Blizzard sues emu wow server and wins 88million dollars

[jyaku]

yea it's because he charged, if you use something thats copywritten without making money on it your fine, but the minute you start making money from it you have to pay to use it

[Itchybottom]

Originally Posted by jyaku [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

yea it's because he charged, if you use something thats copywritten without making money on it your fine, but the minute you start making money from it you have to pay to use it

I keep seeing this, but it's quite false. I'm not a lawyer, but I've read a few cases where the plaintiff has been successful at shutting down a resource, or suing the person for copyright violation.

Intellectual property such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft emulated servers fall under derivative work clauses in copyright law. You can borrow quite a few things (ideas) from something like EverQuest or WoW lore, but there isn't really a clean cut and dry definition of law on fictional characters, lore, worlds, and names that have clear copyrights in such an environment. This grey area is a real bear to tackle and will get you screwed if anything ever gets as far as a court date. When it comes to infringing on a copyright, the plaintiff just needs to prove that the work in question has been based upon the original copyrighted work. The rulings of note usually stipulate "Translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form which a work may be recast, transformed or adapted." Clearly, Project 1999 falls into this category.

Like the actual lawyer that posted on this forum though, I'm not worried.

[Reiker]

SoE shut down Winter's Roar (came back as Shards of Dalaya) for about a year. That was a long time ago and hasn't happened since.

[corradojeff]

Originally Posted by Itchybottom [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I keep seeing this, but it's quite false. I'm not a lawyer, but I've read a few cases where the plaintiff has been successful at shutting down a resource, or suing the person for copyright violation.

Intellectual property such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft emulated servers fall under derivative work clauses in copyright law. You can borrow quite a few things (ideas) from something like EverQuest or WoW lore, but there isn't really a clean cut and dry definition of law on fictional characters, lore, worlds, and names that have clear copyrights in such an environment. This grey area is a real bear to tackle and will get you screwed if anything ever gets as far as a court date. When it comes to infringing on a copyright, the plaintiff just needs to prove that the work in question has been based upon the original copyrighted work. The rulings of note usually stipulate "Translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form which a work may be recast, transformed or adapted." Clearly, Project 1999 falls into this category.

Like the actual lawyer that posted on this forum though, I'm not worried.

Rogean has already replied to a post similar to one with these same points:

Originally Posted by Rogean [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yes it is legal, because A) We do not distribute copyrighted files, B) We do not charge people to play, therefor we are not making any sort of money or profit off of the intellectual property of SOE, and C) SOE Grants, in their user agreement, a license to utilize Everquest names and art, to all accounts in good standing:



Some say that it is not legal due to the following clause in the user agreement:



However, statements like these in a user agreement do not constitute legality, they merely serve as a guideline that if broken can terminate your usage of their services.

[Itchybottom]

Originally Posted by corradojeff [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Rogean has already replied to a post similar to one with these same points:

I'm not talking about EULA violation, I'm talking about regular copyright law.

[Aum]

Theres a quote somewhere of Rogean(I believe) saying he spoke to Smed at the fanfaire, that SoE knows about p99, and that it's not at risk of being shut down.

edit:

Originally Posted by Rogean [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I was in vegas for 7 days overlapping fanfaire and poked in there a few times. Through some connections I got to meet smedley face to face. Hes not interested in trying to do anything to us, as long as we don't charge / profit.

Notice I said trying.. because even if they did decide to, we really don't do anything illegal to begin with (Intellectual Property is only illegal to profit from).

[Elissa]

Originally Posted by Aum [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Theres a quote somewhere of Rogean(I believe) saying he spoke to Smed at the fanfaire, that SoE knows about p99, and that it's not at risk of being shut down.

edit:

As some of you may have seen me post before, the cases and intellectual law are not quite so cut and dry as to allow use of another's intellectual property so long as you do not profit from it (in some cases you CAN profit, actually, but that doesn't mean nonprofitable uses are always okay). There are many nuances to consider and if SOE wanted p99 gone, it more than likely would be without substantial funds to fund a defense. Even with a funded defense, the legal ground is certainly not clear in this case.

Nonetheless, aside from Smed and Rog themselves saying there's nothing to worry about, given everything else, some brief research and my own personal experience, I would tend to agree we're really not in any danger.

Woooo! (oh yeah, i'm a lawyer)