Hrmm, just wondering, has anyone ever ASKED SOE if we could reverse engineer EQ to see what it was made of, and possibly spawn forth other non profit modifications from it?
Legally speaking, they don't need to. Reverse engineering is explicitly allowed under the DMCA, as long as the devs follow the rules:
- no decompiling,
- no use of anything confidential,
...and probably some others as well. Otherwise, what they're doing is legal. That's not to say that SOE couldn't use predatory techniques to squash the project if they wished, such as bringing a lawsuit that is expensive to defend. One such suit would IMHO end this project in a heartbeat (though, in reality, I suspect it would only cause the project to move offshore, since it's open source).
The one thorny issue, as far as I can tell, is if people start running the game using copied CDs, since EQEmu is presently incapable of checking the CD key. This makes the issue more akin to the bNetd situation (which I admit I haven't followed closely as I don't play their games online). That's one reason why the mods are so vehement in demanding that people BUY the CDs--it's a problem they don't want.
I'm not a dev, but for those who wonder where I stand: crack open the wallet, let some light in to the darned thing, and BUY THE FRIGGIN CD!
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