The simple fact is, they have little grounds to stand on. Writing your own server to interact with their client is 100% legal. End of story. If anything, trying to stop you from creating an interoperable product constitutes restraint of trade and I'm tempted to call it an antitrust violation. Inkjet companies are in hot water right now over such behavior (the practice of chipping their ink cartridges). Many other companies have been sued and lost when they go too far in trying to lock other people out. SOE can't stop you from interacting with their client any more than Microsoft can prevent someone from making a Microsoft Word add-on. It's flat-out illegal for them to do so.
Pirating is illegal, but creating your server software isn't pirating. Packet collecting may or may not be--it's something I've never been happy with, hence my desire to see original content created from scratch (including zones, models, etc.) As far as the PoP expansion, I was one of the loudest voices saying to TAKE IT DOWN.
As far as their EULA goes, they can deny you service by banning your accounts and that's it. Anything after that requires negotiation, since the usage agreement has terminated. IMHO you are perfectly free to wipe the EULA, say you *don't* agree to it, and they can go pound sand. Remember, you *paid* for your client.
I think we need to push hard for creating original content. The Admin Tool and OpenZone are my efforts to make this happen, but it's going to be a long road...
$0.02
WC
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