Legal Issues

[Ohai]

So I have a question I guess there are experienced people here that are running private servers and could explain it, so basically I would like to know when does Blizz or Activision or whoever decide you're violating some terms or something and sue you or block your donations account, close domains etc.?

Because it doesnt seem very clear, I mean I know there are large private servers like molten that take donations and stuff they're obviously operating something 'legal' and not getting sued, and then there are servers that get shutdown? Is it a problem if its not blizz-like, custom content?

[stoneharry]

Blizz doesn't give two shits.

In the past there have been servers making stupid amounts of money, and Blizzard didn't like this. So they sent some C&D letters, saying stop now or we will sue you.

All the servers that got these letters shutdown apart from one (WoWScape) which decided it could avoid it by renaming to ScapeGaming. Blizzard then took them to court, won, and Blizzard were awarded $80 million in damages. Copy of lawsuit: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/110 ... plaint.pdf

This was years go (2009). Since then Blizzard hasn't sent any more C&D letters regarding emulation, and does not do much to make emulation any harder.

Botting on the other hand Blizzard is very serious about and actively pursues people.

edit: By a lot of money, Blizzard estimated that WoWScape/ScapeGaming made $1.5 million.

[Ohai]

Blizz doesn't give two shits.

In the past there have been servers making stupid amounts of money, and Blizzard didn't like this. So they sent some C&D letters, saying stop now or we will sue you.

All the servers that got these letters shutdown apart from one (WoWScape) which decided it could avoid it by renaming to ScapeGaming. Blizzard then took them to court, won, and Blizzard were awarded $80 million in damages. Copy of lawsuit: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/110 ... plaint.pdf

This was years go (2009). Since then Blizzard hasn't sent any more C&D letters regarding emulation, and does not do much to make emulation any harder.

Botting on the other hand Blizzard is very serious about and actively pursues people.

K nice thats what I wanted to hear I guess, encouragement    GG blizz
So in the final steps I would have to worry only on ddos attacks and maybe other servers ripping my content lol ;b

[Amaroth]

If you keep safe long passwords and are very careful with where you have them saved/written and who knows them, then yup, you are pretty much safe today. Blizzard knows very well that communities like private servers or Modcraft/Ownedcore/TrinityCore/others are huge advertisement for WoW, like world editor was for W3. It helps keeping this game alive, even while there is so huge amount of rivals in MMO genre. They simply can't afford destroying us. When they were nearly alone, they (almost) could. Not today. Not today.

[Ohai]

Blizzard knows very well that communities like private servers or Modcraft/Ownedcore/TrinityCore/others are huge advertisement for WoW, like world editor was for W3. It helps keeping this game alive, even while there is so huge amount of rivals in MMO genre.

Yea I agree, I mean I heard about them suing those that made the first p.server ever back in vanilla and made huge profit what Harry wrote, it was just I've seen this guy post here recently that he's leaving AnthonysToolbox cos he got his paypal closed but I guess it was cos he used other games content and put it into wow. Yea I guess Blizz knows how huge they are and they dont really need to close them anymore

[phantomx]

Blizzard knows very well that communities like private servers or Modcraft/Ownedcore/TrinityCore/others are huge advertisement for WoW, like world editor was for W3. It helps keeping this game alive, even while there is so huge amount of rivals in MMO genre.

Yea I agree, I mean I heard about them suing those that made the first p.server ever back in vanilla and made huge profit what Harry wrote, it was just I've seen this guy post here recently that he's leaving AnthonysToolbox cos he got his paypal closed but I guess it was cos he used other games content and put it into wow. Yea I guess Blizz knows how huge they are and they dont really need to close them anymore

He didn't just get his paypal closed and it wasn't for using content from other games it was because a good number of things either way if paypal finds out you're receiving income by using an IP that doesn't belong to you then they will close your account and also charge you a pretty hefty amount.

[Ohai]

He didn't just get his paypal closed and it wasn't for using content from other games it was because a good number of things either way if paypal finds out you're receiving income by using an IP that doesn't belong to you then they will close your account and also charge you a pretty hefty amount.

Umm he said himself complaint was - The Distributions of Game Hacks and Copyrighted Materials. But I've read paypal is bad and unstable, accounts can get frozen easily

[phantomx]

He didn't just get his paypal closed and it wasn't for using content from other games it was because a good number of things either way if paypal finds out you're receiving income by using an IP that doesn't belong to you then they will close your account and also charge you a pretty hefty amount.

Umm he said himself complaint was - The Distributions of Game Hacks and Copyrighted Materials. But I've read paypal is bad and unstable, accounts can get frozen easily

He didn't post about every thing and yes paypal is bad when you're doing illegal things like getting money for an IP that does not belong to you.

[Ohai]

You wrote he didnt get just paypal closed, what else did he get, closed bank accounts? If so obviously someone sued him

[phantomx]

You wrote he didnt get just paypal closed, what else did he get, closed bank accounts? If so obviously someone sued him

No one sued him I'm not going off of what he posted I'm going off of what him and I have talked about.

It was a lot worse then a sue lets just leave it at that.

[stoneharry]

What you are discussing is actually posted about here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8338

TL;DR: He was an idiot for leaving all his money in a company known for withholding money.

[phantomx]

What you are discussing is actually posted about here: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8338

TL;DR: He was an idiot for leaving all his money in a company known for withholding money.

I'm aware of that post but he didn't post the entire situation.

P.S

All I'm trying to say is that you're not going to be 100% safe when you receive money for an IP that doesn't belong to you, there are ways to increase your chances to not get in trouble but you will never be 100% safe.

Blizzard has invested a lot of their money into this IP they have all the right to go after who ever they want you don't even own your wow account they do all you do is rent game time any who don't worry about it unless you become a threat to blizzard or someone rats you out to paypal or w.e you will be fine.

[Ohai]

You wrote he didnt get just paypal closed, what else did he get, closed bank accounts? If so obviously someone sued him

No one sued him I'm not going off of what he posted I'm going off of what him and I have talked about.

It was a lot worse then a sue lets just leave it at that.

Well ok lol, but for the sake of this thread and people interested in such legal matters about their server maybe you could share some advice, guidance .p you are in a forum lol

[phantomx]

You wrote he didnt get just paypal closed, what else did he get, closed bank accounts? If so obviously someone sued him

No one sued him I'm not going off of what he posted I'm going off of what him and I have talked about.

It was a lot worse then a sue lets just leave it at that.

Well ok lol, but for the sake of this thread and people interested in such legal matters about their server maybe you could share some advice, guidance .p you are in a forum lol

A good step forward is to host your server in a place like Russia or the UK if you host it in the USA your chances of getting busted just increase.

[stoneharry]

You wrote he didnt get just paypal closed, what else did he get, closed bank accounts? If so obviously someone sued him

No one sued him I'm not going off of what he posted I'm going off of what him and I have talked about.

It was a lot worse then a sue lets just leave it at that.

Well ok lol, but for the sake of this thread and people interested in such legal matters about their server maybe you could share some advice, guidance .p you are in a forum lol

A good step forward is to host your server in a place like Russia or the UK if you host it in the USA your chances of getting busted just increase.

Well that's bad advise. The UK is probably one of the worst places you an host it.

Honestly OP, it really doesn't matter. Blizzard are not going to give one shit about your small little server. It costs them a lot of money to take somebody to court. You won't be a target unless you start making significant money, in which case why are you doing this in emulation.

PayPal are just a shit company in general. If you make any significant money on that, even through charitable work, they can seize it and fuck you over for a long time, and it is a long process to get it back.

Use a more credibly provider and you won't have issues in that regard.