Are parsers legal now?

[lackofwords]

http://support.na.square-enix.com/ru...seragreement_e

2. LICENSE LIMITATIONS

2.5 Data Mining. You may not intercept, mine or otherwise collect information from the Game using unauthorized third party software.

Is that clear enough?

Then again there is also this;

3. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES

3.5 Naming Right. You may not use any name or other intellectual property belonging to SQUARE ENIX or any other third party in your use of the Game (for example, naming a character after a celebrity, company, product, or superhero).

But as you know there's a bunch of Chuck Norris running around.

Also there is this;
http://support.na.square-enix.com/ru...la=1&tag=authc
FINAL FANTASY® XIV Materials Usage License; Effective August 11, 2010

For purpose of clarification, your use of the Materials on a website may not display any of Square Enix’s trademarked and/or copyrighted materials other than Materials authorized by the most current version of this license, which currently excludes any FINAL FANTASY XIV in-game video, music or vocal tracks captured by you or any third party. You will not alter the Materials or produce derivative works based on the Materials. You will not alter, remove or conceal any trademark or copyright notice that may be included on the Materials. You must immediately comply with any request by Square Enix to remove any or all Materials, as specified in a notice from Square Enix.

This means SE still holds the rights to strip away any user created Material on a website, including but not limited to FRAPs video of your game play, any altered works using the Material, or any music tracks. Will they use this against their users? Probably not since they aren't that evil, but they still reserve the legal rights to.

[Soukyuu]

http://support.na.square-enix.com/ru...seragreement_e

2. LICENSE LIMITATIONS

2.5 Data Mining. You may not intercept, mine or otherwise collect information from the Game using unauthorized third party software.

Is that clear enough?

Except the parser is getting it's data from the .txt files the game exports... for what purpose if not for analysis?

[Raldo]

Except the parser is getting it's data from the .txt files the game exports... for what purpose if not for analysis?

Yeah, I've always seen parsers as like... going through someone's trash and finding out what they ate by looking at the receipts they threw away. As always with legalese, it's up to interpretation, but I don't think they'll ever do anything about it. I don't see anything wrong with it, and I'm one of the ones that refused to use Windower for FFXI.

I am curious though... do they do anything to obfuscate their log files, or are they literally human-readable text files?

[Mychael]

Yeah, I've always seen parsers as like... going through someone's trash and finding out what they ate by looking at the receipts they threw away. As always with legalese, it's up to interpretation, but I don't think they'll ever do anything about it. I don't see anything wrong with it, and I'm one of the ones that refused to use Windower for FFXI.

I am curious though... do they do anything to obfuscate their log files, or are they literally human-readable text files?

Go to \My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV\user\######\log and open one. You can read it for yourself in Notepad. It's hard to read as a human because lines don't wrap, but still. Definitely human-readable.