Update:

Jameson Hsu of Mochi Media confirmed yesterday (1/27/2010) that Shanda does not intend to do anything with developer I.P. that would jeopardize Mochi’s standing in the development community.  This is great news.  We will continue to follow this story and report anything that might be of note.

Original story:

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How did we miss this?:
Mochi Media Acquired By Shanda Games For $80 Million

Great.  

Here is an article about these guys and their (alleged) notorious “Gold Farming” ways of old. Hopefully things have turned around a bit for them. Apparently Shanda has been trying to go legit (if in fact they needed to “go legit”, which is still a not quite clear) for a couple years, so this could be a positive step for Mochi, but it might also just be a way for their funders to finally get a payout.

However, one word of caution.  Remember this from Mochi Terms Of Service:

By submitting User Submissions to Mochi Media, or displaying, publishing, or otherwise posting any content on or through the Service, you hereby do and shall grant Mochi Media an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, modify, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, perform, and otherwise fully exploit the User Submissions in connection with the Service and Mochi Media’s (and its successors and assigns) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.

The old Mochi crew swore up and down that this was boiler-plate, and they would not actually enforce it.  What about now?  Are all bets off? 

Hmm.

Maybe the fine people at Mochi can clue us in.