Authenticating a valid EQ license
 

I hope asking this doesn't get me into trouble. This is not a request for warez.

I gather the reason EQEmu doesn't patch clients to a version compatible to the server is because there is no way to determine what is a valid EQ client license and what is not, but I am curious... Assuming there was a way to determine what is a valid key, would it be a violation of the EULA to then patch a client?

For example, suppose I am running a server and my neighboor, Chad, wants to play on my server, but he already patched to live, which is a version of the client that will not work with my server. Chad comes to me and brings me his legally purchased Sony Everquest CD's and shows me his key. Once I see this key and he establishes he has in fact purchased and owns a legal copy of the client, would it still be a violation to patch his client then?

NOTE: this is a hypothetical question only, it is not a request for warez.

Sony, as copyright holder of the eq client, has reserved the exclusive right to distribute those files. They can stop distributing the files at any time, and that does not change the fact that no one other than SOE is authorized to distribute them.

A prior version is just that -- a file that has gone out of production. That does not automatically give you the right to distribute said version.

Got it. Thanks for the reply.

It doesn't matter who you are distributing the files to, its still classified as "Distributing copyrighted materials", which is against the law.

Unless, for example, you were to sell your legally purchased copy of EQ (with what ever files that emcompasses...cough, cough...) to someone else AFTER WIPING it from your HD. That IS the only legal way to distribute them, that I know of. Used software is being sold EVERYWHERE on the internet. Amazon.com, Ebay, gamestop, and so on.