Largest Maplestory hacking website being sued by Nexon America and Nexon Korea Corp.

John or Jane.

yea, pretty much what i thought.

Nexon should NOT win this. Writing software that works in conjunction with other software should not be construed as copyright infringement. As much as I hate hacks on Maple, stuff like this is why we are against SOPA (trying to take down websites for poor reasons).

In principal I agree, but there's also the fact that these websites not only cost Nexon money which a bill like SOPA would target, but goes ahead and profits from it too (and from what I understand not by any small amount either). The second part is what will and should do them in.

All that a side, there's already precedent: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9991451-93.html

Though I'm really not sure how it ended in the end.

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDY_Indus._...%27t,_Inc.. or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glider_%28bot%29

There we go, I suppose we'll see the same type of developments in this case. The nail in the coffin will be that the we never own the game, only license it.

I also have to go back on the loss of revenue statement I made, because Maplestory is a f2p game, but then again they do state they lose money working on patches to fix hacks.

These guys are so screwed, when the courts want to me how much they have net from these hacks and they can't provide these papers and when they do find out how much he was making and see no taxes were paid at all, he's gonna be crying for help.

They need to make of them an example for all the people outside thinking of doing that, ever

Hit them with all you have. I'm cheering so much for Nexon on this and I wish more companies would sum up to this case / start their own cases.

Man that Ryality kid is so lucky I wasnt here when he stated that garbage. Pretty sure that's the certain DB in windia who strongly advocates hacking.

Thinking this website is a business HA.

So any idea on when this will actually proceed?

Uh...

1/6/2012: 21 DAY Summons Issued re Complaint - (Discovery) 1 as to Defendants Ryan Michael Cornwall, Gamersoul.com, Ryan Griffin-Crane, Vincent Hai, Yangyu Zhou. (et) (Entered: 01/10/2012)

These guys are so screwed, when the courts want to me how much they have net from these hacks and they can't provide these papers and when they do find out how much he was making and see no taxes were paid at all, he's gonna be crying for help.

That's another interesting point. If they are bringing in several thousand a month, that needs to be declared right? And I'm unfamiliar with US tax code, but can evidence turned up during any investigation here be used in a tax case against them?

That's another interesting point. If they are bringing in several thousand a month, that needs to be declared right? And I'm unfamiliar with US tax code, but can evidence turned up during any investigation here be used in a tax case against them?

Depends where the person lives but if he's a USA citizen yes the IRS can audit him, as can his local state government. As for sales and use tax if it's software it's typically not taxible, however having to update it could be considered maintenance contract which could then become taxable.

Atleast 2000 people use [hacking trainer]
The cheapest one is 40$ a month.
That's 960,000$ a year assuming they all bought the cheapest one.
Not to mention, he also sells a private version to chinese meso farming sites.
+ads on his page(visited by tens of thousands each day).
Quite a bit of income, considering he pays no taxes.

Atleast 2000 people use [hacking trainer]
The cheapest one is 40$ a month.
That's 960,000$ a year assuming they all bought the cheapest one.
Quite a bit of income, considering he pays no taxes.

He's not making anywhere close to that much. The subscription for that damn thing goes up and down faster than mesos. The entier summer he offered a free trainer, people are overestimating his income quite a far margin.

Quick question, pardon my ignorance.
But why would AlertPay and MoneyPak be considered a taxable income? I'm pretty sure the only tax they get would be per purchase for processing right?

He's not making anywhere close to that much. The subscription for that damn thing goes up and down faster than mesos. The entier summer he offered a free trainer, people are overestimating his income quite a far margin.

You're underestimating it.

Alertpay,moneypak,PayPal, etc. are not taxable incomes afaik.

I want to hear what the defendants have to say about this. I posted a thread at their forums but it was deleted and I was banned for two days

Alertpay,moneypak,PayPal, etc. are not taxable incomes afaik.

Then online businesses wouldn't pay any taxes on revenue from paypal purchases? That doesn't sound right.

To above, as far as I know, they probably have something in their VIP section.

Quick question, pardon my ignorance.
But why would AlertPay and MoneyPak be considered a taxable income? I'm pretty sure the only tax they get would be per purchase for processing right?

It's essentially ISP funds, although I can't answer specifically as I don't know where this owner lives, but typically he would need some type of business license as he is in fact an online business. So he's going to need a DBA and report that income on his schedule C on his federal return. This is all under assumptions of basic USA practice though. Even as an out of country business has limitations, although I'm not familiar with that aspect

@killer

Considering that throughout the year they had buy 1 get 1 free, and even free licenses for nearly 5 months, I think you're overestimating it by assuming it stays at a stagnant price all year round.

Quick question, pardon my ignorance.
But why would AlertPay and MoneyPak be considered a taxable income? I'm pretty sure the only tax they get would be per purchase for processing right?

The only reason they're not considered is they're usually small. If they're actually making a livable income, they should be paying small business taxes.

http://www.odinms.de/

This came to my mind.

If you can't beat them, sue them.

This is them beating Ryan Cornwall.

lulz@ all the apologists for the defendants, acting like this isn't entirely justified and shouldn't have happened a long time ago.

All of these people deserve to get their asses handed to them.
Yes, that includes Ryan Cornwall.
Yes, that includes those who are just "forum admins".

Regardless of Nexon's pomegranatety customer service, regardless of any and all bugs in their game, these people are still guilty of actively and consciously contributing to making it worse.

Anyway, at first, I didn't notice the link to the PDF containing the complaint.
Still reading through it, but I found a few interesting/funny things so far:

"By doing so, hackers cause the game to operate in a manner that ordinarily is restricted by the game software (for example, allowing the player to see through walls or view portions of a playing field that would otherwise remain hidden)."

Though I know it's just an example of what hacking a game can do in general, I found it amusing since, being a 2D game, Maple doesn't have any walls to see "through" and maps are fully visible.

"Defendant's conduct has resulted in damage to Nexon in an amount to be proven at trial. By Nexon's estimation, such damage is in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars."

Whelp, that's gonna hurt.

"As a direct and proximate result of the infringements by Defendants, Nexon is entitled to damages and to Defendants' profits in amounts to be proven at trial which are not currently ascertainable. Alternatively, Nexon is entitled to maximum statutor damages of $150,000 for each copyright infringed, or in such other amount as may be proper under 17 U.S.C. (section) 504©."

As will that.

Though I know it's just an example of what hacking a game can do in general, I found it amusing since, being a 2D game, Maple doesn't have any walls to see "through" and maps are fully visible.

Well, I guess they mean those player could teleport into unreleased maps or restricted maps for this.

Or they're just trying to be funny.