EVE Information Portal

For now, and we've only gotten that out of them because we've pushed them hard on it. They're still threatening to ban people for it, even if whatever the cache scraping might be used in conjunction with is forbidden by another part of the EULA which specifically covers modifying or automating the client for personal gain. So, again, why bother with cache scraping?


I notice that my G15 is also on the "potentially forbidden" list, since it has keys which I can program to perform multiple actions. I guess I'd better buy a new keyboard without those keys, just in case CCP suddenly decides to ban me for that as well.


I guess everyone who uses antivirus'll be banned as cache scrapers when CCP deems it "illegal", using this logic. Or heaven forbid I ever look at them using notepad or some other file viewer, ever.

“For now” has lasted for a decade and there's nothing to suggest that this will change any time soon. They're not threatening people to ban for it any more than they have in the past.

Again: redundancy.

…same as for the last decade, which is why it has rather explicitly been allowed, just like things like EVEMon, and just like with EVEMon, there's no reason why you should suddenly be worried about it now.

Okay, and how you would detect this if your detection process (the game client) isn't even running?
Or hey, what if I backup the My Documents folder? Am I in violation now? the backup accessed those files to copy them?

It really is not enforceable.

I think everyone will agree cache reading/scraping is an enabler (to cheating), but on its own it's just a tool, which you can use for good or bad. CCP should go after people doing the latter, but not outlaw a widely used tool JUST because it might perhaps maybe be used for bad things.

If you extended the reasoning CCP displayed here, mice should be banned (they can control bot software), keyboards should be banned (they can be used to write bots/execute macros), etc.

Good point, you are right. Didn't think of that.

I have MSVS 2010 on my PC, I guess I should get rid of it before CCP deems it a EULA violation because it can be used to not just design, but compile, debug and test botting software!

And yet they felt it necessary to mention cache scraping specifically, even if they've backpedaled hard on it after the implications were made explicitly clear.


Nope. Their policy was "cache scraping is perfectly legal" from back in 2008 till today. Today they said "cache scraping is illegal and has always been illegal", before they changed their minds on "whoops nevermind it's legal until we change our minds again", at which point we will be banning you.


And just like "cache scraping" was deemed "legal" from 2008 to today, it was suddenly deemed illegal, only to be deemed "whoops nevermind for now we'll revisit this in 6 months' time".


Except evemon, by default, scrapes the cache, hence I have to be worried about evemon. And if I program some key sequence on the keys to the left of me (it's just a g15, so it's just 1 row), and I happen to press G1 instead of esc, G5 instead of shift or G6 instead of control (which happens a lot), suddenly I've broken "6.a 3)" where I've "used your own or any third-party software, macros or other stored rapid keystrokes or other patterns of play that facilitate acquisition of items, currency, objects, character attributes, rank or status at an accelerated rate when compared with ordinary Game play."

Yeah uh the only way to get market data is through the cache

…because it was a focus point of a recent botting incident, and they wanted to clarify that the vain attempts at defending it were… well… in vain.

…and the answer to your question is still the same: redundancy.

…and if you don't trust their assertions that they don't care about non-illicit scraping, you can turn it off and make EVEMon an entirely legal program. It's much the same as with the various multiboxing programs that they allow, even though they often come with or can be supplemented with modules that turns them into bots instead.

And programmable gaming keyboards have still been allowed for yonks, as long as you don't program away the requirement for player input.

I truly Endorse Entity and his hard work.

Basing on his Reverence library I have spend man months into developing a complete EvE charting solution that has received repeated praise by players and some CCP employees (I can send email copies if a CCP representative wants to check).

Please let's not get back to the $99 freeware license "GREED IS GOOD" nonsense and similar counterintuitive stuff that players just will NOT get.

I have quit over this kind of stuff in the past and I will again if I have to feel guilty just because I have poured in months of hard work to improve the game for every player.


The mentality CCP Stillman is trying to introduce is way too common (and despised) in my home country (Italy), where you can do all what you want until someone, somewhere decides you have stepped on their toes and they bust you.

This is an unacceptably mellifluous suggestion to allow non tech savy people to play without knowing if they are doing something that will get them banned or not.

Please reformulate the EULA so that cache scraping is allowed for non automating tasks and be done with it, this fuzziness in the EULA is only going to get people scared to use large use utilities.


Also, is CCP officially going to introduce some crappy file system hook / Guardian / Punkbuster heavy weight, nightmare compatibility software?
Because that's the one way to detect offline client cache scrapping.

In that case I am done with EvE, I am never going to accept that privacy sniffing garbage on my computer.

Just out of curiosity, if you're saying the EULA hasn't changed, what exactly was it the Dev Blog was supposed to achieve?

If cache scraping was always against the EULA, but you're still not going to ban "legitimate" EVE players, what purpose was the Dev Blog supposed to achieve?