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Sony Deleting 'LittleBigPlanet' User Content At Will

by Kaiser Hwang on November 13, 2008 at 10:26 AM


There's some dramatic irony going on here: Sony is deleting user-generated content created for its much-lauded 'LittleBigPlanet,' a game that heavily emphasizes user-generated content. Sure, the company does say the content violates its end-user license agreement (EULA) by including references to television shows and games, but Sony isn't even giving the users a warning to fix their mistakes -- the content gets automatically deleted, with no clear message as to why. If you're not familiar with EULAs, basically it's a contract between a software maker and you, the user, granting you a license to use the software. You know when you install software and have to click "Agree" to start the installation? That's the EULA.

In many cases, the offensive content found in 'LittleBigPlanet' is simply an item or character, yet Sony deletes the entire level causing, in some cases, users to have to spend hours recreating said level. From one player: "I had items ... that other people created of 'Sonic the Hedgehog' and a 'Metal Gear Solid' character. They couldn't just delete those items, they had to go and take the whole level?"

Even if users were given a warning, the EULA seems a bit flawed. It's sounds like (we don't have it here to get the details) it'd be comparable to posting, say, a videogame review on YouTube, and then having it removed because you didn't get permission to show clips of the game. The 'LittleBigPlanet' creations in question aren't official, but they couldn't they be confused as such either. On top of that, users aren't making money from it. If the content were pornographic, we could start to understand, but deleting peoples' levels because they have a character or level that resembles/was inspired, say, 'Super Mario Bros'? Isn't recreating the things we love part of the reason user-generated content is so great?

Head on to the official LittleBigPlanet forums for some frustration. [From: Wired]

Tags: customer service, CustomerService, littlebigplanet, sony

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