SWGEMU is based on the Star Wars universe which is copyrighted. Without permission to use it from disney it's illegal. Just like that WoW vanilla private server, once it became popular they shut it down. If SWGEMU becomes a big thing and money becomes involved they will shut them down.
they wont
Indeed. They might win and have to restart the game!
The SWGEMU is not based on the SW anything. It is code - we assume independently developed - whose only function is to allow people who legitimately bought the game to use their product. The operators are complicit in allowing people who - it could be argued were robbed by LucasArts through SoE - of continuing to use their legally purchased products.
Nor were the WoW emulator(s) based on WoW anything - just like the SWGEMU; just code. The operators were complicit in allowing people to play "WoW" in "breach of their IP usage agreement" i.e. not using Blizzard servers etc. They would be guilty of aiding and abetting an IP breach so they shut down.
Key difference - as mentioned by many. Official SWG servers shut. WoW servers open. So not "just like the WoW servers" at all.
There is also the rather interesting issue that SWGemu predates Disney acquiring the Star Wars IP, or EA for that matter with SW:TOR, so there is the time factor, if they were intending to do something about it, it probably should have been when they acquired those licences/rights to the IP, by now they may not have the legal footing with which to even make a case, or at least, not a particularly strong one. That its a game that was shut down and the only way to play it now is to use the emulator servers probably also is a huge factor, as is the requirement to own original disks for the game, so there is no question of loss of revenue as there is currently no company that has active SWG servers that would suffer loss of revenue because of the emulators. So for Disney or EA to file questionable charges against the SWGemu team etc. would probably risk a fairly significant amount of $$ for zero gain, whether they win or lose, and it doesn't appear to be so clear cut that you can call it one way or the other, not to mention there would be significant backlash in negative PR, something neither Disney or EA are likely to want to incur, particularly with nothing to gain financially, just look at how bad the backlash was from Nostalrius, and its not like they weren't doing something clearly illegal, even if it wasn't an older version of the current version of WoW, and even then Blizzard would probably have preferred to ignore them, but couldn't because they risked private servers for their game becoming legal, which, going back to SWG, because it has been several years now since SWG shut down, SOE was sold off, and the IP itself sold off from LA to Disney, and for how long SWGemu servers have been running for, can they be classed as being illegal now anyway, because i am not sure they can. Fortunately for me, i kept my SWG disks, even the beta version ones, maybe one of these days i'll reinstall them and see just how well SWGemu is managing.
I'm surprised because lucas arts was quick to shut down a cool star wars mod for Quake a VERY long time ago.
The people who made the mod for Quake - we can assume - will not have applied to LucasArts for IP use. They would have to have argued "fan use" etc.
In the case of SWG people bought (non-exclusive, single copy etc.) use from LucasArts through SoE.
So basically unpaid IP use vs. purchased IP use.
The quake mod was for a game directly competing with SW battlefront at the time.
That, it could be reasonably argued, could cost LA revenue sales from the BF games, even tho it was a mod for another product.
The EMU on the other hand, already uses data that was paid for by customers (original SWG disks of one kind or another) to LA/SOE for the use of that data, and is not a separate product for which '"someone" is being paid.
There are really 2 parts to this whole thing: "fair use" doctrine goes to people being able to use what is on the disks, and the "fan art" exception to copyright law covers what is being done with the code for the server.
People claiming the EMU is "illegal" need to educate themselves on the specifics of each part, if they do not want to keep being wrong.
Technically its legal. If you bought a multiplayer game and the company that holds its rights no longer offers service for that game, you are legally allowed to use an emulator or the server engine to play it on a local network.
I am fairly sure that there was someone that tried to pass such a law to allow that but failed. Not legal. Or rather, its not against the law but there is a possible civil liability.
Comments
That its a game that was shut down and the only way to play it now is to use the emulator servers probably also is a huge factor, as is the requirement to own original disks for the game, so there is no question of loss of revenue as there is currently no company that has active SWG servers that would suffer loss of revenue because of the emulators.
So for Disney or EA to file questionable charges against the SWGemu team etc. would probably risk a fairly significant amount of $$ for zero gain, whether they win or lose, and it doesn't appear to be so clear cut that you can call it one way or the other, not to mention there would be significant backlash in negative PR, something neither Disney or EA are likely to want to incur, particularly with nothing to gain financially, just look at how bad the backlash was from Nostalrius, and its not like they weren't doing something clearly illegal, even if it wasn't an older version of the current version of WoW, and even then Blizzard would probably have preferred to ignore them, but couldn't because they risked private servers for their game becoming legal, which, going back to SWG, because it has been several years now since SWG shut down, SOE was sold off, and the IP itself sold off from LA to Disney, and for how long SWGemu servers have been running for, can they be classed as being illegal now anyway, because i am not sure they can.
Fortunately for me, i kept my SWG disks, even the beta version ones, maybe one of these days i'll reinstall them and see just how well SWGemu is managing.
That, it could be reasonably argued, could cost LA revenue sales from the BF games, even tho it was a mod for another product.
The EMU on the other hand, already uses data that was paid for by customers (original SWG disks of one kind or another) to LA/SOE for the use of that data, and is not a separate product for which '"someone" is being paid.
There are really 2 parts to this whole thing: "fair use" doctrine goes to people being able to use what is on the disks, and the "fan art" exception to copyright law covers what is being done with the code for the server.
People claiming the EMU is "illegal" need to educate themselves on the specifics of each part, if they do not want to keep being wrong.