Private Server Legality

So much disinformation.

It is legal to host a server, provided that you comply with the following criteria:

1. The company didn’t steal or leak the software that was used to emulate the hardware. This is irrelevant since the emulators were created from scratch and have never been stolen.

2. The server doesn’t distribute game’s client directly. blogging is good for your This is because no server offers direct downloads.

3. This project is not being openly monetized. Instead, it falls into making money with registered IP. This is where many servers fail. It’s a grey area since payments are taken “donations” and rewards given “signs of appreciation”.

Though, regardless of those, and even if your server is perfectly legal, a few individuals can’t afford the legal battle against a corporation like Activision, and wouldn’t take that risk anyway. This is why Nostalrius was shut down (Blizzard also probably poached some members though). The same reasoning applies for the fact that there are many servers that have been operating for a long period of time. Even a large one with open revenue schemes, it still makes a small fortune.