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Are Free Servers Illegal?
Xamata
Member Posts: 12
I read a post by a staff of this site, they said that free ragnarok servers are most definetely illegal.. I wonder who here knows something about the law.
They mention that due to it being an international thing, these free servers are hard to shut down, it isn't simply because u would have to go to each country and get rid of the free servers, but because the laws are different in many countries. In Canada, where I live Kazaa is deemed legal, the best argument ever. The judge said, Kazaa is no different than like a library, people go into a library and get copyrighted material all the time, there are copying machines in most libraries. This partially refers to Ragnarok, if no one profits from the free server, than how is it illegal? Because someone is providing it, because they have program code their not spose to? I don't think so, their illegal because Gravity thinks they are just like the music industry thought Kazaa was illegal. It's new technology, how many people tape off TV? or off the radio? People say its illegal, but society accepts it like j-walking.
Do I have a point? Ya, if GRavity wants to own their game, they have to own their service, and they don't. Like a mechanic, what if Ford said only they could sell and maintenance their cars? If people want that they will do it, if they don't, than Ford may lose their market share. I'm sure some ppl who play in free servers may go to the official iRO server because they like it that much, others who don't feel it is worth it may go to a free server, supply and demand. I agree with this website's policy to back what's right, but saying it is illegal should be clarified, it's not illegal everywhere, and there is a reason for it.
Half-life 2 had their source-code leaked, so they delayed the game for that reason, to protect themselves. I've seen Gravity send hackers after large free servers, to crash them and make them go away, which violates so many other laws. Any hoot, the internet is one the best things so far in history, because things are freely accessed to everyone. If you want to control what you put on the internet that is your own problem, no one elses. There is no laws on the internet, people don't understand that. The only thing a government can do, is enforce laws on what you use the internet for, such as if you use it to steal, sabotage, slander, etc...
And IMO, free servers are not stealing, I stand by the judge of Canada, it's like a library if people use it for their own benefit and not profit, than it is not stealing, it's not illegal.
For admin, I'm not promoting or breaking any rules, this is a suggestive topic on international law which you inspired yourselves, but locked the topic you posted in. And if your promoting Gravity's ideal of democracy and copyright laws, than you should be supporting my free speech as well, just in case you want to do something to this post or me 
But who will guard the guards?
But who will guard the guards?
Comments
amen brother, amen
i take classes in networking and websites, as welll as admin for a network at my work, and i competely agree in what you said about how there is no law on the internet, only how you use it. and i condone people who sell private servers, but i know somebody who has a private server for just me and my friends, but yet i still play on iro. i pay my monthly due, but i dont see a problem with using my friends. if anyone disagrees with me, i would like to hear your agument
hmm. i never thought of it that way. but the reason why private servers r deemed illegal is because then the devs cant earn money...although for a game like dat to earn money, it shud have better graphics at least. the only good graphics in the game dat i found wus the npc pictures. anyways going back to the main topic, its true, it shouldnt be deemed illegal, as noting online should. its only deemed illegal because compaines are losing out on lots of money. but i say if u alrdy have millions, billions, trillions, why strive for more?
www.darknlight.com www.darknlight.net
^3rd generation mmorpg, not WoW or EQII with just their betta graphics, dis game is for everyone, whether ur a grinder, quester, group exper, w/e.
The best thing I've seen a company do is Valve, using Steam for Counter-strike and all half-life games, it gives them great control and marketing over their games. Hard to put in place but worth the effort, like the music industry glitching songs on p2p networks, or anything u download that needs to be constantly updated. You gotta take control of your products, as I say with the internet, all the businesses failed not because of what most ppl think. The dot com crash came from ppl thinking 'if you build it, they will come' businesses survived because they supplied what ppl wanted, usually convience of things that are harder to get to, like info or items from across the globe. Gravity and other companies don't understand this, because imo I think they are too old to realise how the new world is starting to work. Look at the job market, every new job that has increased the total amount of jobs in the world is for service. They should market stuff better and make people want to come to their servers, but I guess killing the competition is one way of marketing.
Rambling, on and on, no one cares. I'ma gonna go bed now.
But who will guard the guards?
But who will guard the guards?
IF the private server can:
alowwed more than 5000 players play together~
have better connection~
do not disconnect every 5 minute~
have creative event~
dun have crazy+foolish gm every where~
only then it is illegal~
but i dun think the Earth got this kind of private server~
Yea its illegal. Many pservers are allowed to happen as long as they are small though. but once they hit a number, like 100. Then the lawyers come in.
There is a very probably chance however that the game will become shareware since RO2 is coming.
Toughest rater in the world
Try to impress me, please, i dare u
lol gunblade im all english, well quarter irish but
i type how i talk, cant help it 
and im only sayin wat ive been told, i wudnt hav any idea really, i wud say its illegal but from wat ive told its not
Toughest rater in the world
Try to impress me, please, i dare u
This magical "data" you speak of is not under copyright, the STORY is however under copyright (magic as in it changes legality at the end of your 2:nd sentence). Emulating server software is legal, changing the CLIENT to be able to connect to emulated servers is illegal. (DO note: Asking for/linking to free RO servers isnt allowed in these forums).
This is why no private server owner has been succesfully been charged with copyright infrigment (think thats the correct law). All Gravity can do is send threatning emails to the server owner & the ISP, ISP:s dont care about emulation mumbo jumbo so they give in.
(There has been a trial on regarding private servers but the info & link is on a faulty harddrive).
[/b][/quote]This magical "data" you speak of is not under copyright, the STORY is however under copyright (magic as in it changes legality at the end of your 2:nd sentence). Emulating server software is legal, changing the CLIENT to be able to connect to emulated servers is illegal. (DO note: Asking for/linking to free RO servers isnt allowed in these forums).
This is why no private server owner has been succesfully been charged with copyright infrigment (think thats the correct law). All Gravity can do is send threatning emails to the server owner & the ISP, ISP:s dont care about emulation mumbo jumbo so they give in.
(There has been a trial on regarding private servers but the info & link is on a faulty harddrive).[/b][/quote]
indeed, also there is no point in making your own free server. just simply join someone elses[note:please be aware that free servers aren't directly connected to official gravity servers so if your friends on sakray or something like that or any other server as a matter of fact, you won't be able communicate or play with members on official or private servers...
Personally i encourage anyone to look into these things before they try them...
[in some cases people want to try the game but instead of trying the free trail(s) they try private servers then like the game and that server and the members on it get baned and the gravity bans their IP address]
Yes its pretty sad...but hey like i said look into to so-called illegal things before trying them, because your IP address is something precious , in english if they know it you ca be "IP banned" or could be tracked.
[
i have a website so i can do this to my users, never have though
]
www.frostphoenixgames.cjb.net
-I LOVE FF moogles
Indeed, the Private server community is huge, and I believe the now offical euRO servers where initially a PServer, but they had so many players gravity decided to cash in and make them pay.
Pservers are good too just for testing builds etc, that's the only use I really see them for.
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so let me get this strait, if i walked into your house and coppied your homework and then just left that would be perfectly okay with you?
its pretty much the same thing, im breaking into your home like hackers broke into gravity, coppied the source code, withought consent of the owner and used your homework even though it didnt cost you any finantial loss? just like the servers?
i use free servers because i cant afford to sink mony for a certain time period i can use a program, but i dont dellute myself to thinking my actions are justified
...That never happened. What was "taken" where user login details (name & pass). Gravity bought the code from some programmer but he realesed/leaked it. But regardless that doesnt matter, the "free/private"-servers EMULATE the Official RO server.
Emulating software is legal, changing files for the client to be able to play on free servers is not. <----This is all you need to read really.
No server owner has ever been found guilty of any crime. It all depends if the ISP/server owner caves into THREATS by Gravity. There are private servers going on for 5-6(?) years, they are not secret Gravity knows there address.
(Free servers are illegal as in YOU do something illegal to connect to it: modifying the client and/or its files).
As an experienced server owner, I know all about it. Some parts are legal and some are not. First is the server side. If you are using Gravity's trademarked AEGIS server software, it is indeed illegal. If you are using one of the emulators, it is not, according to the GNU that is. As for client side, if you mod the client, it is illegal. If you have an exe pointed to a connection info file, it is not illegal. I have been contacted by Gravity many times. They will mostlikley do nothing about it. If you get a phonecall or a snailmail message I suggest stopping your activities, or shutting down and reopening under a new name.
Catz....
So if they find you on a private server they delete the (other) account on Gravitys servers? No thats wishfull thinking from Gravity & a silly scare tactics. Gravity cannot "terminate" anything, its the server owner/ISP that decides if the server gets pulled or not.
(Gravity cannot acces server database due to whatever law is for "cyber terrorism/safety", if the private server gives account name/IP:s & such doesnt matter since Gravity cannot know if its fake or not).
He said in the philippines. In the states it is possible for Gravity to go after a server too, they just need to call law enforcement and tell them that thier data was stolen from the very same law protecting indivuduals from cyber terrorism, from there they need to get a judge to issue a search warrant by probable cause, which would allow them to search the private server owners system for any stolen content. The little pages saying that no gravity employee can view a page you see on private server sites is the scare tactic since there are lawful ways around it. The difference is Gravity hasnt used this yet, but it is still and always will be an option. From there they can sue for money lost due to the operation of the private server. This was the case with Project-Yare, thier emulator was found to have stolen content from the gravity produced Aegis engine. They reached a deal though and the site was converted into the euRO official site for several months in order to take some of the players, and the owner of the project-yare site had to pay a fine.
Don't be fooled they are illegal. The emulators and the servers all took bits and pieces from Gravity when cRO was hacked 3 years ago.
Hi there everyone.
Truth is, Ragnarok Emulators are not all Illegals. Theres 2 famous emulators out there, that I won't mention here. One of thoses is not illegal in any way. However the other one is for using one of gravity's piece of code. You also have to take into account your country's laws aswell, since it can be illegal here and not there, you can't know unless your read the laws.
I know a bunch of peoples that have/had private servers, and gravity never won against them. It doesn't hold up in court. Emulators aren't illegal, peoples who use gravity's clients to connect to private servers are. Its as simple as that.
Gravity will never, I repeat never, get ride of Private Ragnarok Servers. Theres just too many from alot of countries. I wish them good luck if they wana try going at it but it won't happen.
-----------------------------
Well anyway thats what I had to say lol.
If you play in a illegal server then Gravity will hunt you down and send US army into your house.
[/quote]changing the client is not illegal, it merely violates the eula, which results in only one thing: it gives gravity the right to delete your account on official servers, but gives them absolutely no legal leverage[/quote]
Exactly...the only thing that could be illegal is copyright infringement...or perhaps some crazy whacked out misuse of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act...which doesn't apply to the countries many of these are running in. The open source emulators are fully legal, while the Aegis server software is stolen from gravity's server (that was a fun week;)) and is...very illegal.
is there server hoppping in that game?? kinda like runescape lol (runescape very odd game and boring but addictive played for a month got addictided and after a month was really high level but then i feel really bad about playing i hope you make the right chocie)
yea thats my question are there server hopping and i mean can you go to one server one day and another another day?