Impulse EULA Reveals 50% Kickback for User-Generated Content Sales

Fri, Jun 20, 2008

GameCyte took Stardock's digital-distribution platform Impulse for a spin earlier this afternoon -- but before we had the chance to download a single program, we discovered some curious lines in the end-user license agreement. They suggest that Stardock will not only encourage the production of user-generated content, but that they plan to sell it, incenting users with one-half of the revenue generated by each sale.

Today, I got the chance to try out Stardock's heavily hyped digital-distribution platform Impulse, and I have to say, I'm not particularly impressed. For those who happen to like their interface the color of Nickelodeon Slime, Impulse is a slick-looking mashup of desktop dock, community forum, personal blog and of course, Steam clone all rolled into one lightweight application. Problem is, as of today Impulse is far less than the sum of its parts. There's nothing particularly compelling about the CMS aspects; for gaming it can't hold a candle to Steam, even if it had a decent catalog of games; and believe it or not, Stardock's own ObjectDock has far greater functionality than the Impulse offering.

Impulse screen

But that's as of today.

Stardock CEO Brad Wardell knows Impulse is no Steam, and he's admitted it more than once. But he has plans for the service that go beyond direct competition with Valve's black and blue steamroller; and we're not talking about the company's extensive catalog of desktop tweaking software. He wants pro and indie developers alike to contribute games in exchange for 70% of the profits. He wants publishers to use Impulse for their online retail, in exchange for another 15%. And if the EULA I read this morning isn't completely out of date, he wants users to generate profitable content in exchange for 50.

Section 5 of the EULA reads:

5. CONTENT SUBMITTED ImpulseDriven.com/Stardock does not claim ownership of the Content placed by you to the ImpulseDriven.com Site. Stardock may quote, redistribute or reproduce in whole or part of your Content (if you have made it public) in order to promote your ImpulseDriven.com site and/or the ImpulseDriven.com service, but only on a fair-use-type basis. By using this site, you agree to the following:

All Content uploaded onto this site must be original material created by you. By uploading any Content to this site, contributors are automatically assumed to be the creator and owner of the Content. You may not upload Content created by another person or taken from another source such as another website, etc, without express written permission from copyright owner. Copyright violation could result in account cancellation and in possible criminal prosecution.

By uploading content, you agree to accept the responsibility of supporting your upload. Stardock, under no circumstances, will not be responsible for the support of your upload, nor will Stardock provide support for any upload not produced directly by Stardock.

Standard boilerplate, right? Anything you upload is theirs if they want it, yours if the lawyers come knocking. Important to have this kind of stuff when users can freely post potentially disturbing images on their blogs.

By uploading Content, you give permission to Stardock to sell the Content via ImpulseDriven.com as well as on compilation CDs or packs via online means or retail as long as the payment terms are not modified without prior consent.

Or not. Payment terms?

If you upload malicious, inappropriate material repeatedly, your account will be cancelled without notice. By uploading to the site you also acknowledge that the site administrators reserve the right to reject any of your upload at any time if they feel that they are inappropriate for the site in any way.

Stardock reserves the right to reject submissions for quality, completeness or other reasons deemed by the moderators. Stardock reserves the right to negotiate price set on individual uploads and may reject submission if Stardock feels that the price is inappropriate. All uploads will be moderated and approved prior to being made public.

Quality control and price fixing -- neither are necessary for Stardock to snatch a random piece of content they happen to like. I think it's safe to say this implies a store where said content will be for sale.

Sections 8 and 10, after describing how Stardock can terminate user accounts at will, include the phrase "Account balance will be paid in accordance with section 9 stated below," and sure enough, it is in section 9 that we find our answers.

9. PAYMENT Payment will be calculated on a per calendar quarter. Payments will be made 90 days after the end of the calendar quarter. (Example: First quarter ends March 31st. Payment for that quarter will be processed on June 30th). A total of $25.00 must be accumulated prior to funds being dispersed.

Payment per upload will be a 50/50 split of net revenue between you and Stardock. Net revenue is defined as gross revenue (sale price) minus customary charges. These charges could include, but are not limited to: credit card processing fees, bandwidth, store fees, ImpulseDriven subscriber discounts, etc.

If uploads are sold via a compilation CD or pack, 50% of the net revenue will be divided among the owners of the uploads based on the percentage worth of their upload. As an example, if there was a pack with three uploads, which sold for a net $20, and the 3 uploads were individually worth net $10, $6, and $4, the disbursement would be $10, $6, and $4 respectively.

While we've no idea what type of content the EULA refers to, the concept of paying users a full one-half of the proceeds for that content is revolutionary -- and rather controversial. On the one hand, PC gamers are used to getting additional content for free, and they may not take kindly to change; but on the other, a real cashflow may incent more talented individuals to produce truly superb additions to... whatever it is Stardock plans to have its users generate.

Stardock could not be reached for comment by the time of this publication, but you can bet your Horse Armor that we'll get to the bottom of this early next week.