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NCSoft has granted the 'Private' homecoming server City of Heroes devs a license to host the game legally.
(forums.homecomingservers.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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Ah. Ok. So if I'm understanding right, NCSoft wrote City of Heroes (both client and server) and somehow the proprietary server source code was leaked. Some folks unaffiliated with NCSoft took the leaked server code and set up a server named "Homecoming." And rather than sue the fuck out of them (as is very normal in these situations), NCSoft worked out a license deal with the Homecoming team to allow Homecoming to be. Did I get all that right?
Very cool. Seems like just the sort of win-win kind of solution holders of intellectual property are usually too fucking rabid to allow to happen.
Published by NCSoft, developed by Cryptic.
Eh, if the code was leaked it was going to be used, so now they can say that anyone using the code needs to make an agreement to do so, which they can probably pull at any time.
Still probably better than slapping them with a lawsuit.
Not to say I wouldn't prefer they just put the leaked source code under the GPL or something. But it's better than just being assholes because they can.
It is possible NCSoft is getting something out of this, though. More control over how third-party servers do things or some such.
They gain some protection for the brand and retain the trademarks associated with it by licensing instead of ignoring, and get this for free vs the ongoing expense in private server whackamole.
They could already trivially shut down anyone using stolen code to host servers.
This doesn't enhance that case at all.
The most interested and able people to run the code would be cut off, and are likely now known by name to the companies legal staff.
It's a random server hosted somewhere in the Midwest vs John and Jacob Smith in Michigan.
But licensing this has literally zero impact on their ability to take action against that random server.
They have the exact same options available to them.
That would imply they actually know where the server is being run and by who without taking legal action.
No it doesn't. This doesn't change that.