Legality of EqEmu

[The Omega Soldier]

Hey,

I've been a long time user of EqEmu and I was having a heated debate with my friend the other day. Amidst the imminent release of World of Warcraft, I told him I thought it was a scam that you paid 50 bucks for a game that you couldn't even use unless you continued a monthly subscription (this was the reason I started using EqEmu to begin with). Now I thought long and hard about it and I read the EULA for EQ which said you can't mod it, and I thought, how can they hold a game we paid money for hostage like that? I mean we dish out fifty bucks and we essentially get nothing unless we keep up that monthly subscription. So basically what I'm asking is, what is the legality and/or morality of modding MMO's so you connect to non-official server in you guys opinions? Any comment is a good comment. Thanks

Omega

[hypershadow66]

there was a long post about HackersQuest legality on Slashdot, it prolly applies to EqEmu as well. This is the article. http://slashdot.org/articles/00/08/30/1652232.shtml

it should clear some things up.

[The Omega Soldier]

Ok thanks man. From what I'm seeing so far, looks like there is nothing illegal about EqEmu (provided you bought a copy of everquest and didn't pirate it)

[maveren]

what in the software that you purchased is mod?
besides the hoste.txt file

[Melwin]

What you, the user, is doing is dubiously illegal.

What the servers are doing is dubiously legal.

The difference is fine.

[Knight Errant]

What you, the user, is doing is dubiously illegal.

What the servers are doing is dubiously legal.

The difference is fine.
How do you guys not get lawsuited?

[Rogean]

Because the only thing we are violating is a User Agreement. The User Agreement of SOE States that the game may not be emulated, and if the User Agreement is broken, Your account may be terminated. Well.. They can go ahead and terminate our EQLive accounts, but they can't bring us to court over anything :)

Thats just the short version, I'm sure other people can go into a more descriptive version.

[m0oni9]

As has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum, check out the Blizzard vs bnetd case (eff.org has a lot of info). If SOE wanted the project shut down badly enough, they would have a good chance at making that happen (even if the project is in the right). If you want to read the DMCA, check out H.R. 2281, (thomas.loc.gov, search under 105th congress) specifically section 1201.