Pretty massive leap from running a community based, nostalgia based emulator that has been discussed and run in accordance with the demands of the IP holder and creating a rogue project with no blessing that completely changes how people interact with the IP and monetizes it in the process. With none of those proceeds benefiting the proper party (the IP owner).
Its always been extremely clear that monetization of any project using Everquest IP was a hard no for the IP owner. Its why the P99 staff has always been 0 tolerance, no questions asked, you're gone forever if you're found to do anything involving RMT. Anything short of that and the IP owner has been quite reasonable with supporting and sanctioning a community around classic and nostalgia based projects.
Take that a step further into litigation. Its extremely easy to litigate damage against your IP when a competitor is found to be using, altering, and profiting off your IP. Case and point the judge shut down THJ with a preliminary injunction prior to the trial even playing out in court. Its easy to pull up bank records and show user counts and monetary gains and compare them against the IP holder's internal monetary performance being negatively impacted during the same timeframe. 100% of profits derived from Everquest IP are due in full to the IP owner, that is the whole point of IP existing.
It would, however, be much harder for the IP holder to make a claim of damages against a completely free, non monetized, historical representation of their IP that has 0 basis for impacting the economics (profitability) of their IP. Even if there wasn't an express written agreement between daybreak and the party (i.e. P99 or more recently Quarm). Knowing this the IP holder did the smart thing and decided to foster the community with the knowledge that it would likely only benefit the value of their IP by maintaining awareness. At the same time they ensured they had a hand at the table to work with these projects to avoid deal breakers like monetization and avoid the need for going after a project in court.
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