Crispy™ WoW Rebirth: a vanilla private server

[Mustawd]

Why are you so focused on the software piece? This is obviously about content, not just code. There are less egregious examples where content is said to break copyright. I'm no lawyer, and I assume you are not as well, but to me this seems like blatant copyright infringement on their IP. Who cares how they did it? Reverse engineering or otherwise.

Again, I don't see the fact that it is free makes it any less of an issue. It's about protecting the brand of WoW.

 

[Revenant]

Why are you so focused on the software piece? This is obviously about content, not just code.

Because the server is nothing more than a piece of software, dumbfuck. Free software, in this case. It does not distribute any content. The user has content on his PC. The server does not. Therefore, the server doesn't contain any copyrighted/trademarked material whatsoever.

When you run a server, you don't always know what software people use to connect to your server. It might as well be hackers using packet generators. The admins of WoW private server could just say "we have no idea that people are using illegitimate WoW clients to connect to our server" and they would be 100% legally O.K. to make such a statement.

 

[Mustawd]

Seems like a flimsy argument, because to me it's an easy case to claim the servers are colluding with users to pirate the content of WoW. *shrug* We'll never know.

Agree to disagree because neither of us are lawyers. Regardless of how edgy one of us is trying to be.

 

[dibens]

Multi-billion company threatening a bunch of nerds works well enough, weak as their legal grounds are. There is rarely a good reason to fight back, unless you profit nicely from running servers, which I guess Rebirth did. In kwa justice system you stand to lose tens of thousands in legal fees regardless if you win the case or not.

 

[Wilian]

Seems like a flimsy argument, because to me it's an easy case to claim the servers are colluding with users to pirate the content of WoW. *shrug* We'll never know.

Agree to disagree because neither of us are lawyers. Regardless of how edgy one of us is trying to be.

It might seem like flimsy argument but it works. So far not a single non-profit server has been defeated in court. The case against Rebirth was dismissed after finding no grounds for prosecution in US of all things.

 

[Revenant]

Seems like a flimsy argument, because to me it's an easy case to claim the servers are colluding with users to pirate the content of WoW. *shrug* We'll never know.

Agree to disagree because neither of us are lawyers. Regardless of how edgy one of us is trying to be.

Agree to disagree my ass. "Colluding with users to pirate the content" turbolol. Are you even aware there are countless games whose engines are being rewritten as free software? www.openmw.org is probably the best known example. Do you see Bethesda shutting it down? That's right, you don't, because the engine doesn't distribute any content from the game (it requires the user to provide it). The same goes for private servers.

 

[Mustawd]

Oh ok. Makes sense.

 

[Mustawd]

And since there's always those who say "Omg Rebirth was never challenged, it's a ruse!"

https://www.iowacourts.state.ia.us/ESAWebApp/TIndexFrm

There, court case, dismissed. We won. In case wondering about naming, Sampica = original creator of server, now gone

Is this supposed to show something? All I get is a broken link...

I can get to the search though. Care to provide the Appellate docket number?

 

[Wilian]

And since there's always those who say "Omg Rebirth was never challenged, it's a ruse!"

https://www.iowacourts.state.ia.us/ESAWebApp/TIndexFrm

There, court case, dismissed. We won. In case wondering about naming, Sampica = original creator of server, now gone

Is this supposed to show something? All I get is a broken link...

I can get to the search though. Care to provide the Appellate docket number?

Ehhh, no idea why link doesn't work, works fine for me. But search for Bryan Sampica. He was the creator of the server and has quite the few court cases under his belt :p

Edit: Screenshot of the case

 

[Mustawd]

Bryan Sampica v who? State of Iowa? I don't see Activision Blizzard anywhere.

 

[Metro]

I'm too lazy to look into but, yeah, that link doesn't tell us much. Most copyright claims are going to be filed in federal court.

 

[Angthoron]

Bryan Sampica v who? State of Iowa? I don't see Activision Blizzard anywhere.

It actually says vs who on the screenshot, looks like "JAMES SANDERS/360 UNIVERSAL"

 

[Mustawd]

Thanks. The screenshot was added after my post.

I'm curious if the details of this case are accessible by the public. If so, I might shell out some money just to see the details.

 

[Metro]

So who the heck is Jamie Sanders/360 Universal and what do they have to do with Blizzard? Doesn't seem on point at all. And the case was dismissed in a week over New Year's break? I'm guessing it had absolutely nothing to do with Blizzard so I'm not sure what this proves regarding the ability of the server to fend off a lawsuit from them.

 

[Drakron]

Bryan Sampica v who? State of Iowa? I don't see Activision Blizzard anywhere.

It actually says vs who on the screenshot, looks like "JAMES SANDERS/360 UNIVERSAL"

Sure but that aint Activision Publishing, Inc or Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

This looks to be more about 360 Universal vs Jennifer Dawson ET, the first names seem to be of the laywers representing the case.

 

[Mustawd]

Bryan Sampica v who? State of Iowa? I don't see Activision Blizzard anywhere.

It actually says vs who on the screenshot, looks like "JAMES SANDERS/360 UNIVERSAL"

Sure but that aint Activision Publishing, Inc or Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

This looks to be more about 360 Universal vs Jennifer Dawson ET, the first names seem to be of the laywers representing the case.

I think Jennifer Dawson is Sampica's wife...

Spoiler

http://registry.theknot.com/jennifer-dawson-bryan-sampica-december-2012-ia/1895451
http://dawsonsampica.ourwedding.com/

Getting Married December 20, 2012 in Des Moines, IA

360 Universal might be 360 Universal Solutions LLC

Spoiler

http://www.manta.com/c/mbyfd5t/360-universal-solutions-llc

This is a Business Consultants business, which does work in the B2B market, and is classified as a Business Consultants, under code number 541618 by the NAICS.

1503 5th Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50314 - View Map
Phone: (515) 954-8468

"Company" was run by a Kevin Howard

Spoiler

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-howard-b61ab91b

360 UNIVERSAL SULUTIONS BUYS AND SELLS PROPERTY IN AND AROUND THE DES MOINES AREA AND SELLS BOTH WHOLESALE AND RETAIL BUNDLES OR INDIVIDUALLY. WE HAVE A FINANCIAL SPECIALIST ALONG WITH WHO SCREENS BUYERS AND MATCHES THEM WITH THE PERFECT PROPERTY OR PROPERTIES.


Lol, dem caps and dat spelling.

Also:

Annual Revenue (USD): $0 to $49.999


LOL

James Sanders might be a business associate of Kevin Howard

Spoiler

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jay-sanders-82b30517

REAL ESTATE CONSULTING WHOLE SALES AND CONNECTING BUYERS WITH SELLERS AND VISE VERSA Real Estate Consultant extraordinaire bringing buyers and sellers together for the purpose contract/lease options and/or rent to own sales, due to banks across the nation refusing to lend to common folk in this day and age.

January 16, 2013, Jay was Kevin's client

Which seems to mean this has nothing to do with rebirth....



Wilian, thoughts? I think a lot of us are interested in seeing proof of this so called "won" lawsuit.

 

[Mustawd]

Ok, after looking at all of Bryan's cases, I'm calling bullshit that this was actually settled in the Iowa court like you said Wilian. The majority of opposing parties are the state of Iowa or other personal suits. Even the ones that sound like business are easily researched.

For one, the suits involving his wife seem to both deal with property and real estate (360 solutions and KCL property mgt). Second, that leaves CAVALRY SPV I LLC and Lens to Own. The first is a debt collecting firm and the second is a guy from Houston who used to work at Lens to Own as a marketing/sales manager.

So say what you want about Sampica being gone now, but there's no way to claim that rebirth is somehow immune from the same fate as Nost. It's just a false statement man.

 

[Metro]

Any action to shut down the server would be filed in federal court. And it probably wouldn't even get to a case because they'd fold after a C&D letter. All those cases seem to be about this guy and his wife making shitty business deals/skipping out on loans/rent. As I mentioned before Blizzard will shut down whoever they please because none of these private server admins are going to spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to defend an action.

 

[Dr. Bak]

Apparently there is a petition made from Nostalrius devs for Blizzard, they ask for official vanilla servers. 200k signs so far.
Vanilla WoW team lead is the one who's going to collect those signs and 'persuade' Blizzard CEO

definitely not a new around here i guess

 

[Metro]

Online petitions generally accomplish nothing.

 

[Mustawd]

Only if you're Amnesty International. Even then....


EDIT: I will say that if there was an exec at Blizzard who wanted to champion the idea of having vanilla servers as part of the subscriptions, then a good amount of people on the survey might give him/her some cover to bring it up. But otherwise, things like survey ARE usually meaningless unless it gets a lot of press.

 

[Metro]

A vanilla player wouldn't have to buy expansions. That alone is reason enough for Blizzard to ignore the idea until they hit the 11th hour in terms of dwindling subs.

 

[Mustawd]

A vanilla player wouldn't have to buy expansions. That alone is reason enough for Blizzard to ignore the idea until they hit the 11th hour in terms of dwindling subs.

Fair point. But it's not like people playing on vanilla servers are either. And they get zero revenue from them anyway.

 

[Xor]

A vanilla player wouldn't have to buy expansions. That alone is reason enough for Blizzard to ignore the idea until they hit the 11th hour in terms of dwindling subs.

How much revenue do expansions generate through sales, though? And how much of that money is paying for the cost of all the new content for the expansion itself? I can't imagine they're making a huge profit off the expansions, considering they're only worth about 2-3 months worth of subscriptions and the development cost of all the new zones, abilities, dungeons, etc. must be pretty high. If Blizzard isn't developing any new content for classic servers, their cost would be a fraction of what the game must currently cost, especially considering they already have all the infrastructure to run those servers in place.

 

[Metro]

A vanilla player wouldn't have to buy expansions. That alone is reason enough for Blizzard to ignore the idea until they hit the 11th hour in terms of dwindling subs.

How much revenue do expansions generate through sales, though? And how much of that money is paying for the cost of all the new content for the expansion itself? I can't imagine they're making a huge profit off the expansions, considering they're only worth about 2-3 months worth of subscriptions and the development cost of all the new zones, abilities, dungeons, etc. must be pretty high. If Blizzard isn't developing any new content for classic servers, their cost would be a fraction of what the game must currently cost, especially considering they already have all the infrastructure to run those servers in place.

Couldn't say. Just like people couldn't say how many who play on private servers would actually pay for WoW subs. I suppose they could buy tokens with gold but that's a shitload of grinding. Especially if you're playing true vanilla where gold income is next to nothing.