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Is it legal for unofficial servers to charge a fee?


Jemcrystal

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Is it legal for unofficial servers to charge a fee?

Or harass players into paying a surcharge for protection against trolls and/or being kicked after they have well established on that unoff server?  Is there anyone, youtube or otherwise, calling attention to corruption on unofficial servers?  Mainly focused on pve-pc but welcome to hear from all platforms etc.

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3 minutes ago, Jemcrystal said:

Is it legal for unofficial servers to charge a fee?

Or harass players into paying a surcharge for protection against trolls and/or being kicked after they have well established on that unoff server?  Is there anyone, youtube or otherwise, calling attention to corruption on unofficial servers?  Mainly focused on pve-pc but welcome to hear from all platforms etc.

I think its funny how you immediately associate money with corruption.

 

There are Youtubers with patreon subscriber servers. Pay to play.

 

Lots of pay to win PvP server.

 

Donations only servers with non play to win perks.

 

Servers aren't free. 

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10 minutes ago, Jemcrystal said:

Is it legal for unofficial servers to charge a fee?

Or harass players into paying a surcharge for protection against trolls and/or being kicked after they have well established on that unoff server?  Is there anyone, youtube or otherwise, calling attention to corruption on unofficial servers?  Mainly focused on pve-pc but welcome to hear from all platforms etc.

Yes. On all platforms.

And in the case of corruption. They are allowed to do that too.

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17 minutes ago, Jemcrystal said:

Is it legal for unofficial servers to charge a fee?

Or harass players into paying a surcharge for protection against trolls and/or being kicked after they have well established on that unoff server?  Is there anyone, youtube or otherwise, calling attention to corruption on unofficial servers?  Mainly focused on pve-pc but welcome to hear from all platforms etc.

Image result for i will make it legal gif

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No, it is not legal.   While a private unofficial server host may lease the servers to individuals, said individuals are still bound by the terms of service through the game company and it's constituents.  Private or not, you are not allowed to charge real money to play on Ark game servers regardless of official or unofficial.  The responsible parties leasing the server can ask for donations to help support the server costs, but they cannot enforce an actual fee.

In response to this:

Also, Why can't a server host charge players to play on his server? A server that costs him money to run?

If you invited someone to your house they can invite you for free or charge Like a cafe does.

 

Ark while being leased to hosts, is still intellectual property of Wildcard and parent company, which means you may not profit off of it without written consent by the company representatives which won't happen.

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Just now, Rio4201 said:

No, it is not legal.   While a private unofficial server host may lease the servers to individuals, said individuals are still bound by the terms of service through the game company and it's constituents.  Private or not, you are not allowed to charge real money to play on Ark game servers regardless of official or unofficial.  The responsible parties leasing the server can ask for donations to help support the server costs, but they cannot enforce an actual fee.

 

You could not be more wrong.

It is 100% legal as the server owner is providing a service and if you dont wish to pay for that service then they do not have to provide it to you. 

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1 minute ago, FreelancerKnux said:

You could not be more wrong.

It is 100% legal as the server owner is providing a service and if you dont wish to pay for that service then they do not have to provide it to you. 

I beg to differ, read through the Terms of Service agreement. 

Also, case in point, Blizzard won't allow emulators, Star Wars won't allow emulators, Eve won't allow emulators, most of the larger titles have legal clauses in place to deter and otherwise hold the person accountable for violation and unauthorized use of intellectual properties.  Wildcard happens to also have that legal standing.  You cannot charge for players for playing on an Ark server, you can however skirt that ToS agreement by accepting donations. 

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1 minute ago, Rio4201 said:

I beg to differ, read through the Terms of Service agreement. 

Also, case in point, Blizzard won't allow emulators, Star Wars won't allow emulators, Eve won't allow emulators, most of the larger titles have legal clauses in place to deter and otherwise hold the person accountable for violation and unauthorized use of intellectual properties.  Wildcard happens to also have that legal standing.  You cannot charge for players for playing on an Ark server, you can however skirt that ToS agreement by accepting donations. 

For once on here I dont overly feel like arguing but I will point out that its not the game that people are putting fees on its access to the privately run server. Also your other examples work because those companies haven't released access for players to set up their own servers in essence WC have authorized limited use of the Ark IP.

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1 minute ago, Rio4201 said:

I'd be interested in hearing from someone at Wildcard on this, because it would be highly abnormal that Wildcard would let others profit off their IP without some sort of expectation of a share of the profit from whoever is monetizing their private server. 

Last post on the matter I can recall from WC was maybe 3 years back but maybe a mod can recall a more recent comment.

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1 hour ago, Rio4201 said:

I beg to differ, read through the Terms of Service agreement. 

Also, case in point, Blizzard won't allow emulators, Star Wars won't allow emulators, Eve won't allow emulators, most of the larger titles have legal clauses in place to deter and otherwise hold the person accountable for violation and unauthorized use of intellectual properties.  Wildcard happens to also have that legal standing.  You cannot charge for players for playing on an Ark server, you can however skirt that ToS agreement by accepting donations. 

Unofficial Ark servers aren't an emulator. WC gave us the server software.

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2 hours ago, Rio4201 said:

I'd be interested in hearing from someone at Wildcard on this, because it would be highly abnormal that Wildcard would let others profit off their IP without some sort of expectation of a share of the profit from whoever is monetizing their private server. 

The TOS only applies to the Official servers.

People running private servers can do anything they like with them. 

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5 hours ago, Rio4201 said:

No, it is not legal.   While a private unofficial server host may lease the servers to individuals, said individuals are still bound by the terms of service through the game company and it's constituents.  Private or not, you are not allowed to charge real money to play on Ark game servers regardless of official or unofficial.  The responsible parties leasing the server can ask for donations to help support the server costs, but they cannot enforce an actual fee.

In response to this:

Also, Why can't a server host charge players to play on his server? A server that costs him money to run?

If you invited someone to your house they can invite you for free or charge Like a cafe does.

 

Ark while being leased to hosts, is still intellectual property of Wildcard and parent company, which means you may not profit off of it without written consent by the company representatives which won't happen.

where exactly did u get that idea from, i have heard of servers that freaking charge u $3 to play on their servers for a day. if u dont pay up after a week u get kicked and your stuff is auctioned to other tribes. i not too fond of this idea but hey, if its legal its legal. at least u have a choice, imagine if all servers were pay to play.

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The same thing goes for Minecraft servers, plenty of people monetize their servers in that game.  If someone sets up a server, it's up to them how they want to manage it.  Plenty of clans in all sorts of games charge it's members to afford hosting servers for the clans.  This is a really old practice in gaming.

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My hardware, my internet, my electricity, my knowledge that enables setting up an ARK server(s), my TIME adminirtating the server(s).

Sure I can (and by the way do)  give it away. But I can also charge a fee.

This is dodgy though - "Or harass players into paying a surcharge for protection against trolls and/or being kicked after they have well established on that unoff server? " State a fee up front, not hook a guy and then hold him to ransom! Unfortunately, probably also  legal - just not very ethical.

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18 hours ago, Joebl0w13 said:

The TOS only applies to the Official servers.

People running private servers can do anything they like with them. 

Nice, it's extremely generous that Wildcard would allow people to potentially make a revenue off the title without having to share that revenue with the company. I stand corrected I guess, a little shocked they didn't put legal verbiage in there for this type of situation though.  Personally, I won't pay to play on a Private server, because at the end of the day, I depend on the more reliable company run servers versus some kid who set a box up in his basement, used a dynamic IP rerouter and wants 20 bucks a month to play on his modded server. 

 

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