Short answer? Yes.

Before I say this, I just want to say it's not my intention to steal credit for any content or make any money off this content. Obviously. While I've found ways to host content for a much cheaper price than some others in the community, I've still put this all together at my own personal expense in terms of both time and money. 

 

That being said, the way that most TOUs work requires that works aren't reposted by anyone except the original creator(s) and while I understand that, it's lacking. It's not hard to see that most authors don't consider the future of their work for a video game modding community. This is especially true since the time that most of this work was authored (2000s/early 2010s) the community was still playing a game that was either in active development and, in the case of the earliest content, hosted on servers financed by creators that would shut servers down the moment that they were no longer really interested in the community. 

 

Then, of course, there is the issue of how much work in the community is incremental. So much content is actually developed and then remixed. Due to the way that people wrote TOUs, it also meant that most of the time that this content couldn't be packaged together, people might have to go find a recolor on one website only to need to find the mesh on another website that doesn't exist anymore. This is the reason I don't subscribe to the "taking my ball and going home" model of community. Often, taking your entire library of content offline is going to affect someone else's work, and they won't be able to share that content if they respect the TOU.  

 

I really feel similarly about the way that much of our culture treats fanworks. While this is specific to The Sims community I think that it's not hard to see how this may affect not just other modding community or gaming communities but fanwork in the vein of fanfiction as well. (As an aside, I think it's also important since there has been a small group of creators that will often use 3D models made by The Sims community for other uses which I've always really been fond of. Seriously, keep an eye and you'll find assets made by our community show up in other modding scenes)

 

And, if you actually read TOUs, you'll see that many creators use them as if they were legally binding and some of the requests made are beyond ridiculous. While 'not wanting content to be shared by anyone except the author' as a rule that exists in perpetuity regardless of the length of time since it's originally posting or if it can be accessed at least makes practical sense other requests aren't nearly as "reasonable". 

 

No, Tumblr user SimGirlLovesHorses98, I will not respect your request that your sim that I downloaded "Only be a vegetarian because it's important to his characterization". And while most of the community wouldn't respect such a TOU, why then would it respect a TOU that requests that a author's work be viewed as if it were to be respected when the author and the original hosting are long gone?