Creating Paid For Content; Is it allowed now?

There is another thread about the licensing for the released A2 model content, but this is different, this is about the licensing described here: http://www.bistudio.com/english/community/game-content-usage-rules

Which states a couple of things:

Our games and tools are licensed for non-commercial use only.

But then below, which seems, at least in some part contradicting the above, it says:

You may develop your own game content, tools, plug-ins and other utilities or services for both noncommercial and commercial use as long as it is your original creation.

Can we get some clarification on this? Is paid content allowed to be released for Arma 3 if it doesn't use any tools and uses only original content?

The licensing documentation has been all over the place recently (multiple sources) and it'd be nice if there was a single concise, actually written by a lawyer, legal document that we could review instead of multiple EULAs and FAQ style information that seems tenuous at best.

The last I hear about paid content from modders was here:

http://www.arma3.com/news/report-in-marek-spanel-ceo#.U0g0xvl_tTo

And, in general, how do you see the community’s role in the future of Arma 3, and what are you doing to support them?

I think the next big thing could be opening up Arma 3 to paid user-made content. It’s great to see talented mod-makers pulling off amazing missions, add-ons and mods as free content, but if we manage to find some incentive for the best mod-makers to develop more content, I think we can raise the bar even higher. I want to push this effort in two distinct ways, and I consider these as a priority for next year. We are going to announce more specific details in the coming months.

As far as I know one could always make paid content, if you did not use

1) BI tools

2) BI data

What was (and maybe still is?) not tolerated, was the discussion of the topic and promotion of content in the BI forum.

This was mainly a decision by the moderator team and not necessarily by BI itself as far as I can tell.

Note: Licensing the engine (like AWAR did for Iron Front) or to make official paid DLC is a different matter obviously.

I think it was at the beginning of ArmA 3, BIS said that it will be possible to be paid for the contents you create for ArmA 3 with BIS tools. They said, it will work on Steam Workshop.

Basically, an addon-maker could (not tried yet) put his addons on Steam Workshop, and select the price of the addons. On this price, one part will go to BIS, another one to Valve and the main part to the addon-maker.

OFrP plans to do that due to an increase of thefts of addons recently with ArmA 3, in order to pay copyrights and prosecution if needed. If people can't respect teams which provide free contents, we will be force to take sanctions !

Come on, this would be the worst idea ever... i agree with BI paying a price to support modders (Make Arma Not War), but selling individual addons is just....awful.

Bit of clarification by Marek himself here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/arma/comments/22qfum/commercial_addons_are_now_allowed_in_arma_you_may/

I wouldnt mind paying a small amount for the best mods but I hope it doesn't get to the stage where I'm having to pay 20p to download a mission.

OFrP plans to do that due to an increase of thefts of addons recently with ArmA 3, in order to pay copyrights and prosecution if needed. If people can't respect teams which provide free contents, we will be force to take sanctions !

Because a few people steal addons does not mean you should punish everyone else by forcing them to pay for the addons.

I am personally against paying for addons, only because there is absolutely no standard in place as far as quality is concerned. The quality of addons is all over the chart, there are addons that are really well-made, but there are others that are complete garbage. I will happily pay for Bohemia Interactive DLC and addons, but not addons made by individuals.

Maybe if BI set standards for quality/stability of mods/addons and created a "Bohemia Interactive Seal of Approval", I would purchase DLC made by individuals.

This is a very bad idea.

Worst case scenario is that every model that gets released will end up being a payed content. So if a community=clans use those models they have to tell their members to buy them. This can hinder communities a lot.

yup, allowing addons to be sold would clearly be the end of an era.

The multiplayer community is already so fragmented and it can be such a hassle to download the appropriate addons suite to join a server.

Monetizing addons would be the best idea to make all this even worse...

Please BIS, we have almost 15 years to prove it, the "all free" system works, it works great and it can bring you big bucks without doing much.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it !