happylight Wrote:The sellers and makers of AK-47 aren't guilty of any crime when someone kills with their gun. The killer is.
If I opened a McDonald's right next to a Burger King I clearly intended to take away some of their revenue. That's not illegal either.
Last I checked, selling The Anarchist Cookbook which teaches people how to make explosives isn't illegal either.
Your point is flawed because you carried the metaphor too far; The DMCA has specific clauses against creating tools to maliciously attack and abuse digital content. There is no comparable firearms law. Pointing out what their aren't laws against does not change what their are laws against.
The Great One Wrote:Why in all hell are you even trying to compete with people who are cheating and breaking the rules. Your other. points of valid but you and west must of bumped your heads somewhere. Unless competing with every single person in the game cheating or not is "fun" for you.
That's the point; I'm not competing against them. I refuse to play, period. There's no fun in playing when being legitimate means being 'underpowered' and therefore 'unwanted'. There's no fun playing a game where you can't do anything without looking inferior, where you can't do anything without being overpowered, where you can't even hunt in peace without some cheater coming along and taking the map from you because they want it and are willing to break the rules to take it. I quit because the game had no content worth playing, and won't come back for the 'new' content because doing so means being surrounded by people I can't respect and don't like.
It's not having what you want - It's wanting what you've got.
Eos Wrote:Your point is flawed because you carried the metaphor too far; The DMCA has specific clauses against creating tools to maliciously attack and abuse digital content. There is no comparable firearms law. Pointing out what their aren't laws against does not change what their are laws against.
That's the point; I'm not competing against them. I refuse to play, period. There's no fun in playing when being legitimate means being 'underpowered' and therefore 'unwanted'. There's no fun playing a game where you can't do anything without looking inferior, where you can't do anything without being overpowered, where you can't even hunt in peace without some cheater coming along and taking the map from you because they want it and are willing to break the rules to take it. I quit because the game had no content worth playing, and won't come back for the 'new' content because doing so means being surrounded by people I can't respect and don't like.
So basically you are refusing to play because they exist and there is a chance that they might come and interfere with you. As for the looking inferior who are you looking inferior to the people who are cheating or the people who are playing the way you are. I look inferior to plenty of people in this game yet it doesn't stop me from playing I could care less if they can solo cht in 10 minutes or do whatever I could care less because they don't concern me. You are competing with them. You basically came to the conclusion that "I can't do X effectively as Y can because Y uses Z which is cheating and I wont use Z". I guess what was fun for you in this game was doing Y better than most people and since hackers can do it better, you see no point in playing.
[MENTION=7970]The Great One[/MENTION];, let's leave that discussion in that other thread.
For this one, what is relevant is that Eos is an example of a player who would (and did) pay thousands for NX in order to become the first/best/strongest/etc. Whether you agree with his motivation is irrelevant. He exists. So do many others. And when it becomes apparent to them that no amount of NX will make them as strong as a cheater, they lose the motivation to play. And to buy NX.
This is the lost profit Nexon is trying to claim from the people who create and sell hacks.
happylight Wrote:The sellers and makers of AK-47 aren't guilty of any crime when someone kills with their gun. The killer is.
If I opened a McDonald's right next to a Burger King I clearly intended to take away some of their revenue. That's not illegal either.
Last I checked, selling The Anarchist Cookbook which teaches people how to make explosives isn't illegal either.
As Eos said, you kind of took a metaphor too far and got away from the point. Keep in mind that AK-47s and similar rifles are not available for public ownership in many states for the very reason I stated and the same reason why The Anarchist Cookbook is no longer being published. The average gun shop owner isn't responsible for for someone using a rifle purchased at his store to kill, but anyone selling weapons on the black market to gang members with full knowledge is at least an accessory to murder. There is no doubt, based on my knowledge of copyright law, that the developers of these hacks committed illegal acts in an attempt to profit.
This entire topic has no connection to McDonald's vs Burger King which is a fair (level playing field) competition. This is about people stealing McDonald's recipes then opening a shop next door and selling the same products for less while simultaneously throwing Molotov cocktails at McDonald's so no one will go inside.
Since we're rapidly getting off topic and while I'm sure my colorful extended metaphors are interesting to everyone, they probably aren't contributing to the topic anymore. Suffice it to say that I think Oppenheimer would disagree with you and that inventors should have some level of accountability for the application of their technology when used as intended.
Killed Wrote:How can any one person tell the exact reason behind why the game is how it is now? It could be Nexon's poor customer service, it could be botters, it could be exploiters, it could be how much NX has to be spent to be "elite", it could be any number of things.
Let's first define what these factors affecting the game right now are. First the overflooded market: full with items that during normal times would be hard to get. This can be considered good in a way, however because of it, "normal" or regular items like drops and scrolls have become worthless, making it hard to get ingame money unless you're a game expert and know how to get around or invest NX. The cause for this? Dupping. Now I am not an expert on the matter but by the little I know there's always been a hack tool involved in most of the massive dupping that happens ingame (except for Nexon's big screwups).
Second is the state of the ingame currency, which is practically worthless at the moment. Opposite to dupping, more mesos in the market can make things more expensive, but then again, only certain items are worth anything anymore so its only the dupper, the one with NX or the hardcore merchant (gotta work his ass off) that can get mesos. Mesos come from different sources, yes, however Botting is the biggest one which once again requires of a hacktool to be used.
The other factor would be the constant increasement of NX. However if the ingame economy were t be in a much better state, it would be much easier aswell to get around this. For example KMS: I believe you can get a full NX outfit permanent for something like 100m.
It might be partially Nexon's fault for not taking care of this game in the proper way, however that in no way excuses these hackers to take what isn't theirs and tear you to shreds, because in the end, they don't give a pineapple about the game or anyone in it, they are just here to make a buck, and when you're do stuff like that that affect thousands of other people, that's sick.
MapleStory Enforcement Action Leads to Ridiculously Large Anti-Circumvention Damages--Nexon v. Kumar
By Eric Goldman
Nexon America Inc. v. Kumar, 2012 WL 1116328 (C.D. Cal. April 3, 2012)
It can be disconcerting when UGC websites turn into IP enforcement plaintiffs. Perhaps the biggest offender has been Craigslist, which has brought numerous ill-advised lawsuits (see, e.g., this post) that have developed novel Internet law precedent that seems destined to come back and bite Craigslist in the ass. But I can think of many other ill-advised enforcement actions by websites that are normally defendants, including eBay, Facebook and Zynga. Just remember, guys: live by the sword, die by the sword.
Today's opinion is a default judgment brought by MapleStoy, a MMORPG, against UMaple, a service that runs an unauthorized MapleStory server, i.e., UMaple users can play MapleStory (using the MapleStory client software) without ever touching MapleStory's servers. UMaple then solicits "donations" that lead to enhanced privileges in the UMaple environment.
As usual in a default judgment, the court doesn't question the absentee defendants' liability. Thus, the action moves to damages.
MapleStory sought profit disgorgement under copyright law. All that MapleStory can make stick is UMaples' AdSense revenue, a paltry $400. MapleStory can't get at any of the alleged donations because it can't connect the dots that the revenue was solely attributed to UMaple and not other properties or activities:
Given the myriad electronic commerce transactions allowing for-even encouraging-payment processing through trusted third-party processors like PayPal, AlertPay, and Plimus, the Court could just as easily infer that the bulk of payments Kumar received through these services were earned through legal means of electronic commerce.
It's rare to see a judge so skeptical in a default judgment. This suggests that MapleStory's advocacy failed to engender a high degree of sympathy. Instead, it looks like MapleStory's advocacy (handled by a team from Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp) alienated the judge. Later in the opinion, the judge calls out MapleStory's lawyers for their arguments about the appropriate anti-circumvention damages calculations in various precedent cases. The judge says ominously that the advocacy led "the Court to question very seriously whether Plaintiff intended to actively mislead the Court or whether these oversights were merely the result of poor legal research." If it weren't obvious, neither conclusion would be a credit to MapleStory's lawyers. The worst part is that no stretching was required in a layup case like this. It's a default judgment, and judges will usually bless all reasonable requests.
After a paltry copyright infringement damages award, the opinion turns to anti-circumvention damages. Dun dun DUN. 17 USC 1203 sets a statutory damages minimum of $200 per act of circumvention. UMaples' client, the "UMaple Launcher," allegedly bypassed the access controls in MapleStory's client software. UMaple had 17,938 users. At $200/user (assuming 1 act of circumvention per user), the tally reaches a total of $3.5M+ in statutory damages, but the judge doesn't think this is right:
even the minimum statutory amount awardable under the DMCA in this case [is] a significant windfall to Plaintiff far in excess of any amount necessary to deter future infringing conduct. Further, the minimum award here likely bears little plausible relationship to Plaintiff's actual damages.
Nevertheless, the judge had no choice based on the formula it felt was binding, so this produces a massive anti-circumvention award. If it were collectible, it would be quite noteworthy as one of the biggest anti-circumvention awards of all time. But, it's not collectible.
As a final dis of the plaintiffs, the judge rejects the attorneys' fee award automatically produced by a formula in the local rules (about $71k). Instead, the judge only promises to award actual fees incurred.
It's hard for the plaintiff to feel good about this win. You don't expect to see such palpable skepticism from a judge when the defendant doesn't even show to protect its own interests. But this case does provide an excellent example of the ridiculousness of anti-circumvention statutory damages. $3.5M+ can't be the right damages award in this case, and it's so guffaw-inducing that it further erodes the legitimacy of our copyright rules.
If you ever find it let me know, cause I have an entire guild who've been looking.
Had high hopes for FFIV until they scrapped it and started redesigning it, live. Even with it being "done" now I just don't have the interest to or trust to go look again.
It's not having what you want - It's wanting what you've got.
Eos Wrote:If you ever find it let me know, cause I have an entire guild who've been looking.
Had high hopes for FFIV until they scrapped it and started redesigning it, live. Even with it being "done" now I just don't have the interest to or trust to go look again.
I'm still searching. I've tried so many, but to no avail. If you guys manage to find one that's interesting, give me a shout. DQX, hurry up and come stateside.
