There’s been a few threads now about what happened to Project Exile. I regret not having made an official announcement earlier, since it seems there’s been a lot of miscommunications about what actually happened.
The Project Exile thread on FEU was deleted after I asked Cirosan to take Project Exile off of FEU (to which he agreed). The decision was made due to reports of DMCA action being taken relating to Project Exile and derivative works (the specifics of which I’ve been asked to keep private, see below for a clarification). In some internal conversations, I described any kind of legal threat (such as that implicit in a DMCA takedown) as the nuclear option in the most literal sense, and I stand by that comparison. This wasn’t a decision lightly made; as slight as the possibility is, I will not take the chance that the “feuniverse.us” URL appears in any kind of legal filing (a risk compounded by FEU previously being listed as the definitive source of truth for PE in a few places). To this end, we’re keeping all Project Exile-related material off FEU for the time being; we may choose to revisit this stance in the future.
Next, regarding Zane’s decision to pull support, let me begin by saying that I am extremely disappointed with the resulting discourse from this community. Calling Zane “petty” or other responses “guilt trips” accomplishes nothing, especially without the benefit of inside information. I am sure that Zane’s decision was the result of significant agonizing on his part, and I would ask that people be understanding of that. Frankly, I think that the public conversation on this topic has reached its limits in general.
Now, to that end, FEU will be taking the same stance as if it were any other ownership dispute, such as sprite theft, and will be removing any content made with Zane’s tools against Zane’s wishes. In this case, the tools in question were not released publicly, but instead given privately to particular individuals with his explicit permission (Zane knows more and is welcome to make his particular stance clear if he wishes). From my point of view, this is the same situation as if BwdYeti decided to pull FEXNA permission from Staff of Ages.
As always, please feel free to message me or another staff member if you have any questions or concerns.