Police have announced charges of criminal copyright infringement against the admin and players of an unauthorised Aion: The Tower of Eternity server, marking Japan’s first ever prosecution of an emulated MMORPG server.
Kanagawa police say they intend to prosecute an Osaka man in his twenties for criminal copyright infringement, after complaints from Korean MMORPG developer NCsoft that he was running a “pirate server” for Aion: The Tower of Eternity (“The Tower of AION” in Japan), and disgracefully allowing people to play for free.
NCsoft and the police also intend to prosecute anyone who played on the server. Both prosecuting an unauthorised server and going so far as to charge its users are firsts for Japan.
Though he is accused of running a “pirate server” using the game and illegally inducing others to play on it, it is not clear whether he somehow obtained a copy of the server code (the freely available client would not be sufficient), or instead operated an emulated server, as has long been common practice in the world of MMORPGs.
He and his users admit using the server, though it is not clear whether they intend to contest the validity of this unconventional interpretation of the scope of NCsoft’s copyright.
The impetus behind the prosecution appears to be NCsoft’s concerns that his free server was depriving them of precious lucre.
Online there is the usual suspicion that Japan’s copyright laws are more than a little one-sided:
“But there were loads of free shards back in the days of UO? Although if he did get hold of the server executables, it seems fair game to arrest him.”
“Lineage II had them too.”
“Surely this is legal? The client is freely distributed, and he must have cooked up the server side himself.”
“Just because it is free doesn’t mean you can do whatever you like with it. And just because he made it himself doesn’t mean it isn’t plagiarism.”
“If the server was based on a stolen program and the users knew, they can expect to be arrested.”
“You people don’t even realise what a serious crime this is!”
“Remember, he’s not been arrested – they just intend to file charges.”
“Who cares, only scum play play online games!”
“At least it’s cheaper than pachinko.”
“Is anyone still playing this old Korean garbage?”
“It is probably against the TOS to connect to or run an unauthorised server.”
“If you’re going to play on an emulated server you may as well just play SP.”
“After they got downloading criminalised all the different jurisdictions are just going to use this minor stuff they would normally have ignored to pad out their arrest figures. I bet that’s why the cops were so keen on this law.”
“How the hell can they prosecute him for copyright infringement if all the data is on the client and the packets coming off the server are only emulated, not copied?”
“If they can interpret copyright laws this broadly they can arrest you for practically anything. It’s worse than ACTA, they have a totally free hand to make anything into criminal infringement.”
“This is like arresting visitors to a site for copyright infringement because the site was made with pirated software.”
“Arresting the users too? I don’t like the direction things are going on the net these days…”
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This is as stupid as Cops Arresting a Skyrim modder for modding Skyrim and anyone who downloaded the mod ....
Yeah getting arrested for modding and making your own server is very stupid
No.. This is same as procecuting users for creating their own Steam-like server which fools downloaded Skyrim to think it is legit copy. Anyone who willfully utilize it must be at some level aware what they are doing.
Not saying there should not be room for servers like this. Back in ages of Ultima Online, Origin did sue quite a lot of shards, until they realized it is rather futile attempt. Their solution was to strike deal with server-modders: You don't get paid for our work, and we don't bother hunting you down. I'm not sure but there might have been something along the lines "make sure players know this is not the official server". And then they tried to compete with all the free servers by providing more pleasant and worthwhile experience as a server.
Based my view of things solely on this article I cannot say if the pirate-server did ask for money to server costs or even ask for donations to feed the server admin, but if money was involved there is no wonder NCSoft got interested, all that money could potentially be theirs. Making it essentially stealing money directly from them, at least in their perspective. And you know how companies and money go along.
Not really, hosting and playing private servers are against the TOS which every Aion player had to accept. I agree that cops taking action in this matter is a bit too much, a C&D letter sent to the hoster would be a better idea.
Anyway, Skyrim comes with Construction Set and you're allowed (even encouraged) to mod it, so your analogy sucks.
Except you get to download the software before you accept any terms of "Service" and if you create your own server emulation software, they are no longer providing you with a service, and only a free product, so how can their terms of service be in any way binding since you're not using it?
copyright infringement is of only use when the person is making money off your product, but in this cause its pointless since they will only be losing money by pressing charges.
"copyright infringement is of only use when the person is making money off your product,"
Absolutely false.
You can be prosecuted for copyright infringement whether or not you directly make a profit from it. Whether you personally make money or not, you're still removing potential income from the people who hold the copyright.
The laws are in place to protect the people holding the copyrights, not the people who are pirating their property.
"but in this cause its pointless since they will only be losing money by pressing charges.
Again, false.
NCsoft is not suing these people. Thus they will incur no costs. This, from all indications, is being treated as a criminal case, which puts the costs on the government, not NCsoft. It doesn't cost anything to file charges.
Again, this has NOTHING to do with the Terms of Service.
This is about copyright infringement.
This also has to do with NCsoft reporting lower profits every quarter for the last year or so. Last quarter they actually posted a loss.
Hence the reason why they are cutting Paragon Studios (City of Heroes) lose and why they are going after people who are competing against them WITH THEIR OWN GAME.
"copyright infringement is of only use when the person is making money off your product,"
Absolutely false.
Copyright infringement covers the use, duplication and / or the distribution of any copyrighted material without the consent of the owner of the copyright, whether there is money involved or not.
Again, this is just like making illegal copies of movies and music and sharing them on the internet, which is patently illegal. Why do you think they shut down all those p2p sites like Kazaa, Napster and Limelight? Why do you think most torrent sites have closed up or have made vast changes to how they operate? It's because sharing copyrighted material is illegal.
"but in this cause its pointless since they will only be losing money by pressing charges."
Again false.
It does not cost you anything to press charges against someone. By all indications this is being treated as a criminal case, which means it will be handled and tried by the government, not NCsoft. If it were a civil case, as in NC was suing these people, then it wold be a different matter and NC would have to foot the bill.
I don't know why this is downvoted because it's true. Seriously, modding is allowed and private servers aren't. srsly gais
There are other games that have been heavily modded despite the publishers not wanting any mods, i.e. modders had to temper with game files and modifying game files is against the EULA etc. The general idea behind his analogy is still valid.
All of you are cheap bastards. Get out of the house and get a job you NEETS
NOTRLYDOOD.
Game is F2P*COUGH* Oh wait, I mean P2W/P2HF
Learn how to speak english DOOD.
arrest users? sorry you just can't do that :D
Ummm, yes, you can.
If they knowingly took part in copyright infringement, and I don't think the fact that it was a pirate server was a huge secret, they are just as culpable as the person providing the server.
It's the same as pirating music and movies,only under slightly different circumstances.
And yet again we get a nice scenery of of a prisons populace, ranging from murderers to rapists, over burglars and the most dangerous and vile of them all...THE UNHOLY COPYRIGHT OFFENDERS!!
The world hasn't changed a bit over the last 10 years. It's getting worse and worse.
If you have so called industry perspective I habe the so called ecomic perspective. It very simple if it is downloadable on the Internet it is free and it is time the "industry" stopped living in the 80s. Whining about the "piracy" and lobbying for harder laws is madness, economic madness. Which is the most risky country to trade with? the USA.
@11:22. No media no information. A lack of media helps most governments not so much the people.
@HouseLife,
No, just no. Developers and publishers just like other businessses are going to extreme lenghts to squeeze as much money out of their customers with as little effort on their side as possible.
Just have a look at the whole DLC scheme where they often end up cutting out stuff that exists in a game to be able to sell it seperately or leave out vital stuff only selling you the bare bones of a game at full prize.
And that's not even talking about how many of the things they end up selling you are pretty much "I win" buttons or "must have" if you really want to play the game.
Just have a look at those facebook games. Yes you can play them but if they have a multiplayer you're not going to be competitive and if they don't you wont get anywhere near the same enjoyment out of them somebody who pays extra does.
Now those games are free to play. Most other games aren't you pay full prize. One of the most egrious examples was Overlord 2 where they cut out the Arena and tried to sell it seperately and when it didn't work out great on the conscoles they never even bothered to release it for the PC.
Under these circumstances nobody should wonder why people are acting like they're doing because they're completly justified. What they're doing isn't any worse then how the industry tries to scam people out of their money.
Could you imagine what would happen if people just stop consuming media all together and focus on what is going on in reality.
Er... I don't think you know how credibility works: "People bitch when I bring it up, but I work in the industry, I have perspective you do not."
In other words, you are biased. Or like the proverb says:
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
Saying so only weakens your arguments.
"It very simple if it is downloadable on the Internet it is free..."
Riiiight...
And everything stated on the internet is true.
@02:52
"It very simple if it is downloadable on the Internet it is free"
So your rationale is because somebody uploads something to the internet, it ceases to be a crime to copy it.
So then if I were to download your personal information and use it to steal your identity and ruin your credit and wreck your life, that's okay because 'hey, it was on the internet so it can't be wrong'.
@ Yuriphoria
Apparently you don't really understand the concept of 'biased' at all. It'd be like saying the victim of a crime is biased because the crime happened to them, so they shouldn't be seeking legal ramifications because of that bias. And make no mistake, this is stealing from the creators. People who are in denial of their stealing of peoples' work is one of the most pathetic things I've ever seen. At least have the balls to be able to say to someone's face that you are too poor to afford what you want.
@ Anonymous 2:52
You have the spoiled brat perspective. You don't even know what 'economic perspective' means. If you had any economic perspective whatsoever, you would come from the perspective of compensation for goods and services, where there is no such thing as 'free.' You are not a creator of anything noteworthy, obviously, so you can continue to whine about the big meanies who won't let you steal their work with impunity.
The most risky country to trade with isn't the USA. You are yet again just making shit up. How exactly are we the most risky? Go ahead. Inform us with your infinite economic wisdom since apparently you have all the knowledge.
And before you blame the games industry for the anti-piracy laws, yet again proving you know nothing, know that it's the games industry who has tried to adapt the hardest without taking away freedoms in order to profit while allowing the current internet to thrive as it always has as a free expression. As a whole they could go and support the laws and be perfectly justified, but for the most part they don't because they know the laws are draconian and backward. They try to give you, the gamer, an opportunity to get something you'd like, while they get the profit they deserve, and yet everyone treats them like sharks.
Pure and simple, go fuck yourself you petulant, spoiled little child. Go support the creators who deserve it.
@ Anonymous 13:35
And why do you think they did that? Because of piracy, you idiot. Piracy has driven them to desperate measures to guarantee they get the money necessary to not only recoup losses, but also get a profit so they can continue to exist. People bitch when I bring it up, but I work in the industry, I have perspective you do not.
"Squeeze as much money" my ass. They are mostly losing the very profits that sustained the industry ten years ago. And in case you haven't realized it, DLC is the only way they can profit off of the used gamer market which is profiting quadruple on every game they sell, without publishers OR developers getting a piece of any of the subsequent sales.
What the hell is wrong with you people that you are so devoid of logic or information that you think everyone who wants your money is evil!? The 'bare bones' games you talk about took hundreds of thousands of man hours to make so you could get enjoyment for 50 or 60 bucks. I won't say everyone does the DLC concept well, but most of them aren't very bad. If you don't want to support the game further, don't buy DLC. But don't pretend that they are doing something evil just because they want to earn money for something you wanted from them. I've never seen a single DLC that was necessary to the game's story, they always enhance it, nothing more.
God damn it, how childish can you possibly be that you blame the creators for EARNING what they deserve for their creation!? Whether it's done oddly or not, they still deserve it if you are interested in their game!
The world is getting worse... because of piracy. You seriously just typed that out and weren't joking. You should be ashamed.
In case you haven't realized, it's gotten worse because of widespread piracy, which is a representation of a widespread lack of accountability. If the normal user/customer lacks accountability to buy the products, the businesses are stuck doing new measures to try and make money of things. It still isn't working very well.
Free To Play models are showing decent profits, and it's probably one of the only relatively stable game profit styles for MMOs, and took years to develop. But it is still unstable. It discovered a basic psychological idea that helps customers feel more free to spend, and based on that things can grow.
But if you want to play a game that is monthly fee, then you pay the monthly fee. It's simple as that. I agree that going after users is a bit much, and hope that part is a scare tactic to let them know that they easily CAN go after them, but shutting down the server and arresting the creator is reasonable.
Copyright Infringement only covers anyone who made a profit off the intellectual property. Unless Japan has screwed up that law...
And since when was running a private (not pirate) server Illegal? Its called a LAN party. You can have one from all across the world if you know your target's IP address.
It's f2p now anyway, so who really cares if it's a private server or not.
Not in Japan? I'm not too sure about that, 10:39. When something goes F2P in ONE country, it usually goes F2P in all OTHER countries as well.
For RO they separate servers by region. Korea has their own so does Japan, the rest of Asia ends up in their own server. Its a RO thing not a geogrraphy thing.
Yeah, but really, who gives a shit about Ragnarok Online?
Also, Korea and Japab(?) aren't considered part of Asia now? And the reason it's P2P is because all the gold farming in MMOs occurs in Asia.
Ragnarok Online is F2P for gaijin but P2P in all major regions, asia, korea, japab etc
"Not in Japan? I'm not too sure about that, 10:39. When something goes F2P in ONE country, it usually goes F2P in all OTHER countries as well."
Look it up...
Chances are, most of these people will not do jail time. They will most likely have to pay fines.
"It's f2p now anyway, so who really cares if it's a private server or not."
It's F2P in the US and EU, not Japan where the arrests are taking place.
NcSoft are a bunch of fucktards.
Boycott time. Not like I was ever interested in their games anyway.
First, city of Heroes gets suddenly killed off, and now this! Did some corporate "experts" take over NCsoft?
This has nothing to do with the ToS. It's about copyrights and copyright infringement. NCSoft is perfectly within their rights, legally, to go after these people. It's much the same as pirating music and movies. Someone is using their product without paying them and, as a result, NC can take legal action against the people infringing on their copyright.
Now whether they should or shouldn't have chosen to do what they did is more of a moral issue. Are these people actually impacting NC's bottom line? Would a cease and desist order have been sufficient (and was one issued and ignored)? Or did NC find out about the server and go straight to the "HANG THEM!!!" option?
Personally, I think NC handled this poorly, but in a legal sense they are certainly acting within their rights.
Running an emulated server is not a *copyright* violation!
(As long as they didn't illegally copy the server code...)
Running an emulated server might be a violation of some other Corporate-Revenue-Protectionist-Law, though.
"it's probably against the TOS" good thing they didn't agree to said ToS
City of Heroes died so Aion can go on sucking. What a fucking mess.
City of Heroes was fun back in those days when you had to subscribe its sad that Aion might suffer the same fate if they can't find better content to challenge players with.
'' when you support huge entertainment corporations by buying their shit you support criminals '' because those are the real bad guys here.
And naturally it makes sense to boycott something you don't use, therefore your boycott is useless. Brilliant.
Quotes in their NA forums from them saying "Pando Media Booster is a great tool! There's nothing wrong with it and we will continue to use it!"
In response to "God damn it, I don't want to keep pando media booster installed to freaking update the game!!!"
I don't see the issue here. Making a private server goes way beyond fair usage.
really? You havent seen NEXON then
Host server in Russia. Then left at N-Fail Soft
NCsoft has shown dwindling profits for the last year or so. In the last quarter, they've actually shown a loss.
This is why they've decided to cut Paragon Studios (City of Heroes) loose.
This is also why they've decided to go after people who are directly competing against them WITH THEIR OWN GAME.
Awwww, poor baby is upset that his GW2 trading outpost isn't working like HE wants.
News flash, fuckhead. The GW2 trading server is CROSS SERVER. It's getting hit from all worlds at once. It's going to be handling one hell of a load and outages are to be expected.
Waaaaah I don't want to pay to play, it should be free! So I'm going to steal it and then play dumb when I get in trouble for stealing. Last time I checked, stealing is illegal. If you don't want to pay for your online games then go play League or better yet, GW2. But don't try to justify stealing, or your stupidity.
Why? Because they're not getting paid for a game it cost them money to develop? Because someone is running an illegal server? If you found out a guy from Korea or China was doing the same with a Japanese company's game you'd be in line at the torch & pitchfork store.
Finally!!!!!!! Someone here with a brain. Thank you for saying that. Sankaku is getting way too biased as everything here is turning anti-anything thats not made in Japan. Its a great country, if some of its people realized that the world isnt made up of fat ugly barbarians trying to steal their stuff. Japan is an amazing country, but just like every other one out there it has skeletons in its closet and dirty hands. Its time for some of its citizens to stop stroking their egos and stop letting their pride blind them to the world.
The question is how much is fair for them to get payed?
Truth is they are paid just fine as it is, regardless of piracy.
Furthermore how much more they would be paid if this server didn't exist?
It is false to relate pirating with lost sales. Most people use the pirate version because they don't have the money or don't think it is worth to pay for the good. If the pirated version didn't exist most of these people still wouldn't buy the game.
@06:19
Here we go with the same bullshit arguments..
"I pirate because I can't afford a game."
I'd like to have a Ferrari, but you know what? I can't afford one. Doesn't give me the right to steal one, does it?
"I pirate because I don't think it's worth that much."
Well you know what? Too bad. I don't think I should have to pay what I do for internet, but you know what? I still have to pay it. I don't feel like paying $10 to go see a movie but if I get caught sneaking in they have a right to boot me.
Anyone who deludes themselves into thinking they're somehow entitled to pirate something because they don't have the money for it is a pathetic thief. Heck, even lower than that, thieves often get caught and face real consequences for their actions. They are scum.
So wrote the American. where game and hardware costs less than a sandwich.!
I wanted to see you open the mouth and play the hypocrite when it is 200% import tax like in my country Brazil!
By your line of thinking why not steal a transatlantic ship or even a country?
To everything there is a limit, and many companies now sell games that are a garbage, promising a totally different game and servers even worse
Thank your President Obama, because nowadays pirate was even harder!
In exchange for favoring people even richer and not be wrong!
"So wrote the American. where game and hardware costs less than a sandwich.!"
Jeebers, how much do you pay for sandwiches?
"re: The person was only interfacing his software with the official client software. He didn't use the proprietary server code. In my opinion this is fair use and should be acceptable."
At the very least, the person running the pirate server knowingly, and purposefully, facilitated the infringement by allowing people to use his server to bypass having to pay NCSoft. This would make him just as guilty, whether he used the actual NCSoft server program or not.
This is much the same as Youtube and other video hosting sites. They do not provide the actual content, but they are responsible for how copyrighted material is handled.
Look at what happened to Megaupload and Megavideo. These sites did not provide any content, they simply allowed people to use their servers to share videos and files. Due to the rampant amount of sharing of copyrighted materials, the government stepped in and forced them to shut down the sites and they arrested 7 "key" people.
@cpc65: Stealing has nothing to do with copyright. It is not legally the same and will never be. Nobody can "steal intellectual property" as it can be copied endlessly at no cost.
What needs to be discussed is how much return should someone have for "creating" something, and at which point whatever he created should become Public Domain.
@Anon 16:37 - There are problems not only about the duration of copyright but also regarding its scope. This case specifically is very complicated. Should a company have the right to force you to use its server? Accordingly to current laws they can, but should this be the case?
The person was only interfacing his software with the official client software. He didn't use the proprietary server code. In my opinion this is fair use and should be acceptable.
RE; To all the copyright zealots in this thread:
Regardless of how draconian copyright laws have become (yes, I agree they've stretched the limitations far too much), Aion has only been out for 3 years. Which means that it would still be protected even under the most lax timeline you've described.
To all the copyright zealots in this thread:
Copyright is not theft by any legal or even logic definition of the term. It is another infraction entirely.
Copyright exists for a few hundred years, which is basically nothing compared to the History of the human race. Most of humanity's creation came before its existence. It was created because society felt that it would be a benign stimulus to creation, and for some time it was.
Formerly copyright was 14 years after creation with a possible 14 years renewal in some cases. Then it became 28 years. Then 28 years with a 14 years renewal. Then 75 years or 50 years after the death of the author. Now it was extended to 120 years with automatic renewal.
Allowing a single person maintain to the exclusive control over thoughts and ideas for this long is a violence against Humanity as a whole and only serves the interests of big corporations.
Furthermore everything has a little bit of originality and a lot of copy, and most of the copy comes from the public domain. It is only natural that the public domain must receive what it gave to the author. With the ridiculous laws we have today extending copyrights to absurd lengths it is not what is happening. What is happening is that authors and publishers leech the public domain and give nothing in return for hundreds of years.
"It is false to relate pirating with lost sales. Most people use the pirate version because they don't have the money or don't think it is worth to pay for the good. If the pirated version didn't exist most of these people still wouldn't buy the game."
As you say, "most".
Even if 1% decided to buy the real thing if they couldn't get the pirated version, that's still more money for the people who created the product that was pirated.
I hate to get all cliche here, but pirating copyrighted property is a form of theft, regardless of how you want to rationalize or justify it.
"Furthermore how much more they would be paid if this server didn't exist?"
True, but then that's like saying you believe that Levis already gets paid enough for the clothes they make so shoplifting a few pairs at the mall is okay. Stealing is stealing.
Are you fucking joking?!
This site's pretty much pro-Korean.