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PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 3:38 pm 
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Apprentice
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Actually what I'm selling isn't illegal. If you check my site, I clearly state that you are "Purchasing" the BMP image that I created, and I own the copyright to the creation as I am the one that created it from scratch. For some maps (no all of them) I offer the 3 MUL files needed which I don't charge for -- any MUL files are given completely free!!!!!!!!!!!

I use dragon which takes the BMP image that I created and own, and it creates the 3 MUL files needed... I don't alter or chage or do anything at all with the original UO files, so I'm not doing anything illegal.

Personally I don't care if you approve or dissaprove, I'm not doing anything illegal -- and some of the maps I offer I've spent over 700 hours of development time on them and that's what I'm charging for.

Most people are not cheap, and don't expect or want everthing for free...

I keep the maps at a reasonable price, and they are quite cheap compared to the 6-8 months it would take someone to actaully create a map of similar quality that I offer.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:08 pm 
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Not your daddy
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darkshard, no reason to get worked up over this. Those people that actually take the moment to understand how you are going about selling your work would never question the legality of it.

There is no argument over the legality to darkshard selling his maps, anyone that tries to argue it probably doesnt really understand the actual UO agreement anyway.

Keep up the good work, darkshard :)

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 Post subject: Thanks...
PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:40 pm 
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Thanks for the support, and there will be many more maps to come.

:D


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 Post subject: For the record
PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:32 pm 
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Site Admin
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Darkshard has the FULL support and blessing of Ryandor.com. I completely agree with charging for the time and effort creating the bmp's that are provided.

Keep up the excellent work!

-Ryandor


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 7:54 am 
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Apprentice
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I appreciate your work and there's nothing illegal in it, whoever says otherwise is automatically inscribed in my idiots list and should hope I'll never find the scroll of genocide I'm looking for... And should I find it, hope I remember how much I hate mosquitos before I write "idiots" on it :twisted:


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 1:42 am 
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The internet is full of shithouse lawyers, most of whom don't know what they are talking about. Half of them can't even distinguish between a license agreement and a law, or a copyright and a trademark.

I agree with Dian, don't let a few ignorant whiners get you upset.

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PostPosted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:25 pm 
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I am working on a map generator which automatically generates map terrain, ocean, mountains, grass and snow areas according to percentage and map type specified by user.

I suppose this will make easy for the ones who need new maps.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:24 am 
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Being the shithouse lawyer I am, I will say this much: it is not even illegal if you sold the maps as MULs only -- EA does not own the format, as they do not have a patent on the algorithm used to read/write it (so far as I know). Everything created by you is your property and under your copyright, regardless of format.

Go ahead, sell the MULs, that is no more illegal.

Granted, *USING* the MULs is in the gray area of the law since running a server is in the gray area of the law, but that is regardless of whether or not they use custom maps.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 6:03 pm 
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On the topic of legality, I just thought folks would be interested to read this article about SWG Emulation.

"http://www.gamerandy.com/archives/2006/07/star_wars_galax.shtml"

Specificly the part about...

"Taken from the SWGEmu FAQ:

We built the server from ground up, so what exactly can they sue for? Yes it is against the SWG EULA to reverse engineer any communications between it and the server, but that is not (to my knowledge) a legal implication."

and...

"In fact, not only does SOE know about the project, they've actually offered some of the developers jobs. Sony has sent emails to numerous members of the SWGEmu team offering them a position in the SWG development section of SOE."

Now, if it truely was illegal, and SOE wanted to shut them down, wouldnt they have done so, rather than offer them jobs? Or at least done something about it when they rejected the offer.

I think this seems to show that they actually have no legal standing to shut it down.

Like with UO, all we're doing is reverse engineering. Which is breaking the OSI EULA, IF, and only IF you actually agree to it in the first place (Which I've only ever had to agree to the EULA when signing up for OSI, not on the actual installers).


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:25 am 
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See: Bnetd

Wanting to and being able to are two very different things -- especially when you have highly paid lawyers and the DMCA.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:28 am 
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So, your saying that the SWGEmu guys are wrong and SOE could take them down anytime they wanted?

Im pretty sure the SWG guys wouldnt be THAT stupid to say they were immune.


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:39 am 
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Bmzx007 wrote:
So, your saying that the SWGEmu guys are wrong and SOE could take them down anytime they wanted?

Im pretty sure the SWG guys wouldnt be THAT stupid to say they were immune.


That's what I'm saying. It is exactly what happened with Bnetd, even though Bnetd had EFF on their side (who really do know what they are doing). Blizzard isn't the only one, either.

A quote:

the Escapist wrote:
But emulating someone's intellectual property is technically stealing, right? The owners definitely think so. As recently as late June, SOE sent a cease and desist order to Winter's Roar, which was known as the largest player-run server in the EQ emulation community. World of Warcraft already has renegade servers all over the place, and Blizzard is extremely active, tracking down hosts and siccing the lawyers. According to one of the most popular server operators, "UO servers only manage to stay alive because UO's legal minefield is a tangled mess, so mangled that over the years EA's lawyers have had trouble sifting through it." As a result, player-run UO shards dance along the edge of legality by allowing their users to play for free. But as the mess becomes untangled (whether by EA's lawyers or governmental regulation) they may not continue dancing.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 5:10 pm 
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I honestly don't beleive "The Escapist" article.

If EA had at some point actively been tracking Free-Servers we would have seen more cease and desist or lawsuits come out of it.

And if they hated the free-shard community as much as they say they do, then I highly doubt they would have let it run amok this long unless they really were helpless to do anything about it.

I actually find this all quite amusing, when anything over UO's legality comes up, its only ever a "He said, She said" thing. And now with other Emulators for other games popping up, People seemed to have mixed theories on whether it truely is legal or not.

It seems the only one who got really pissed and did anything about it was Blizzard, but that wasnt over an MMORPG to start with. It was over Battle.net.

And just because Bnetd lost, does NOT mean that a UO Free-Server as an example would lose against EA.

Think about it, Emulators exist for Everquest, Lineage 2, UO, Dark Age of Camelot, Ragnarok, Asherons Call, World of Warcraft and Star Wars Galaxies.

And yet the ONLY one to ever sue, was Blizzard. Isnt it highly possible that Blizzard had far better legal representation than the Emulator Creator, and thus won the case? As opposed to whether it was truely illegal or not.


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:39 pm 
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It wouldn't jus be a matter of whether or not it's possible to "win" against EA - it would also be a matter of having enough money to hire lawyers and see the case through to the end :P

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:44 pm 
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Journeyman
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Oh of course, Money talks well these days.


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:52 pm 
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Master
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my money tells me to....wait, maybe i should get some money

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