Question for the Mods.

[Tivia]

I do not see anything against it, and although I can be a pain in the but at times I generally try to abide by the rules. I needed to know if It was ok to post a little blurb about my little wow server project for any kitties who are not playing retail ffxi/wow any longer and are bored?

[Shirai]

Currently I'm not sure about Blizzard's policy about private servers.
Blizzard's own website and ToS isn't very clear about that either.

I'll be contacting them about their policy regarding private servers and get back to you on this.
(Don't worry I won't give out any server owner info.)

[edit]
I sent an e-mail, pending Blizzards official reply.

[Tivia]

Np let me know.

It is a vague law essentially, so long as the Server is open source and not in direct copyright violation, there is no legal issue about people connecting to it with blizzards client.

But yes it is vague and a loophole. If you want to know ahead of time I would only be mentioning the site address and what it is in a post..probably this one if given the all clear. I see no reason to go into any kind of advertising mess, everyone knows me pretty well at this point.

[Ambrey]

*ears perk up* WoW server project? Interesting. Send me a pm or something, sounds interesting. I play FFXI still on occasion and WoW as well.

[JediKitsune]

Np let me know.

It is a vague law essentially, so long as the Server is open source and not in direct copyright violation, there is no legal issue about people connecting to it with blizzards client.

But yes it is vague and a loophole. If you want to know ahead of time I would only be mentioning the site address and what it is in a post..probably this one if given the all clear. I see no reason to go into any kind of advertising mess, everyone knows me pretty well at this point.

I haven't yet seen an MMO company that approved of private servers, so I doubt Blizzard appreciates people playing their game without them receiving subscription fees.

From http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html

Limitations on Your Use of the Service.

1. Only Blizzard or its licensees have the right to host the Game. You may not host or provide matchmaking services for the Game, or intercept, emulate or redirect the proprietary communication protocols used by Blizzard in connection with the Program, regardless of the method used to do so. Such prohibited methods may include, but are not limited to, protocol emulation, reverse engineering, modifying the Program, adding unauthorized components to the Program, or using a packet sniffer while the Program is running.

I believe this would give Blizzard the right, if they found out, to issue a cease & desist.

[Shirai]

I got an official reply from Blizzard:

Hello George,

While I understand your desire for a more personal experience with the game, I regret to inform you hosting or connecting to a server for private use is not authorized by Blizzard Entertainment and is against the End User License Agreement (EULA). Because creating a quality gaming environment requires around-the-clock supervision by our specialized database and development teams this also requires us to have immediate access to our data centers. Moreover, this allows us to implement and analyze patches, upgrades and any other necessary back end maintenance as the need rises.

For further information I recommend you visit our EULA information site http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/eula.html .

Thanks Sincerely,

The link gave me the following under 4>B>IV

(iv) facilitate, create or maintain any unauthorized connection to the Game or the Service, including without limitation any connection to any unauthorized server that emulates, or attempts to emulate, the Service. All connections to the Game and/or the Service, whether created by the Game Client or by other tools and utilities, may only be made through methods and means expressly approved by Blizzard. Under no circumstances may you connect, or create tools that allow you or others to connect, to the Game's proprietary interface other than those expressly provided by Blizzard for public use.

And Jedikitsune gave another statement.

Unfortunately I cannot allow you to place direct links on the forum regarding this.

[Tivia]

No worries, I knew what their response in general would be.

However I had to lol at the actual response Shirai got back. That is just too funny how it is worded.

[Kahvi]

aw, you should have told them you wanted to make a Night Elf Mohawk and have skill trees of A-Team, WWF Old School, and Awesome

[Okuza]

Realistically, you probably only need to worry about your server project if you become a noticeable success. There are a lot of different ways they can shut you down -- even down to basic copyright infringement. Despite the fact that the server side is completely clean from any copied code, you're still essentially telling an interactive story using Blizzards art (the art on the client); ie. server tells client what to display and client displays it -- and what it displays is copyrighted by Blizzard.

If you're very low profile and obviously not drawing people away from the game, no one will care. If you get popular and people start all clambering to setup their own servers and ditch blizzards pay-servers, you could be in for a legal nightmare even if you give the source away for free -- especially if they can show that you hurt their business.

Even a pinprick money-wise to blizard would be like bambi versus godzilla for you.

[xaresity]

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[xaresity]

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