Lloyd Korn shuts down MapleStory hackers.

Dangerous attitude to have. "They have my opinion, so I hope they keep abusing the law to get the outcome I want."

Dang, ok, so I will start hoping nexon doesn't go towards the option I see as morally correct, and that I support, noted.

Abusing the law DOES NOT WORK. The Cheat Engine forums are not bound by any terms Nexon sets forth unless the owner of the forums agrees to Nexon's insignificant terms. Distribution of the .wz files, okay. Fine. That's copyright infringement because they clearly have Nexon proprietary material.

Obviously they aren't insignificant since they had enough to make them take the site down, and abusing the law isn't 'abusing' when they recently updated the ToS to deal with it. Want to put a stop to drug addicts? Go after the distributors rather than individuals using them. Granted, that is more extreme than maple hackers, but it's the same idea.

Do you not understand the implications? DMCA is not a catch-all for stopping free speech. It's used to stop uncontrolled copyright violations. You cannot say that the hacking section for MapleStory infringes Nexon's copyright without files that do so, because it doesn't.

Nexon updated the ToS to include using and/or distributing hacks as breaking them, also.

6.4 Software. Use or downloading of the Software is conditioned on your acceptance of the terms and conditions of our End User License Agreement and any license agreements relating to such Software, including all third party agreements. By using the Software, you agree to all of the terms and conditions set forth in such agreements.

In addition you agree not to create, design, disseminate, link, distribute, provide access to or use any third party programs, bots, scripts, codes, bypass, memory scanning software, hacks or cheats designed to alter the game play or to modify the code to play the game differently than it was intended by means of programs not permitted or authorized by Nexon

Thus Nexon is using this as the legal backing, ever downloaded Maple? then you agreed even without clicking yes on the ToS, and the whole ignorance bit generally doesn't work, I doubt you'd get far defending it by arguing that you didn't know you couldn't distribute hacks, these sites know that they shouldn't be doing it really, but continue anyway.

The argument that it "damages their profit" could be used for anything. Hey, the Internet damages the profit of newspapers. The Internet "damages" profits for record companies. The Internet "damages" the profits of Internet businesses! Yet no ISPs are being sued.

Completely different scenario, the internet is not the same service as newspapers. News websites aren't copying the exact information from newspapers (though they might be writing about the same stories). Hacks change the code of maplestory, and for the real consumers enjoyment, force them to invest money and time on attempting to patch said hacks.

and I guarentee you don't sign a contract saying that you won't use 3rd party products on your car.

Or, in a more accurate example, third party markets for car parts damages the car manufacturer's profits. If you think designing and manufacturing cars is not a creative act, then ???. The point is that computers SHOULD BE no different from any other industry.

Ok, lets compared hacking to other industries opinions on hacking the products then, firstly car hacking... oh wait, can't do that, urm, ok , the film industry? Ah, they spend enough time trying to arrest the people who distribute fake dvds and files, not a good example for you then, what else, what else. Hmm. Video game companies do the best they can because they like to protect the products they've made.

The only difference is that it's infinitely easier and less costly to create duplicates of anything imaginable. Okay. So what makes sense here is to go completely against that idea of progress and outlaw it!

Ah , of course, progress, duplicating something to screw over the original makers who spent time and money on it is progress! God, we've progressed so far, i'm sure in older times Shakespear wouldn't have minded if people had stolen copies of his script and used them to make identical plays over the country, at the very least! Oh wait...

The legal system was NOT designed for what we've experienced these last 20-25 years. There are a lot of issues with copyright, but it's getting way out of hand.

Yes, it is getting out of hand, this is not one of the times it's out of hand, the only situation where it is out of control currently is where people patent something, make no attempt to make something of it, then sue when something similar to your patent is finally made.

This isn't theory, this is a real example of free speech infringement using copyright as a guise for "whatever the pineapple I want." No. That's not how it works.

This is a example of free spech how? Defacing any real life product wouldn't be counted as free speech, and thats exactly what hacking is doing to maple. Or did you mean private servers? Okie doke, since thats 'free speech' I should be able to sell bootleg copies of films and video games, among other things, for cheaper than the real companies can afford to, because it's free speech to rip off someone elses product and use it to my own ends, and provide competition to the hard working makers of the original game.

I don't like hackers as much as the next guy and I don't play any private servers, but I respect their right to speech. Something we clearly disagree on.[/QUOTE]

I'll be using my right to speech to come and rob you blind at some point then, since it's clearly something you agree with. Ok that sarcasms a bit much but it's still a silly opinion to have.