World of Warcraft On Private Server...PLEASE READ.

[John Klyne]

http://forums.x10hosting.com/gamers-...tml#post564094 ...that was a post closed for that private servers are against WoW's terms of service.

Anyone want to argue as to why or how a private server can be 100% legal, and have at least 5 lawyers show me that they are illegal, if I do a couple of simple things to my WoW private server... ( I do not play WoW...though I did get a hold of their terms of service to read it and look this up...)

Okay here goes... my ways to making WoW Private servers legal...100%

When making a private server...you can not make money from it in any way or form. Let me repeat with a different set of words...the ToS Says if you profit from WoW the game in any way it is illegal.

Well...if you take donations, CONGRATS, that is 100% LEGAL to run your server...BUT!!! If you do take donations, 100% of them MUST BE USED on the server itself and it's employees...

This means, the server (the owner of the private server) can literally hire someone to make their server better...which is 100% legal, for that the person who owns the server does not make money. They only take donations, to help keep the server up and updated.

THAT IS IT! Okay tell me, where it says private servers are illegal, if 100% of any amount made while running the server, from the server is used on the SERVER ONLY????

That is right, there is no where that says you can't do that. BUT IT DOES SAY...you can't charege monthly for your private server, it does say, you can NOT PROFIT from the server....(well what if there is money left over at the end of the money from all donations...)

YOU MUST IN FACT, hold some short of contest giving AWAY THAT MONEY...NON-BIASED, making it 100% LEGAL.... : )

Well anyone want to argue and send me parts of the TOS that say you can't do this...own your own (100% NON-PROFIT) WoW Server??

[Kayos]

There really is no way to create a truly "legal" private server for retail games such as WoW. In some cases when a game gets shut down the only way to play it is through a private server. Even though they are technically illegal the developers wouldn't sue the operators.

[Divinorum]

Eventually you'll have to pay off Blizzard to keep up your server, or you can host it with someone that has a license to do it (paid server hosting.)

Or you can do a strictly non profit server and home host it like my friend does, and he can hold up to 9k people (before the connection starts getting tipsy, he has FIOS)

Places like "wowgasm," annually pay off blizzard to keep their server going.

Some places like "FTE WoW" home host on a really fast internet connection to keep it going, without making people donate (but still having the option, just never recommending it, they even has a ToS saying they cannot promise it will be used for the server but it's strictly for purposes of a donation rank or something.) Sadly as I just googled FTE WoW is no longer around due to lack of people playing on it, sucks because I was a GM there at one point in time, oh well.

Anyways just make it as non profit as possible, and you're good.

[lhyman]

I used to run a private server (up here in Montreal Canada, where the laws are different). One day one of my users got pissed off at me and reported me to Blizzard. I called them the next day and had a chat with them... (This was about 3 years ago)

here was the jist of it....

No matter what, running a private server (not playing on one) is a violation of the USA (and other countries copyright laws)

However, at that time Canada did not have any laws in place about that (I think Canada still doesn't now, that's why it's not illegal to download music here)

Blizzard wasn't pissed at me and told me that they were not going to do anything about my server because I was in Canada.

But, Out of good faith and a clear conscience, I closed the server the next day.

However, about 6 months ago I got back into WOW and I play on private servers...

You are not breaking any laws by playing on a private server, however, the person running the server is breaking copyright laws.

PS: what make a private server illegal? Is the reverse engineering of the client server data stream, strictly a copyright no no !

[Twilight WoW]

As of right now i do run a WoW Private Server (Well, restarting it back up), called Twilight WoW. There are many loopholes to Blizzards TOS that private server owners have found. Hosting your server in a country where copyright infringement and private hosting is the best way to do this. As of right now im hosting my server in Switzerland (i love the swiss). Switzerland is the host country to many "controversial websites" such as The Pirate Bay (a mass bit torrent website). The laws in this country allow such hosting companies to tell the companies who argue about it to quote "**** off" because there is no such thing as copyright infringement there.

However, Blizzard has also used loopholes in those systems to shut down servers. Any private server who edits the dbc files (the main information files that WoW uses) can be pinned on tampering copyrighted material, which is highly illegal. So to all you Private server owners out there, dont be dumb, be conspicuous and smart about where your hosting your server and what your editing in the process.