Do players get punished for playing on a Private Server?

World of Warcraft requires you to pay a monthly fee and an end user license agreement. The fanservers for wow are free to use. You don't have to worry about being in legal trouble. The reason being that it's not illegal for players to be playing on WoW Private Servers. It is against Blizzard's EULA, ToS, and it isn't illegal. However, it won't get you in any trouble. As a player, this means that you should lay low on advertising that you're playing on a private server. That is only relevant, if you have a retail account, as Blizzard may terminate your account, if you talk about fanservers while playing retail. It's not illegal to play on one. This means that gamers aren't the ones in trouble.

Keep in mind that some people have reported getting complaints from ISP's when downloading World of Warcraft client on older versions of the game. We recommend that you use a VPN to download the client. Other than that, you are good to go. When you want to play on WoW Servers, you must have a game client in order to get ingame.

Server owners are punished for running World of Warcraft servers?

Here is where things get complicated. Hosting a WoW Private Server is technically a copyright infringement, involving server software by developers and server owners. You may also use the client file, which is a violation. Blizzard can also file a complaint against the server-owners, or more realistically, the host provider at which the game is hosted. This is usually done via email. Blizzard holds the rights to World of Warcraft. But in general, many hosting providers take these DMCA reports for private servers very lightly, especially if they are not US based. Some of the most powerful servers are run on hosts located in Europe, such as OVH – being in France - and have not been closed. They have not been closed down despite having received copyright infringement notices from Blizzard-related companies. Each country has its own copyright laws. Blizzard/the trade mark companies have not done anything.

In other words, it's very normal that Blizzard file copyright complains towards the hosting provider running the particular WoW Server they are 'targeting'. But it's very unlikely that Blizzard takes the next step, in case their emails are being ignored. It has only happened with the private server called WoW-Scape, which resulted in a law-suit, but the owner was also US origin based. WoWScape was also a wow server, that Blizzard took in court case, and was judged to pay a lot of money as a fee. However, there have never been any court cases. This includes court cases involving server owners as well as reverse engineering the game client to access the database data and server code relating to World of Warcraft.

How can the popular servers stay up without getting closed?

The reason is that the owners of the WoW Servers (and the host company they use) simply ignore Blizzard's copyright complains, and Blizzard don't proceed after that. The reason why Blizzard, who has made the game World of Warcraft, does not take further actions is something you can question. It is resource-intensive and will require a court-suit. It's not easy to remove pirated software, movies, and other items. The case is not different for Private Servers. Simply because some countries don't follow the same copyright rules as the US, making it very complicated for Blizzard to proceed. This way, it's easier for server owners running wow servers, to prevent court cases, and that is basically the reason why Private Servers continue to exist.

This belief is shared by Zremax. WoW Private Servers will continue to operate as before, and blizzard will not take any further actions except sending'scare letters via email. It's too resource heavy for them to go after wow servers, and the whole scene is just a very grey area. Perhaps, Private Servers even promote some people to get back to Retail, when gamers are tired of playing on the fanservers. Several countries (Iceland, Russia etc.) Copyright issues are taken more seriously than the US, for example. This way the server owners can bypass the copyright law, and continue to run their wow server, even though it's a private server.

Is it ethical and legal to play and host a private server?

World of Warcraft has been around since 2004, and has undergone several expansions. If you think about it, that 's a very long time. Some game versions were more loved than others. They do have one thing in comun. Mccainsource Gamers miss certain expansions. Blizzard's EULA says that there is no way for gamers to play at these expansions again. It's however possible, by playing on Private Servers, as you will be able to log into wow servers that aren't necessarily on the latest patch.

Whether it's ethical to be playing World of Warcraft on private servers, is a very subjective question. Some people are very strict about following the law and care deeply about Blizzard’s EULA. Other gamers and people running the private servers for World of Warcraft, may not care as much about it. Either that or the desire to re-enter old wow expansions makes it heavier. It doesn't matter what, it's subjective and the answer can only be given by the individual. At Zremax, we have seen people who disgraces private servers, but also people who love both World of Warcraft and also private servers.

Playing on the fanservers, which are also known as Private Servers for World of Warcraft are not illegal for players. But it does go against Blizzard's ToS and Blizzard EULA. You should be careful with your account on Private Servers and keep it anonymous. Don't use the same email on retail, as on Private Servers, when you sign up for an account. Running and owning a wow server is a grey area, but can be argued to be illegal as running a private server is a copyright infringement. Private Servers definitely also go against blizzard's eula and Terms of Service. But closing the private servers is not as easy, as it may sound. It's likely not worth it for Blizzard, to be closing the wow private servers, because it's resource heavy. You could also argue that you would want Blizzard to focus on making World of Warcraft even better as a game, instead of focusing on going against Private Servers. If Blizzard make their game good enough, maybe Private WoW Servers might even die out by themselves, naturally.