[MUD-Dev] Mud hosting services

[Dundee]

On Tue, 16 Nov 1999 15:32:25 -0500 Tue, 16 Nov 1999 15:04:24 CST, "AR
Schleicher" <ars at iag.net> wrote:

> Origin revised their terms of service quite awhile back to make UO =
server
> emulators a violation.

Is it a violation of the "Terms of Service"

This is the ToS which also says:

"If any such revision is unacceptable to you, you may terminate your
membership " =20

So I did that.

And:

"Either you or Origin Systems may terminate your Account at any time =
without
further obligation to the other."

Sounds good to me.  But I'm no lawyer, so whadda I know?  I can't =
*imagine*
that the mud hosting service would be liable for anything beyond what, =
say,
my ISP would be liable for were I hosting a server on my own computer.

>  While they haven't ever taken action against them to
> my knowledge=20

Not only has there been a lack of action against them, but OSI still
continues to run the client-update process prior to verifying the user =
has an
active account.  Nice of them, really.

> (unless you count the attempts at changing the encryption to
> stop the cheating utilities), this has discouraged a number of people.

I'm not sure why it would concern the mud hosting service, since they =
never
made any agreement with OSI anyway.

> Then there's also the fact that if you're paying to have it hosted, you=
 might=20
> want to start asking for donations to help support it. =20

Wouldn't there be the same concern for most text muds?

> In my opinion, Origin's main goal is to make sure people who keep using
> their client keep paying the $10 a month fee. =20

If they want to do that, they just need to validate the account prior to
running the update patch.

Essentially, their ToS currently states that if you want to play on =
private
servers, you must cancel your account first.  Or you could be a =
17-year-old,
since they won't allow anyone under 18 to agree to the ToS anyway.

Heck, UOAssist - which is not freeware - was developed in violation of =
the
ToS, and they turned around and approved it for use (and I can't even =
imagine
how much cash tugsoft has made off that program).

> There's no good way to insure
> that, in particular when you remember that both server operators and =
players
> have no interest in paying Origin if they're playing solely on private
> servers. =20

=46or $9.95 per month (actually, more like per every other month since =
they
dont patch all that often), most of our users *would* pay it.

I suppose it could be a violation of the software license agreement, but =
who
ever reads those?  Tugsoft didn't, and made a small fortune.

--=20
http://dundee.uong.com/



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