What if there was a requirement to have a legitimate copy of World of Warcraft to be able to play on the server?
Would this then mean it is no longer breaching copy right and "theft"? Seeing as by buying the game you bought the product, of course you are breaching their ToS but as far as I know that gives them the right to close your World of Warcraft account on their servers but it is not a legally binding in the EU, as far as I'm aware, it just covers their arse's if they wanted to Ban you for example. People buy products and use them out of their recommended uses all the time this would just invalidate their Warranty it wouldn't be illegal.
The coding used for emulation of the server is perfectly legal, as it is custom wrote emulation software, not Blizzards actual server software. I know the only thing that is outright and a very hard thing to get around is using the VMAPS and etc for path finding, maybe there is another way around that I do not know.
I guess Blizzard would argue it is against their Terms of Service to play on a private server, but this isn't very legally binding they could close down your Blizzard account but that is about all they could do, and they are not going to open 150k law suits.
Just something I've been pondering on. As when the self rightous wankers on MMO champion and Official forums are ranting and raving about how Nost was massively illegal and the owners should be sued till they cannot live their lives any further (These people boil my piss by the way). They actually have not done much wrong, I don't know how binding US law is, but the only thing they really have on them is using the MPQ files to create the vmaps surely? As like I said, the emulator is completely legal, infact US the players are doing the most wrong by using the product in a way Blizzard forbids in their ToS and EULA.
I'm no way a lawer, obviously. But what are your thoughts?
If Blizzard was to implement a way for Nost to authenticate valid accounts like using their login server. Then what Is the real harm? Other than them being scared it will kill retail wow off faster? People have already paid for the vanilla game by having a valid account, the monthly subscription is only for staffing, ongoing development and hosting costs, which by having the volunteer team and a community funded server would make this not required.. what is the real issue?
Corporate Greed...
Let's hope Blizzard either offer their own service or have a change of heart and just let us play.. providing people have a valid game account.
EDIT: Another point, I was watching heelvsbabyface's video only a short while ago. And he was going on about Blizzard clawing back maybe a few thousand subs from removing this server. While that could happen it may also have the adverse affect. 3k people might resub to play legion from this, but then on the other hand 40k players could boycott Blizzard products thus damaging their brand even further.
