Open Letter in Response to Recent Changes in Terms of Use
Background:
Original Letter: https://x.com/cyndifusic/status/2107281580700164503
For archival purposes, a mirror of the open letter follows.
October 5, 2026
To: support@speedrun.com
To the staff of speedrun.com,
This email comes from the community leaders of Wii Series Speedrunning. We handle a series of 12 “Wii”-branded games including ones like Wii Sports and Wii Play, and we’ve been using your website for over a decade. So we remember what you said in 2021, when you reversed the first removal of Creative Commons licensing from our run data. You said you “strongly believe in SR.C as an open platform for use by communities”, and that you “see it as [your] job to keep this information available online forever”. After nearly 200 comments on your terms of use update, it’s evident the broader speedrunning community overwhelmingly disagrees with your new definition of “available”. We are no different.
The prominent explanation you provide is that the world has changed. People are scared about how generative Al services have reshaped the online world, and speedrunners are at the forefront of that apprehension. So naturally, that’s where you’ve steered the conversation. Sadly, you say, Creative Commons was a dream of a different time, one where Al bots weren’t harvesting all our data. But what exactly were we supposed to do about that before? You’re a couple years late. We’re all dealing with the growing compromise of our personal information, including things frankly far more pressing than how fast we completed a round of 9-hole golf. Even beyond that, as people have begun to vocalize in your comments, Al companies don’t care about licensing policies, and in fact often intentionally ignore them. One user even likened your copyright to “a cardboard sign saying ‘bots go away’”. Upon a closer read of your post, other lines start to jump out more, such as “putting leaderboards on another site or scraping them now needs our okay first”. Hey, wait a minute. Putting leaderboards on another site? What does that have to do with any of this?
This is the elephant in the room, and there’s no more time to talk around it. You have competition. Particularly, the continued development of therun.gg has changed speedrunning, and you’re well aware of the recent beta launch of their own leaderboard system. Over the past two weeks, we’ve been working behind the scenes with therun developer Joey to test his leaderboard maintenance features with our games. The games we oversee are unique in nature from most traditional speedrun category schemes, and have unique needs. Joey has gathered more feedback on those needs in a matter of days than speedrun.com has in years. And it’s not just us – the writing’s been on the wall for a while. With features like real-time LiveSplit integration and race interfaces, therun is building a dream for speedrunners. We know this is what you’re talking about in your safeguards against “substantially similar” websites to your own. What you’re offering instead are vague allusions to “new services”. No information has been provided about what you might bring to the table, besides that it’s planned for “coming years”. It is hard for us not to see this as a platitude rather than a proficient attempt to catch up with the modern era of speedrunning. To suppress modern speedrunning services in spite of that is something we cannot stand behind.
Beyond the existence of any competitor, the most important piece of criticism is the disservice to every individual user of your website. All of us are capable of evaluating the landscape of the modern internet. In our corner of it, the absolute freedom of information between every user and community has been foundational for as long as speedrunning has existed. Of course we know we individually own our runs – that is not adequate. We do not feel any differently about this in 2026 than we did in 2021, or in 2013 when the site was founded.
We, the organizers and moderators of Wii Series, believe strongly in the future of speedrunning, with new events on the horizon and the upcoming release of Nintendo Switch Sports Resort. If your terms of use stay the same, it is our express opinion that this future is incompatible with speedrun.com.
Sincerely,
Kataryn (cyndifusic), and:
– The Wii Series Speedrunning Admin Team:
cyndifusic, SMMidi, Plyd, dragonz, and CringeDaisy;
– The Wii Series Speedrunning Event Organizers:
SMMidi, Dqwavious, Plyd, MineXeniM, and cyndifusic;
– The Wii Series Speedrunning Leaderboard Moderators:
Wii Sports: Plyd, EmoadNomad, MrJimmysteel25
Wii Sports Resort: dragonz, Alaskaxp2, Benson, EmoadNomad, Zennan
Wii Sports Club: CedrikPle, EmoadNomad, Jonasty
Wii Play: cyndifusic, JayWaaking, Artemis, CedrikPle, SMMidi, Th3on3C
Wii Play: Motion: CedrikPle, JayWaaking, SMMidi
Wii Fit (Plus): dragonz, CountGooby
Wii Fit U: Cedrik Ple, TehWhack, dragonz
Wii Party: AdamLikeScars, Randomno, AmunSR, Zennan
Wii Party U: Cedrik Ple, TehWhack, Sowedu
Wii Music: 8vaLuigi, GaryJ, Shockwave TLS
Wii Chess: dragonz
Nintendo Switch Sports: Fleptypaper, theriverp, JadenPlayz, Major_tom
Multiple Wii Series Games: dragonz, ronan
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