I used to be involved in the Runescape private server community - never to a huge extent, but I worked for one of the larger servers in high school to get some side cash. The problems between WoW...
I used to be involved in the Runescape private server community - never to a huge extent, but I worked for one of the larger servers in high school to get some side cash. The problems between WoW servers and RS servers are definitely the same - there were so many carbon-copy servers where it was clear the owner had no idea what they were doing and had no idea how to program.
The server I worked on also was quite expensive to run from what I had heard - since we were popular, we were frequently DDoSed and as such had to pay a lot for protection. The server owners are usually also pretty unreliable, in my experience. They're either high schoolers like I was, or adults who didn't have (or didn't want) better opportunities than running a private server. If I recall, the owner of the server I was a part of got too addicted to coke to really keep up managing the server and that's how it eventually fell apart.
This is not, strictly speaking, a settled matter. The only legal ruling came in the form of a default judgement. Everyone just wisely closes shop instead of fighting it out. So long as the server...
owning a World Of Warcraft private server is indeed illegal from a copyright perspective.
This is not, strictly speaking, true a settled matter. The only legal ruling came in the form of a default judgement. Everyone just wisely closes shop instead of fighting it out. So long as the server is not using stolen Blizzard code, and is not providing download links to the world of warcraft clients in question, they could (if legal costs were not a problem) probably prevail in court. An EULA or Terms of Service does not override that they sold client software as a good.
The problem is that fighting a court battle against a multi-billion dollar corporation is a losing proposition unless you also have billions of dollars.
Private servers use Blizzard's assets, which are provided in the customized client they give out for players to download. Those are not replicated assets, they are extracted directly from...
Private servers use Blizzard's assets, which are provided in the customized client they give out for players to download. Those are not replicated assets, they are extracted directly from Blizzard. That includes every single model, map, zone, etc. Not to mention music and sound effects. Private servers are in a fragile legal position regardless of the code.
The key bit being "customized client they give out to players." If they just require users to provide their own 1.12 Vanilla Wow client, they're not providing anything from blizzard, at least in...
The key bit being "customized client they give out to players."
If they just require users to provide their own 1.12 Vanilla Wow client, they're not providing anything from blizzard, at least in terms of art, model, etc.
Oh yes, providing the client itself is definitely asking for trouble. Just because private servers aren't operating legally does not mean its explicitly illegal to do so. But you can legally host...
Oh yes, providing the client itself is definitely asking for trouble. Just because private servers aren't operating legally does not mean its explicitly illegal to do so.
But you can legally host wotlk server code, which is more than enough if you wish to play through as a solo player.
My guess is that these pservers have their own customizations and fixes over the Blizzard client and providing it is a way to avoid issues. Some games run Vanilla on the Wrath client and such. So...
My guess is that these pservers have their own customizations and fixes over the Blizzard client and providing it is a way to avoid issues.
Some games run Vanilla on the Wrath client and such. So not exactly defaults.
Maybe things have changed, but way back in the day when I played around with some private servers you had to provide your own copy of the client and it was fully unmodified, you just went and...
Maybe things have changed, but way back in the day when I played around with some private servers you had to provide your own copy of the client and it was fully unmodified, you just went and dumped some crap in your hosts file to get everything wired up properly and off you went. Granted that was shy of 2 decades ago now, so 🤷♂️.
This is still mostly how it works. I host both a cata and dreanor server for friends. My servers contains no assets used by the game. They have to get their own client that can support the...
This is still mostly how it works. I host both a cata and dreanor server for friends. My servers contains no assets used by the game. They have to get their own client that can support the specific game version.
I used to be involved in the Runescape private server community - never to a huge extent, but I worked for one of the larger servers in high school to get some side cash. The problems between WoW servers and RS servers are definitely the same - there were so many carbon-copy servers where it was clear the owner had no idea what they were doing and had no idea how to program.
The server I worked on also was quite expensive to run from what I had heard - since we were popular, we were frequently DDoSed and as such had to pay a lot for protection. The server owners are usually also pretty unreliable, in my experience. They're either high schoolers like I was, or adults who didn't have (or didn't want) better opportunities than running a private server. If I recall, the owner of the server I was a part of got too addicted to coke to really keep up managing the server and that's how it eventually fell apart.
This is not, strictly speaking,
truea settled matter. The only legal ruling came in the form of a default judgement. Everyone just wisely closes shop instead of fighting it out. So long as the server is not using stolen Blizzard code, and is not providing download links to the world of warcraft clients in question, they could (if legal costs were not a problem) probably prevail in court. An EULA or Terms of Service does not override that they sold client software as a good.The problem is that fighting a court battle against a multi-billion dollar corporation is a losing proposition unless you also have billions of dollars.
Private servers use Blizzard's assets, which are provided in the customized client they give out for players to download. Those are not replicated assets, they are extracted directly from Blizzard. That includes every single model, map, zone, etc. Not to mention music and sound effects. Private servers are in a fragile legal position regardless of the code.
The key bit being "customized client they give out to players."
If they just require users to provide their own 1.12 Vanilla Wow client, they're not providing anything from blizzard, at least in terms of art, model, etc.
Sure. I haven't encountered single server that does that.
Oh yes, providing the client itself is definitely asking for trouble. Just because private servers aren't operating legally does not mean its explicitly illegal to do so.
But you can legally host wotlk server code, which is more than enough if you wish to play through as a solo player.
My guess is that these pservers have their own customizations and fixes over the Blizzard client and providing it is a way to avoid issues.
Some games run Vanilla on the Wrath client and such. So not exactly defaults.
Maybe things have changed, but way back in the day when I played around with some private servers you had to provide your own copy of the client and it was fully unmodified, you just went and dumped some crap in your hosts file to get everything wired up properly and off you went. Granted that was shy of 2 decades ago now, so 🤷♂️.
This is still mostly how it works. I host both a cata and dreanor server for friends. My servers contains no assets used by the game. They have to get their own client that can support the specific game version.