I remember reading that the ftc or fcc gave guidance on copyright software some time ago. If a company stops supporting software, the users are free to use said software as they see fit. They just can't modify and resale the software. Example: company I used to work for used a version of "insert name for mrp" that they could no longer buy more user licenses for, so the boss hired a coder to modify the software to allow us to have more users. What they did was legal, since they owned the software that wasn't supported. In regards to mmo's, they are considered to be a service I believe, so unless somebody had permission or the copyright expired, a person/company can't just re-launch a mmo. They could(not 100%) however, have a private server that was free for players. When I read about copyright lawsuits, it usually revolves around the host (not legal provider) is profitting from the copyrighted software.
Roses are red Violets are blue The reviewer has a mishapen head Which means his opinion is skewed ...Aldous.MF'n.Huxley
Should they forfeit the right to tell people they're not allowed to create privately owned servers?
Discuss~
Why would the give up the right to sell a product, just because no one is currently paying for it?
He didn't say anything about selling.
i think game companies shouldn't be obligated to grant the rights, but as a matter of goodwill, they should just let people run private servers as long as those people are not profiting off it.
Should they forfeit the right to tell people they're not allowed to create privately owned servers?
Discuss~
Why would the give up the right to sell a product, just because no one is currently paying for it?
He didn't say anything about selling.
i think game companies shouldn't be obligated to grant the rights, but as a matter of goodwill, they should just let people run private servers as long as those people are not profiting off it.
The options that allow private servers are:
1. Create your own server code, and use an existing client (allowed even if game is still in operation)
2. Steal server code, and use an existing client (not legal, regardless of game status).
The assumption would be that this is about option #2, as it is the only option that is not already allowed. This would remove the ability of the company to sell its product, as stolen version of this are now in use.
if a game shuts down i think the company should allow people to find their own way to play it.
With that said, i can see why they dont allow it. If they cant make money of their game, nobody else can. While its a bummer, its their property so we cant argue with that.
Instead of shutting the game down i would say they could try and sell it or something.... not all games shut down because they are bad.
I think the issue some private servers has is the fact that, the one's running them can't do it by themself. The use advertising on there website to reward players with in-game items, etc. In exchange to have those ads clicked and make the site some money. The fact they do money off the game itself is not legal. Plus they don't pay tax like they should to the government by doing this.
That is why at this point lot's of people including me do not support them. They do have a good idea and it is fun to see some would love a game enought to try to run there own servers, but the fact they cry foul when they get shutdown and knowing fair well that they are the one's in the wrong is just stupid. IF you want to run a private server you msut do it from your own pockets or with your fellow friends and players but not by making profit off the game itself. The owners of those private server and the players you pitch in to keep the hosting alive and the game runing but that is it. There is a reason in the first place why the game was shutdown by its owner in the first place.
I'd love to see NCSoft sell the rights to some company to release an english version of Lineage 1. All we have are private servers for that game. Some of them are okay, but an official version that uses their latest client (but translated to english) would be amazing. Free to play, with a sensible cash shop, I believe it would do well.
By law software developers are required to provide you reasonable access to any digital property you have purchased.
I thought there already was a lawsuit in the US courts based on that premise. People who paid for MMO clients no longer have access to their software due to the company shutting down the MMO. This wouldn't apply to most free-to-play MMOs but there are still plenty that charged for client downloads at least when they first released.
OP: They don't have any legal ground to prevent people from running privately-owned servers as long as the servers don't violate copyright law. From what I understand, the server code is almost always created from scratch due to the difficulty of obtaining the code from the company.
Define reasonable...
I ersonally think 10 years of access is still reasonable for MMOs... somewhere some judge should have an opinion on this...
Well the kicker is some digital property land for example in Entropia is considered real property by law. The precedent has been set and established by law when the world bank group purchased a sizeable digital presence of in game property at a price tag over a million euros.
Now is there a difference between an online digital bank building inside a video game that cost a million and a digital hat that cost a dollar? The law would say no if the courts are now recognizing digital property as real property under right of law.
However now that a precedent has been established and property rights have been established,. ( shrug )
Could a land owner sell me a house on his land, then put up a fence and lock the gate not letting me get to the house he sold me?
Could mcdonalds sell me a coke at the driveup window take my cash then lock the window and say sorry we are closed.
Well for me, I think the company has the rights to forbid the players from creating a private server. Private servers ruined some official server of it. Private server train players to become lazy. Some players who don't want to experience grinding for a long time choose P servers. Furthermore, P servers reduces the number of players of official server game. Just like my game, Rohan, there are lot of P servers out there. But some players still choose the official server because they knew that when time comes, P server will shutdown too. All the money you spend on that server will be lost. Unlike on official server, they will last longer. Some Official server only close because of some problems in employee count.
Comments
Why would the give up the right to sell a product, just because no one is currently paying for it?
Roses are red
Violets are blue
The reviewer has a mishapen head
Which means his opinion is skewed
...Aldous.MF'n.Huxley
He didn't say anything about selling.
i think game companies shouldn't be obligated to grant the rights, but as a matter of goodwill, they should just let people run private servers as long as those people are not profiting off it.
The options that allow private servers are:
1. Create your own server code, and use an existing client (allowed even if game is still in operation)
2. Steal server code, and use an existing client (not legal, regardless of game status).
The assumption would be that this is about option #2, as it is the only option that is not already allowed. This would remove the ability of the company to sell its product, as stolen version of this are now in use.
if a game shuts down i think the company should allow people to find their own way to play it.
With that said, i can see why they dont allow it. If they cant make money of their game, nobody else can. While its a bummer, its their property so we cant argue with that.
Instead of shutting the game down i would say they could try and sell it or something.... not all games shut down because they are bad.
I think the issue some private servers has is the fact that, the one's running them can't do it by themself. The use advertising on there website to reward players with in-game items, etc. In exchange to have those ads clicked and make the site some money. The fact they do money off the game itself is not legal. Plus they don't pay tax like they should to the government by doing this.
That is why at this point lot's of people including me do not support them. They do have a good idea and it is fun to see some would love a game enought to try to run there own servers, but the fact they cry foul when they get shutdown and knowing fair well that they are the one's in the wrong is just stupid. IF you want to run a private server you msut do it from your own pockets or with your fellow friends and players but not by making profit off the game itself. The owners of those private server and the players you pitch in to keep the hosting alive and the game runing but that is it. There is a reason in the first place why the game was shutdown by its owner in the first place.
I'd love to see NCSoft sell the rights to some company to release an english version of Lineage 1. All we have are private servers for that game. Some of them are okay, but an official version that uses their latest client (but translated to english) would be amazing. Free to play, with a sensible cash shop, I believe it would do well.
Well the kicker is some digital property land for example in Entropia is considered real property by law. The precedent has been set and established by law when the world bank group purchased a sizeable digital presence of in game property at a price tag over a million euros.
Now is there a difference between an online digital bank building inside a video game that cost a million and a digital hat that cost a dollar? The law would say no if the courts are now recognizing digital property as real property under right of law.
However now that a precedent has been established and property rights have been established,. ( shrug )
Could a land owner sell me a house on his land, then put up a fence and lock the gate not letting me get to the house he sold me?
Could mcdonalds sell me a coke at the driveup window take my cash then lock the window and say sorry we are closed.
By law its the same thing.