Super interesting FFXIV Materials Usage License changes worth noting ("Physical Items," with a carve-out for WoL stickers/cards, and more for online s

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So a Lodestone post went out that said they went and updated the FFXIV Materials Usage License, which is essentially "here's how you're allowed to use FFXIV stuff." As stated, they certainly added a ton of physical goods changes, but also made some changes across the board that are worth noting.

I'm using an Internet Archive link as a point of comparison.

Let's start with the "Guidelines for Creation of Physical Items" stuff, tl;dr:

  • "The item must be made by you personally."
  • Yes, it is okay to give physical goodies to others so long as it's free.
  • There's also a whole lot of restrictions about what you can and can't do, i.e. you're supposed to include a link/QR code to the License.
  • You can't 3D print nor use anything derived from AI generation.
  • Commissions of physical goodies aren't technically allowed, however...
  • There's an entire exception carved for mass production of stickers and cards of your character. Like, they literally explain what the WoL cards/stickers are, and that cards require your character + homeworld and/or a social media tag, and that stickers can have an illustration of their own character. There's zero misinterpreting that this is geared towards FanFest/etc.
  • You can't "imitate official merchandise or promotional items," including molding from them.

I'm not going to overly-broadly speculate the purpose of this or enforcement history or anything on reddit (fight club rule 1 blah blah), but they've 100% mentioned how they've considering selling printed WoL figures, so I'm comfortable wondering aloud if they're cracking down for that.

tl;dr peculiar "don't sell unofficial merch" guidelines with an explicit carveout for printers so they aren't worried about mass-producing WoL cards/stickers

Beyond physical goodies, there's also some general online video/etc changes that are worth calling out:

  • "When using the Materials, you must comply with the FINAL FANTASY XIV User Agreement and the Square Enix Account Terms of Use, and must not engage in any activity prohibited under those agreements." This wasn't in any prior version AFAIK. I can think of a lot of recent-ish events (and creators, and crimes) that caused them to put this in, given these rules are much stricter than...
  • "The Materials must not be used for the purpose of defaming, disparaging, or harassing others." - Before, there was explicitly a guideline that instead read: "The video must not contain racist, sexist, homophobic or generally offensive content of any kind. This includes graphic violence or sexually explicit content." In good faith, I'm going to assume this means they're broadening their definition of "harassment" into the License, especially given how the ecosystem of content creators often leans into the "well, it's not technically against the rules" excuse (even though XIV has rules against out-of-game bullying anyway). Also see the prior new inclusion of the User Agreement, which, again effectively includes aforementioned rules.
  • You may not make excessive edits or alterations to the Materials. Hello, billboard.
  • Music from FINAL FANTASY XIV may only be used in videos from FINAL FANTASY XIV gameplay footage, screenshots, or other in-game visual assets. Significant because the rule that creators can "only use music as it is incorporated in FFXIV" is gone - not that this was particularly enforceable, but I assume they mean you can "legally" blast "Pa-paya" to your Ultimate prog now.
  • Some other peculiar removals, specifically the "in conjunction with any of the following" one, and the one claiming that video content can't be behind "paid membership."

There's some other stuff but these are the big hitters.

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