This is a petition that has been created to encourage Giants Software to enforce and take action on paid modders who put mods behind paywalls no matter the severity of the case such as how much money being charged, or how long the mod remains behind the paywall. (More on that below.) This petition is due to many members of the FS community wanting to stand up and express the fact that modding is a hobby on a video game and that it should therefore never be taken advantage of to be used for any financial gain. We have decided to create this petition because as it stands now in 2024, due to the trend of paid modding in recent years, there are a concerning level of paid modders, and a ever shrinking amount of solely hobbyist "for fun" modders. This needs to be stopped before it becomes the norm. The goal of this petition is not just for them to enforce it, but to also take action. Sometimes the reports that are sent in to Giants regarding paid modders never result in action being taken. This petition is being made to raise awareness that they should be taking action more, and that it should be something of importance for Giants to worry about in order for the modders in the community to continue modding for one reason being, doing it for fun as a hobby, how it was intended to be from the start. 
 On top of that, Giants should also enforce this because this also goes against the official Farming Simulator Terms and Conditions. Here are two areas where we can see it being violated:

1."6.2 GIANTS grants the Customer usage rights to the GIANTS Editor free-of-charge and for the Customer's purely personal use."

 This is being violated as having paid mods encourage's the modders to begin modding with a business mindset and not solely for personal enjoyment of creating mods and use.

2."6.3 Mods created and uploaded by the Customer may only be made available to third parties free-of-charge and not for gain. Commercial use or use in return for payment is not permitted."
 This is being violated because no matter the circumstances of all modders be it time that the mod is being sold, or the intentions of the modder who is hiding the mod behind paywalls such as Patreons, they are still violating the Terms and Conditions as they are emitting intentions of using the game for commercial use and are making mods in return for payments from players. In short and simple terms, they are hiding mods behind a paywall, and are restricting your access to them unless you pay them money.  (Both of those Terms and Conditions are copy pasted and found directly on the Farming Simulator website:  https://www.farming-simulator.com/termsAndConditions.php?lang=en

On top of all that here is some more thoughts, and the reasoning as to what sparked the emergence of a critical increasing number and excessive amount of modders that put mods behind paywalls. Over the years, modders have been sneakily taking advantage of being able to be compensated for doing a hobby that consists of creating mods for a video game which in the end are simply just virtual copy paste-able mod files. Today, there are more modders that choose to involve compensation by money into their modding hobbies than ever. Due to it being a hobby where virtual copy paste-able video game mod files are is being created, they should not be compensated in the form of hiding any mods behind paywalls.

 Additionally, the amount of time of the mod being behind the paywall is irrelevant to the point of it still being behind a paywall and therefore breaking terms of service, and on top of that, not treating modding 100% like a hobby like it should. There are many modders who have for example, never needed a Patreon to be able to put mods behind for a testing period, yet they still in the end deliver a mod that they are satisfied with, without going thru a so required "testing phase" that is in reality not necessary. Many think they have to hold themselves up to this high standard of modding patterns and steps when at the end of the day, its really not even necessary. Anyways, I digress.

Do not confuse this petition as going against donations. We are all for modders having donation methods which CAN be methods such as Patreons WITHOUT mods behind paywalls, where loyal supporters can support their causes and passion for modding by being able to donate money to them. The issue is that greed and instinct has caused modders to begin putting mods behind these platforms.

So a message to all, it is possible and proven, that you can still make mods that you can be satisfied with, without involving any paywall at all. I can assure you that there is at least one mod in your folder, that you are satisfied with, but that involved no paywalls throughout the entire process of its' creation. This movement looks at modding this way. If modding is a hobby that you chose to start doing, it should be a passion that you want to do out of your own desire and therefore compensation while might appear as a "nice to have", is not a necessity. Many of the modders who have been around the community for years would probably agree. Additionally, having a large quantity of paid mods that are not open source for all in the community to share and enjoy together, will only create a bigger divide as there is no need for "capitalism" in a video game. We are all here to play the game, get away from real life, and share that passion while we have fun. So lets do that.

And with all that said just remember that it is violating Farming Simulator's Terms and Conditions that users must agree to when purchasing the game.