Xtopher Posted September 2, 2010 Report Posted September 2, 2010 (edited) So for those of you who don't know who Blizzard is they are the company that owns and runs World of Warcraft. They filed a lawsuit against a private server owner (Alyson Reeves) about a year or two ago and recently the courts reached a decision and have ruled in favor of Blizzard. They decided the owner of the pServer should pay about $85 million in damages, $3 million is disgorged profits and $64,000 in attorney fees. The private server in question has been proven to have made over $3,000,000 in revenues from "donations" through paypal from their users. Heres an article if you want to read the full thing: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29936/B...ment_Aga....php I thought this was a bit relevant to us seeing how we play a private server and I hope players not only appreciate the time/effort spent into making the server fun but also appreciate the fact that people like Genesis put their own necks on the line in order for us to play. Of course Genesis isn't making millions from us and of course we are no where near as large of a community (the $85 million was based off of 427,000 members @ $200 each). But, the case does set precedent and makes it much easier for other gaming companies to sue private servers and win. WoW is a much more popular game and Blizzard is a pretty big company so I don't think RO players have as much to worry about though. Edited September 2, 2010 by Xtopher
xBiscuit Posted September 2, 2010 Report Posted September 2, 2010 I heard from a friend maplestory private servers even got shut down once. I find it hysterical.
Veracity Posted September 2, 2010 Report Posted September 2, 2010 That's... a lot of money. Wow. Hopefully this won't be happening with RO private servers. I have to agree that it would be more unlikely, or at least I would hope so. WoW is much more popular than RO. In fact, I believe that the official European RO server is getting shut down this month. :l
Guest xonchu Posted September 2, 2010 Report Posted September 2, 2010 naahhhh xD fRO wont get shut down.. i just started LOL
bankai` Posted September 3, 2010 Report Posted September 3, 2010 Wahhhhhhhhhhhh forsaken ro is getting sued by official server wahhhhhhhhhhhh WHAT?! /gg
Guest xonchu Posted September 3, 2010 Report Posted September 3, 2010 naahh that wont happen.... i love FRO so its not getting off :D
Rayray Posted September 3, 2010 Report Posted September 3, 2010 if Gravity would sue private servers, they have to sue eAthena first :p
Poringly Posted September 3, 2010 Report Posted September 3, 2010 That's... a lot of money. Wow. Im impressed that they have to pay lot's of money too, How many money does the admin got anyway? o-o;
Veracity Posted September 3, 2010 Report Posted September 3, 2010 I meant how much Blizzard was suing them. That's crazy! I agree with Zero, I think they'd go after eAthena first. I guess a few years ago Gravity actually did send out letters to some of the smaller private servers warning them but no action was ever taken, so... I sure hope fRO will be fine, I think it will be. It's different with WoW because the founding company is based in the US too... Since Gravity isn't, I imagine it would be more difficult to take action. They are aware of private servers though. I saw something on eA where people said they actually stole items that people had made for private servers and added them to iRO, lol.
bankai` Posted September 3, 2010 Report Posted September 3, 2010 I meant how much Blizzard was suing them. That's crazy! I agree with Zero, I think they'd go after eAthena first. I guess a few years ago Gravity actually did send out letters to some of the smaller private servers warning them but no action was ever taken, so... I sure hope fRO will be fine, I think it will be. It's different with WoW because the founding company is based in the US too... Since Gravity isn't, I imagine it would be more difficult to take action. They are aware of private servers though. I saw something on eA where people said they actually stole items that people had made for private servers and added them to iRO, lol. it's a win win situation
Guest xonchu Posted September 4, 2010 Report Posted September 4, 2010 i would hate RO if they sue fRO :O
Xtopher Posted September 4, 2010 Author Report Posted September 4, 2010 (edited) I really don't believe Fro is likely to be sued at all. First of all we have generally like 200-350 ppl on at once so our community is very small compared to this WoW server. I don't know how many people donate nor how much donation revenue the server makes but I'm 99.9999% certain that it isn't anywhere close to the $3,000,000 that the Admin of the WoW server made... I've seen Genesis mention paying out of his own pocket, so if anything we're around at a very small margin of funding... maybe even negative at times. The way the court system works is that if she (the admin of the WoW server) is sued for $88 million then she will pay everything she has, the court will liquidate all of her belongings (house, car, all assets) and give all of this money to Blizzard. She'll have to file for bankruptcy for this to happen seeing how there is no way she's going to just fork over 88 million. After all her assets are liquidated then she'll probably serve some jail time and once she gets out she won't owe Blizzard anymore money... she'll have to completely start over in life. The Admin here was most likely warned before charges were pressed. Most companies send a warning if they feel you are infringing on their property and demand that you stop. She was probably just dumb and didn't take their advice or change her way of doing things... It's hard for a company to overlook someone making millions off of their property. Edited September 4, 2010 by Xtopher
