Notes

Are WoW Private Servers Legal?

Do players get punished for playing on a Private Server?



World of Warcraft requires you to pay a monthly fee and an end user license agreement. It's completely different with the fanservers of wow. The art of kerembeyit You can play for free. But don't worry, as a player, you do not get in any legal trouble or any sort of court case. The reason being that it's not illegal for players to be playing on WoW Private Servers. It is against Blizzard's EULA, ToS, and it isn't illegal. However, it won't get you in any trouble. As a player, this means that you should lay low on advertising that you're playing on a private server. This is only applicable if your retail account has been terminated by Blizzard. If you talk about fanservers while you are playing retail, it could result in your account being terminated. But besides from that, there's nothing illegal about playing on one. This means that gamers aren't the ones in trouble.



It has been reported that some people received complaints from their ISPs when downloading the client for World of Warcraft on older versions of the game. We recommend that you use a VPN to download the client. Other than that, you are good to go. When you want to play on WoW Servers, you must have a game client in order to get ingame.



Server owners are punished for running World of Warcraft servers?



Here is where things get complicated. Hosting a WoW Private Server is technically a copyright infringement, involving server software by developers and server owners. You may also use the client file, which is a violation. Blizzard has the right to file a complaint with the server-owners or, more realistically the host provider where it is hosted. This is usually done via email. Blizzard is the owner of World of Warcraft's rights. But in general, many hosting providers take these DMCA reports for private servers very lightly, especially if they are not US based. Some of the biggest servers run on hosts that are located in Europe, for example OVH - being in France, and they have not been closed down. They have been subject to copyright infringements by Blizzard-related businesses, but they have ignored them. The copyright laws are also different for each country. And Blizzard/the companies that trade in trading marks, have not done any further.



In other words, it's very normal that Blizzard file copyright complains towards the hosting provider running the particular WoW Server they are 'targeting'. Blizzard may not take the next steps if their emails aren't being addressed. This happened only with WoW-Scape (a private server), which led to a lawsuit. However, the owner was also US-based. WoWScape was also a wow server, that Blizzard took in court case, and was judged to pay a lot of money as a fee. But there have been no court cases. This includes court cases for server owners, nor for people reverse engineering the game client, touching the database data or the server code involving World of Warcraft.



How can popular servers remain up without being closed?



The reason is that the owners of the WoW Servers (and the host company they use) simply ignore Blizzard's copyright complains, and Blizzard don't proceed after that. The reason why Blizzard, who has made the game World of Warcraft, does not take further actions is something you can question. It is resource-intensive and will require a court-suit. As you might know, a lot of things get pirated nowadays' (software, movies.. etc), and it's not that easy to get rid of. The case is not different for Private Servers. Blizzard is unable to proceed because of the fact that some countries don’t follow the same copyright rules. This way, it's easier for server owners running wow servers, to prevent court cases, and that is basically the reason why Private Servers continue to exist.



Zremax believes that this won't change. WoW Private Servers will continue to operate as before, and blizzard will not take any further actions except sending'scare letters via email. It's too resource heavy for them to go after wow servers, and the whole scene is just a very grey area. Perhaps, Private Servers even promote some people to get back to Retail, when gamers are tired of playing on the fanservers. Several countries (Iceland, Russia etc.) Many countries (Iceland, Russia, etc.) take copy rights more seriously than the US. This way the server owners can bypass the copyright law, and continue to run their wow server, even though it's a private server.



Is it ethical to host and play on a Private Server?



World of Warcraft has been around since 2004, and has undergone several expansions. This is a very long time. Some versions of the game were more popular than others. They all share one thing in common. Certain expansions are often missed by gamers. Blizzard's EULA states that there is no way to go back to playing at certain expansions. It's however possible, by playing on Private Servers, as you will be able to log into wow servers that aren't necessarily on the latest patch.



Whether it's ethical to be playing World of Warcraft on private servers, is a very subjective question. Some people follow the law in every way they can, and care a lot about Blizzard's EULA and ToS. Other gamers and people running the private servers for World of Warcraft, may not care as much about it. Either that, or the itch to get back into old wow expansions weights heavier. It doesn't matter how you answer it, it is subjective. At Zremax, we have seen people who disgraces private servers, but also people who love both World of Warcraft and also private servers.



Playing on the fanservers, which are also known as Private Servers for World of Warcraft are not illegal for players. But it does go against Blizzard's ToS and Blizzard EULA. You should be careful with your account on Private Servers and keep it anonymous. Don't use the same email on retail, as on Private Servers, when you sign up for an account. Running and owning a wow server is a grey area, but can be argued to be illegal as running a private server is a copyright infringement. Private Servers definitely also go against blizzard's eula and Terms of Service. But closing the private servers is not as easy, as it may sound. It's likely not worth it for Blizzard, to be closing the wow private servers, because it's resource heavy. You could also argue that you would want Blizzard to focus on making World of Warcraft even better as a game, instead of focusing on going against Private Servers. If Blizzard make their game good enough, maybe Private WoW Servers might even die out by themselves, naturally.


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