It's actually a no-lose situation. You just get a lawyer that will only charge you if you win the case(which you would), and Sony would be paying the attorney fees and court costs as part of the law suit. Like I said, no law has been broken(emu wise), not sure about S2K's situation with their patcher, but if Sony ever came after this site, they wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Maybe that's why they haven't so far....

As one of the 0.1% I'm sorry that I have to inform you of a few things...

No-Win-no-fee lawyers cost a lot. They don't charge you THEIR fee unless you win, but they do pass on all other charges, including:

Filing fees
Expert Witness fees
Travel costs for Expert Witness(es)
Accomodation for Expert Witness(es)
Barrister Fees
Expert Opinions
Lawyer's Travel fees
Lawyer's use of a whore when traveling
Lawyer's Medical costs for the dose of clap he got from the whore
etc etc etc

Basically, the lawyer never puts his hand in his own pocket for any expense - he puts his hand in YOUR pocket. And yes, it feels like he's molesting you.

How do I know this for a fact? I'm sitting here, typing on a collection of second hand parts cos I'm on a disability pension, because I don't have the $250,000 needed to sue some doctors for negligence using a "no-win-no-fee" lawyer. On a personal note, this sucks a lot. Thankfully I live in a socialist country so painkillers are cheap (3 boxes of oxy cost me $5.40, versus $270 that the government pays for it), and the government pays for my pain specialist (free vs $1200 per month).

Remember the Golden Rule - "Whoever has the gold makes the rules"

Edit:

Please note that the mention of the politics of my country are not in any way a derogatory comment about your country. In particular I will not heed any Americans who start to rant that "Socialism is back-door communism", as it isn't, but I wouldnt expect you to know that. A short list of Socialist Countries includes Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand and Eire.

The custom zones Scorp and others worked on were extremely well done, and the one KhaN did is stunning. Whatever happens, we should make certain that all that work isn't lost.

Devils advocate
 

I like the eqemulator, i even play on scorps server. But you have acknowledge a couple of things. The client for eqemulator is Sony's (they designed it, they developed it), all graphics are Sony's. Even the characters you make on live are theirs. What they are doing as I see is perfectly legal, i see that in the EULA of serveral online games now, NO EMULATORS. I know for a fact City of Heroes has it. Usually Sony and the rest of them don't care, until either some disgruntalled player of the free server snitches to them, which is what i think happened with scorps. While i see its not illegal to make an emulator (grey area) is definately illegal to play on one. There is actually an opensource developed from scratch mmporg called planeshift(check sourceforge), which has the client and server from scratch and its open source, if i was a programmer, i would be supportting that. I applaude all the work thats gone into the eq emulator but i think the dreaded big business spectre is looming over the project.

On the Scorp forums I founf a interesting topic that actually probed playing on emulated servers to be legal. That 14th statment in Sony's EULA is actually against the law.
Edit-> Hmm they moved it, was 14 last time i checked, it's really 9, oops. While I am at it here is a copy of that post I found
---
QUOTE
14. You will not create, use or provide any server emulator or other site where EverQuest may be played, and you will not post or distribute any utilities, emulators or other software tools related to EverQuest without the express written permission of Sony Computer Entertainment America.


DIRECTLY VIOLATES TITLE 15 OF UNITED STATES ANTITRUST LAW.

QUOTE
Sec. 14. Sale, etc., on agreement not to use goods of competitor (

The 14th statement simply says that they aren't responsible for any damages their product or service may cause. There is nothing illegal about that. That paragraph prevents assholes from losing their job because they play too much and then go ahead and sue SOE because of that.

I would be willing to sell the server....

200+ populated zones
custom zones
player accounts
player characters
custom items
custom code (including the source)
quests
custom spells

wonder what it would be worth....

Someone Buy It, Please!!!

The C&D I recieved didnt mention the server at all, just the web site, which is in my name. So i wonder if everything would have been registered through dummy names if they could have done anything.

Chuck U. Farlie would have been a great one.

new EULA
 

IMPORTANT-READ CAREFULLY: By viewing these web pages, you ("the end-user") agree to abide by the following conditions. Violation is punishable by law.

1. You will not copy, modify, duplicate, print, transmit, download, interpret, redistribute, evaluate, be inspired by, filter, decode, or otherwise reproduce elements of these pages.

2. You agree to only keep one copy of these pages on your computer at any one time. Viewing these pages with multiple browsers, keeping a disk cache, making printouts with a browser window open, having two people view the same browser window simultaneously, and thinking about one part of these pages while viewing another are strictly prohibited.

3. You will follow a strict Kantian interpretation of these pages. Attempts to view these pages in an ironic or post-structuralist fashion are strictly prohibited.

4. Reviews of these pages and comments to other people must be made in strictly dulcet, admiring tones. For example, "eqemulator is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful conference I've ever known in my life."

5. You agree not view these pages on a Thursday.

6. Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother.

7. No guarantees are made as to the correctness, accuracy, pertinence, usefulness, or quality of the material on this website. In fact, there are several out-and-out lies. See if you can figure out where they are. We think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

8. By viewing these pages, you agree that this EULA voids all preceding relevant laws and EULA's. You agree to waive your rights to sue eqemulator for any and all infringement. eqemulator will be viewed as strictly above the law, with all the equivalent rights (but not duties) of a sovereign nation-state.

9. This EULA will be considered binding even if you do not explicitly agree to it. This EULA will be considered binding even if you do not view these web pages.

10. The party of the first part shall be known in this EULA as the party of the first part. That's pretty neat, eh?

11. You are already in violation of this EULA. You will surrender all assets, possessions, and children upon demand. Come to the stone bridge by the misty river at midnight and await further instructions.

interesting littlet tidbit
 

The End User License Agreement - or EULA - is a legally binding contract between the developer or publisher of a software program (or application) and the purchaser of that software. However, unlike the purchase of goods or services, the EULA is, as its name implies, a license agreement. In other words, the purchaser does not own the software, they merely have a right to use it in accordance with the licence agreement.

"That means we do not own the Everquest game, we lease it"

Also this i just found does not look good...
http://www.eff.org/IP/Emulation/Blizzard_v_bnetd/

EULA are friggin chokers.

want to complain about EULA?
 

Found a great site outlining everything to do with EULA's and you can email a rights group as well.

http://www.eff.org/wp/eula.php

then why when i log in to live.. on server select, it tells me i OWN 10 of 10 expansions??!!

Yep that's the problem. All these companies say we OWN their software when in fact we are only licensed to use it. If we owned it, we'd have the source code. I guess they say "buy" instead of "license" to not confuse the masses (and I'll tell ya - they are easily confused) but it's still a lie anyway you look at it.