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Legality of "freeshards"...

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M

Meister

Sorceror
Legality of "freeshards"...

First to make things clear, I like this freeshard. It has UO the way I liked it (at least most of it) and its free of charge except for clicking ads. But I have a question about the legality of such freeshards. Obviously they violate the UO ToS (not that I care), but why does EA not go against owners of freeshards e.g. by finding out the contact info of the shards websites or informing the police or whoever to find out what IP is used by whom. I've had a rather heated debate on the Stratics IRC because I said "I play UO on a freeshard" and got immediately warned by an IRC OP. How come shards like UOG can build up a thriving community for themselves, clearly taking away profit that would maybe otherwise go to EA, violating the ToS of UO and not fear any consequences?
 
G

Galgum

Page
They delete your accounts on OSI if they find out you play on a freeshard. As for the legality, their server software wasn't stolen, it was emulated, so I think that makes us Scott-Free.
 
M

Meister

Sorceror
The UO ToS say that you are not allowed to use UO software on anything thats not OSI, so freeshards are clearly violating that.
 
V

Virus-hybrid

Wanderer
I say your right on galgum.Emulators are perfectly legal to own.We also either bought the game way bak when or We downloaded EA's "free" version of the game.To make it illegal would be like making mods for other games illegal.In its own way.I wonder now that valve is going to go after and try to take cheat makers to court if it will open other doors on down the line.Notice I said makers not users.I bet i seen 2000 post of people laughing at valve in forums saying they can come and get them for cheating.Valve said they were targeting developers not users.
 
N

NikG43

Sorceror
i think how it goes is EA doesn't care to much as long as we arn't paying to play a server other than theirs (taking donations and clicking ads isn't really paying to play). Now if ryan were to tell us that it is $5 a month then EA would be all over him :eek: .
 
M

Meister

Sorceror
Has EA ever threatened or sued the owner of a freeshard as a result of violating the UO ToS? Considering that EA are a bunch of corporate suits who have no clue how to make and operate games, this would be only logical and fitting behaviour for them. Also what about players who only play on freeshards and have no account with EA, such as me? I dont like the UO they have running on their official servers.
 
C

chupo

Wanderer
I read a similiar thread on uogamers a while back. Someone said that this was taken to court and that they ruled that freeshards wern't illegal, since people still had to buy the game in the store. Of course if you didn't buy the game that's illegal, but thats the same for all games regardless of wether or not they have an online component. Unfortunately this is all hearsay, since I never read or saw anything about this except what was posted.
 
M

Meister

Sorceror
If there's no proof then I'll consider such court rulings to be fantasy. It is risky relying on court rulings that cant be proven.
 
C

chupo

Wanderer
True but I doubt we need to worry about it as players. The people that would need to worry are the shard hosts, and I'm sure they looked into it. I'm sure an admin will respond to clear this up. Also about the fantasy thing, I would't have said it if I didn't think it was true. Think about it, it makes sense. The only reason I didn't present it as fact is that to me it's not, and I hate it when people pretend to know more than they really do.
 
R

Ryan

Guest
I've been emulating UO since you were in diapers probably. Its 100% legal and EA doesnt care because it ends up sending them players.
 
B

bigbaldboggy

Wanderer
Meister said:
First to make things clear, I like this freeshard. It has UO the way I liked it (at least most of it) and its free of charge except for clicking ads. But I have a question about the legality of such freeshards. Obviously they violate the UO ToS (not that I care), but why does EA not go against owners of freeshards e.g. by finding out the contact info of the shards websites or informing the police or whoever to find out what IP is used by whom. I've had a rather heated debate on the Stratics IRC because I said "I play UO on a freeshard" and got immediately warned by an IRC OP. How come shards like UOG can build up a thriving community for themselves, clearly taking away profit that would maybe otherwise go to EA, violating the ToS of UO and not fear any consequences?
Click to expand...

When people ask these questions about it being legal etc.. A simple form to explain it.

Half-Life : Counterstrike

A mod created by every day people out of the Half-Life game. Freeshards are mods of Ultima Online pretty much. As long as the server doesn't make money off of the "mod/game" there's nothing they can do about it.

Donations are obvious ways to make money off of freeshards, but those are exactly what the word means "Donations". People offering money on their free will not because they have to pay for something. Pretty much a don't ask don't tell basis procedure to make money off of free shard. Most people spend the money on paying for the server/server hardware though, with the exception of a few people on some servers.
 
M

Meister

Sorceror
The emulation itself may be legal, but connecting with the client to the emulated shard is not legal, according to the ToS. Besides that, UO is not old enough for you to have been emulating it when I was in diapers ;) And how does it end up sending them players? I'd go so far to say that the majority of players here (if not all) are playing on freeshards because the UO EA has is not what we like to play. At least thats why I am here.
 
K

Ken-hybrid

Wanderer
I don't think too many of the UO Gamers playerbase who don't already play OSI would play on it if UO Gamers didn't exist.... if you can understand what I just said ;).
 
C

chupo

Wanderer
LOL. Violating the terms of agreement is not against the law. What is it a class X felony? 10 to 15 years prison time? Seriously all that means is that OSI can stop extending their service to you. Have you ever heard of anyone serving jail time for making derogitory comments about race, sex, or sexual preference on OSI? Thats against the tos too.
 
T

Troid

Wanderer
yea i posted the same question about the tos and a gm said that they did go to court and they did say uo emulaters are legal and we won =)( i dont think uo gamers but probally another shard like ipy)
 
R

Ryan

Guest
Charlie said:
yea i posted the same question about the tos and a gm said that they did go to court and they did say uo emulaters are legal and we won =)( i dont think uo gamers but probally another shard like ipy)
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IPY is a baby in the freeshard world. Its no where near mature enough to have been to court.
 
M

Meister

Sorceror
If you say that someone has been to court and won, can you back that up with a link or something? Besides I already said that emulating it might be legal - without proof of a court ruling it is hard to tell - but connecting with the UO client to an emulated UO shard looks illegal if you read the ToS. That nobody has been sued for it apparently does not mean that its legal. Is there a court ruling that says that connecting with the UO client to an emulated server is legal too?

(FYI I dont care if I break the ToS, just want to know why Stratics says that using the word "freeshard" is not allowed because it breaks the ToS).
 
M

Mr.Mischief

Sorceror
Meister said:
The emulation itself may be legal, but connecting with the client to the emulated shard is not legal, according to the ToS. Besides that, UO is not old enough for you to have been emulating it when I was in diapers ;) And how does it end up sending them players? I'd go so far to say that the majority of players here (if not all) are playing on freeshards because the UO EA has is not what we like to play. At least thats why I am here.
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EA's ToS are irrelevant as they only pertain to EA's shards. They basically state that if you violate the ToS, they can ban you from EA's shards, nothing more. It has nothing to do with privately owned shards at all.

As for Player Run shards giving EA new players? Its simple, UOGamers has players that have never played UO before. Eventually, they hear all of this pishposh about AoS, etc, and decide to check it out. Granted, this is somewhat of a rare occurance, but it does happen. And in the end, its endless advertising and publication for EA. Thats why they don't really care.
 
D

dan Baal

Wanderer
Ryan said:
I've been emulating UO since you were in diapers probably. Its 100% legal and EA doesnt care because it ends up sending them players.
Click to expand...

If they dont care then why did they just make a new patch that when you download it you cant play on free shards anymore after it is downloaded??
 
R

Ryan

Guest
Dan said:
If they dont care then why did they just make a new patch that when you download it you cant play on free shards anymore after it is downloaded??
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You obviously dont understand.

That is NOT what happened, EA doesnt worry about us but when they change something client end we have to change with them. Its not about breaking free shards, its about working on their game.
 
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