, he didn't want to leave it.

According to Radio New Zealand, he requested some $200,000 NZ (£97,000) a month for living expenses and three to four million NZ dollars for outstanding legal fees. Dotcom still owes his legal defence team that quit last year several million in unpaid bills too.

While the court has yet to issue a decision on this matter, the government's Crown lawyer, David Boldt has pressed the court to deny his request, suggesting instead that he contact his ex-wife Mona Dotcom, for access to the family trust fund, which she is the sole trustee of. Previously she had allowed him to dip into the pot for projects like funding his Good Times album and for making donations to the Internet Party political campaign.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Although I imagine the delaying of Dotcom's extradition trial was a tactic used by his defence to distance the crime in the minds of those that will make the decision on whether to send him to the US or not, that seems to be backfiring now. It seems bizarre he can have such problems though, considering the monumental success of sites like Mega which were launched after his arrest.

Image source: Action Press/Rex Features

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Eight days into 2015 and Apple’s App store is breaking records https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/brendan-morgan/8-days-into-2015-and-apples-app-store-is-breaking-records/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/brendan-morgan/8-days-into-2015-and-apples-app-store-is-breaking-records/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2015 23:58:19 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=229659 Apparently the new year is a good time to be an app developer for the Apple ecosystem. Apple annoucned today, that the first week of 2015 has set new records in the App Store, with customers around the world spending nearly half a billion dollars on apps and in-app purchases. New years day itself was …

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Apparently the new year is a good time to be an app developer for the Apple ecosystem. Apple annoucned today, that the first week of 2015 has set new records in the App Store, with customers around the world spending nearly half a billion dollars on apps and in-app purchases. New years day itself was the biggest single day ever in App Store sales history.

In a press release today, Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services said: “This year is off to a tremendous start after a record-breaking year for the App Store and our developer community, we're so proud of the creativity and innovation developers bring to the apps they create for iOS users and that the developer community has now earned over $25 billion.” Of this $25 billion at least $10 billion was earned in just the last year, indicating that developer revenue is growing massively as well.

App Store

The App Store now contains 1.4 million apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod and with iOS 8 and more payment methods, including Apple Pay, recently being rolled out in several different countries, the reasons for the record breaking success become clear. Apple Pay in particular, seems to be doing very well as an App Store payment method with over 90% of of credit card purchases in the US now using Apple Pay. Apple also disclosed that with the help of it's customers, it has now donated $20 million this quarter, and over $100 million in total to the (RED) Global Fund to fight AIDS.

App store price

Apple has also sent out the email above to App Store developers to inform them of pricing changes, that will soon be applied across large parts of the world, something that it left out of their press release. The price rises in the EU are expected, with the new VAT laws that have already come into effect from the 1st of January, all providers of electronic services (software downloads, cloud business, online gaming, certain e-learning, online payment services, etc.) must charge VAT based on the customer country of residence, rather than a flat rate across the whole of the EU. Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: The Apple App store shows no signs of slowing down but until we get some number from Google to compare these to we really lack any kind of context. Either way this is a lot of money for both Apple and App Store developers worldwide.

Source: Apple Image Source: Neowin, Wikimedia

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CLANG Kickstarter has officially gone belly up https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/clang-kickstarter-has-officially-gone-belly-up/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/clang-kickstarter-has-officially-gone-belly-up/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2014 07:49:14 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=212687 Remember CLANG? The last time we talked about it was almost a year ago, when it was announced that the historically accurate swordplay title had run out of funding, despite having surpassed its half million dollar Kickstarter campaign. Now though, after a year with no updates, author and project endorser, Neal Stephenson, has come forward …

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Remember CLANG? The last time we talked about it was almost a year ago, when it was announced that the historically accurate swordplay title had run out of funding, despite having surpassed its half million dollar Kickstarter campaign. Now though, after a year with no updates, author and project endorser, Neal Stephenson, has come forward to explain why the project is now officially terminated.

neal

A year has passed since our “pause button update,” and it's been a busy year. To explain everything that I and others have done on the CLANG and post-CLANG fronts since then would require a book,” begins the long update on the game's campaign page.

“Last year, Subutai Corporation delivered the CLANG prototype and the other donor rewards as promised,” he said. “The prototype was technically innovative, but it wasn't very fun to play. This is for various reasons. Some of these were beyond our control. Others are my responsibility in that I probably focused too much on historical accuracy and not enough on making it sufficiently fun to attract additional investment.”

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV39GiK4Hw0′] This is what backers were given for their $526,000

He then goes on to explain that he and others have absorbed significant financial losses thanks to the failed project, but that even with all their efforts, no one was able to secure a second round of funding and therefore the game is no longer set to be worked on.

Stephenson explains away his year long silence, by stating that he hoped at least one of his fundraising attempts would pan out, but that ultimately when none did, he decided it was time to “pull the plug.”

To date some backers of the game have asked for refunds, most of which have been granted so far. It's not clear if that is something that will be ongoing, or if there is a finite pool for it. Even those not demanding money back though, are quite annoyed about this news in general, with some pointing out that many smaller developers are able to do a lot more with much less money. To date only a small demo for CLANG was created and released, with the general reception being quite poor.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It seems that people are most annoyed about giving money for a game's development, only for that money to be used to try and generate more funding. Did any of you back this project?

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Where does Kim Dotcom get his money? https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/where-does-kim-dotcom-get-his-money/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/where-does-kim-dotcom-get-his-money/#comments Thu, 28 Aug 2014 08:42:22 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=209312 One of the questions a few of you have brought up during our coverage of the seemingly endless build up to Megaupload founder, Kim Dotcom's extradition trial, is where exactly does he get his money from? Not the funds used to buy his cars and homes clearly, as that was all seized nearly thee years …

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One of the questions a few of you have brought up during our coverage of the seemingly endless build up to Megaupload founder, Kim Dotcom's extradition trial, is where exactly does he get his money from? Not the funds used to buy his cars and homes clearly, as that was all seized nearly thee years ago when he was arrested. However, since then he's continued to live in the lap of luxury and now the studio heads arraigned against him want to know where it's all coming from, since in their mind, he's spending money that will eventually go to them, when they win in court.

The authorities are more than a little curious themselves, so last month the High Court demanded Dotcom reveal his financial sources. However, the German native is appealing the decision, claiming that the assets he currently enjoys were generated from his entrepreneurial skills after the raid and therefore have no bearing on the charges laid against him. Saying any more than that, his legal team claims, would be a breach of his privacy.

hoverboards
Dotcom reportedly invested several million in the Interner MANA party too

Presumably, much of the money comes from him selling shares in the encrypted file locker company he launched last year, called Mega, which has become incredibly successful in a short period of time.

While Dotcom's appeal is set to be heard in October, he's actually obliged to comply by the order to reveal his assets on 9th September, so presumably on that date we'll find out whether he'll be forced to unveil them or not.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: It's difficult to tell in instances like this, whether Dotcom is just being a pain in the system's neck by appealing this, or if his finances are a little shady. What do you guys think?

[Thanks Stuff]

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Mojang clarifies why you can’t make money without its permission https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/mojang-clarifies-why-you-cant-make-money-without-its-permission/ https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/jon-martindale/mojang-clarifies-why-you-cant-make-money-without-its-permission/#comments Fri, 13 Jun 2014 09:21:32 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=198209 Minecraft developer Mojang, made waves this week among the blocky, builder community, by announcing changes to its end user licence agreement (EULA), that made it so that nobody would be allowed to make money from Minecraft without its permission. This was quickly interpreted by the game's player base that no matter how unique your server …

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Minecraft developer Mojang, made waves this week among the blocky, builder community, by announcing changes to its end user licence agreement (EULA), that made it so that nobody would be allowed to make money from Minecraft without its permission. This was quickly interpreted by the game's player base that no matter how unique your server was, no matter what content you offered, you'd have to go through Mojang first if you wanted to charge for it. Now the developer has explained that it's just trying to keep the experience fair and prevent pay-to-win scenarios from occurring.

In a statement over on the official Mojang blog, CWO at the company, Owen Hill explained that while it was never explicit, the only really legal way for people to make money from Minecraft, was through videos. If you did it any other way, technically you were breaking the rules. However, Mojang is now looking to change that so that any other way bar its specific caveats, isn't allowed.

So from now on, yes you can charge people for access to your servers. However, you cannot have those people playing with non-paying users (thereby splitting the player base). You're also allowed to accept donations, so even if your server is free, if people want to throw you a few quid, that's cool too. On top of that, you can sell adverts and in-game items too, but neither must have an impact on gameplay beyond the cosmetic.

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Building Duckburg like money bins is still cool though

He also asked that nobody give away or sell capes, as he wants to keep those for special events only.

Along with the new thumbs up rules though, there's also some absolute no-nos. For starters, Hill said nobody is allowed to charge real world money for in-game currency. You can dish them out for completing tasks, or for simple time spent in the game, but no real money transactions.

The final rule is no impersonating of Mojang. So if you monetise your server, you need to make it clear that it's not official and the money is going to you, not the developer.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Does this clear up the rules a bit more for you guys? Do you think Mojang is going a bit far here, or does this guarantee a safer gaming environment for everyone going forward?

Image Source: Umlux

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Youtube responds to Nintendo ad hijack complaints https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/youtube-responds-to-nintendo-ad-hijack-complaints/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/youtube-responds-to-nintendo-ad-hijack-complaints/#respond Wed, 22 May 2013 10:25:13 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=135500 Last week we reported on how Nintendo has been taking over the advertising of those making Let's Plays featuring games from the the Japanese firm, leading to all revenue from said videos heading eastward. Understandably many of the channel owners complained and Youtube has now got back to them. The response is pretty lackluster. The gist, …

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Last week we reported on how Nintendo has been taking over the advertising of those making Let's Plays featuring games from the the Japanese firm, leading to all revenue from said videos heading eastward. Understandably many of the channel owners complained and Youtube has now got back to them. The response is pretty lackluster.

The gist, is that you should know when you're breaking rights law – though there is no mention of fair use law. “You should ensure that you have all the necessary rights to commercially use all content in a video before you submit it for monetisation,” the statement begins. It also offers some handy “tips,” for you to consider when making a video.

“Check the video game publisher’s license agreement (Terms of Use, EULA etc). Some publishers allow you to use all video game content for commercial use and state that in the license agreement.” It then goes on to suggest that you should receive written permission from the company if you want to monetise your videos that feature content from said firm. With giants like Nintendo, how long does Youtube think a response would take? Days? Weeks? Never?

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If a few channel owners owe Nintendo money, this guy owes it a career. Source: Cinemassacre

Youtube then goes on to say that the one big thing you can't monetise without permission is a “software user interface”. What?

If you do manage to get the “appropriate license,” (language like this shouldn't be anywhere near a creative site like Youtube) you'll still need to make a video that's highly educational or informative and not feature much user interface. Surely if you get the license, you can show whatever you want?

How many hoops does Youtube want you to jump through?

KitGuru Says: Part of this must be down to Youtube trying to protect itself from being held responsible by game companies, but it really does seem to be going way over the top here. Nintendo too.

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Nokia get $1 billion handout from Microsoft https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/slyvia/nokia-get-1-billion-handout-from-microsoft/ https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/slyvia/nokia-get-1-billion-handout-from-microsoft/#comments Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:32:59 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=36691 Many analysts wondered why Nokia would refuse a partnership with Google, to form an alliance with floundering mobile maker Microsoft. Bloomberg Businessweek have released information which says that Microsoft are handing over $1 billion to Nokia. The Microsoft and Nokia deal has received a lot of negative press, especially as many feel Nokia would have …

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Many analysts wondered why Nokia would refuse a partnership with Google, to form an alliance with floundering mobile maker Microsoft. Bloomberg Businessweek have released information which says that Microsoft are handing over $1 billion to Nokia.

The Microsoft and Nokia deal has received a lot of negative press, especially as many feel Nokia would have had a better chance with a modified Symbian or Google Android software. Both Microsoft and Nokia are struggling in this marketplace, but there is no proof that merging them will help the chances of success. Comscore today show that Microsoft are already losing marketshare with the newly released Windows Phone 7. Google Android is growly rapidly while Microsoft struggle to make any kind of impact.

All a big happy family: Stephen Elop and Steve Ballmer

Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO has a long history in the technology industry, having even spent some time as a leader in Microsoft. With the exchange of cash between Microsoft and Nokia, Microsoft will be wanting access to the huge list of Nokia patents.

KitGuru says: Time will tell if this merger will be successful. Competition is healthy, so lets hope so.

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