Asiasoft Starts Action Against Private Servers (AAPS) Campaign

Private Servers use their own code. This is true. However, the code is using Nexon's copyrighted material to create the exact same service that Nexon already provides.

I'm fairly sure I know which PServer you people are referring to, and let me say that they still have to decrypt the WZ files in order for their PServer to function. The fact that the results are put in the MySQL database does not make the process of putting the extracted data in the MySQL database legal to begin with. It is always illegal to decrypt copyrighted material, especially when the material is being used to create the exact same work as the owner.

In essence, here's my argument:

1. The WZ files are copyrighted by Nexon and require decryption to obtain any information from them
2. Decrypting copyrighted content is illegal
3. Private servers are required to decrypt the WZ files to use on the server

THEREFORE, Private servers are illegal

It's slam dunk litigation. Pretty hard to fight your way around it, especially if you know where the server gets its information from.

Also, Devil, the OdinMS source code used the WZ files on the server.

Hmm well I never used OdinMS' source, so I don't know about that... All I know is that the server I used didnt need it...

Also I don't get why Odin would be needing the .wz files to run the server. Was it for directory or file indexing to sync with clients? If they would only need a dir structure, they could have used bogus dir/files structures for that too... I can't really think of a good reason other then that why they would need to use .wz files for to run a server.

On your second point of extracting copyrighted data to study it, reading it out and analyze it, being illegal... Well maybe in the USA with the DMCA terrorizing it's citizens (hehe ), but I'm sure it's legal in many counties (if not all) in Europe and the rest of the world.

Also, what's in the database was, afaik, nothing more then home made scripts created out of analyzing tcp packets, and not copied code from nexon files... :o

[...]I'd be pretty suprised if they didn't use the .wz files , since you know, thats where most of the game is stored.

Server =/ Client, they are two completely two different things. You can't even compare the two. It's not like the server cpu starts playing maple story itself and talks to other clients (players) like some sort of superGM, it works totally different.