Lloyd Korn shuts down MapleStory hackers.

info/data

Not copyrightable. You're right with the rest. Compiling data in a meaningful form might be copyrightable. That's legally unsound territory.

CEF was allowing its users to distribute copyright-infringing material that allowed them to duplicate, alter, and change Maplestory binaries. How does this not go against Nexon's copyright? I'm afraid even after I've read everything you typed, Bui, I still don't see how what Nexon did was wrong. It'd be hard for Nexon to make a case against speech against their product in talks or hack discussion. True. But CEF allowed attachments (which are hosted by CEF) to distribute these materials. That, in Nexon's eye, is the violation - not necessarily the discussion. The recent intervention of repackers made the difference.

This is further illustrated by the point of KittonKicker's localhost which invaded on the WzMss binary. It was only after this file was distributed on CEF that Nexon intervened and told CEF to take it down. Nexon knows free speech when it sees it.

I don't argue the legitimacy of the copyright claim in regards to distribution of the .wz files (because I can't, it's plainly a violation of copyright) or modified game files (such as the .dll you mention).

I'm saying that using the DMCA to take down the entire site is a gross abuse of the DMCA, which appears to be the case based on the language of the complaint. They're saying "There are copyright violations on your site, remove them. You are violating our terms of service, stop it. Our terms of service include even discussing hacks as a wrongful action. Also, your program that has nothing to do with MapleStory specifically is infringing our copyright. Take it down."

THAT is what I'm arguing against. Not the blatant copyright violations. :p

Those should be taken care of immediately.

EDIT: As an afterthought, there's a well-defined process. The website is not liable for the content that a user uploads and once the website is informed about the infringing content, they remove it. The issue isn't that people can upload things, but whether or not the content they upload constitutes infringement. I don't get the idea that they're trying to take down the site because it allows uploads, but for an idea of the legal ramifications of all sorts of speech, take a look at:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/

CSS is fairly easily broken and it's not a trade secret, but video media companies are litigating to get the key removed from everywhere by claiming that it is. It's nowhere near the same as copyright, but you get an idea of what separates speech from legality on that site. There are a LOT of things to consider. It's in a similar domain with "intellectual property" too, as it's an algorithm.