I'm developing a project using XNA to run over a local LAN consisting entirely of PC's with local profiles.  For this project I would like to implement text chatting and would just like to double check that this doesn't break any conditions of the EULA or anything else.  Looking at the document it appears to only forbid text chatting if running on Xbox 360, so I'm assuming because I'm only running on PC this shouldn't be an issue, yes?

On a side note, would anyone know if implementing text chat functionality is a particularly difficult thing to do through XNA?  I've not seen much, if anything, in way of text handling capabilities so far (although I am only just starting out so may have overlooked).

Thanks in advance for any replies :-)

The EULA covers networking using Live - so that is Windows and 360. If you want to do text chat on windows you need to implement it over your own networking. See the FAQ http://forums.xna.com/thread/40405.aspx

Here's the long chat that covered it http://forums.xna.com/thread/38389.aspx - a thread we had to lock due to the armchair lawyers....

Just to clarify, if I'm just using local profiles over LAN and not specifically Live (not sure if there is a distinction but I assumed that because I can use the former free of charge and have to pay for Live memberships/CC accounts for the latter, that there is a difference), then is text chat OK?

It's just that I read this in Microsoft's response to the EULA:

If you are implementing a solution that does not in any way interact with LIVE then this section would not apply.

and so thought it would be ok?

Thanks for the reply by the way.

We are not lawyers. If you are worried about breaking the EULA you will want to hire a lawyer to interpret that EULA and give his opinion. Anything coming out this forum should just be considered wild speculation. Hence why that other thread was locked.

Local Profiles are part of Live - (IANAL but that one seems kind of obvious to me...) - remove your references to XNA.Networking and see if it works.

If you want text chat use lidgren or System.Net or something else - thats what the EULA is telling you to do.

 

I agree.... If you are using the Gamer Services system in XNA you are using the Live system.

i Would agree that anything which utilizes the framework XNA gamerservices or net is considered apart of the LIVE regardless if its going anywhere. IMHO i would go along with the project and just dont spread it to far. If you are planning on spreading it then THIS LINKY will be your best bet to not breaking any eula agreements, and soon on www.ziggyware.com my tutorial on setting this up with XNA will be on and you can see exactly how to do it, although i must warn you, XNAs keyboard input for texting was never implemented which makes working with it to make a program to chat AWEFUL