{private server's and donations}

[*TraPStaR*]

Ok this is a nagging question on my mind about this preticular discussion about donations

1. donations are good they help keep servers up and running

2. yes those who donate do get stuff in game

3. Ascent and its <tos> terms of service

well i read some where hosting a public server with Ascent is illegal
and some where els said it was perfectly legal and then i read something on donations
one said it was legal one said it was not so what i really want to know even tho people are doing it now is it legal to host a private server and take up donations to keep it up and running

not that i am/going to i just wanna clear it up for people and my selfish self :P

[EmuGod]

Yes, ascent IS and IS NOT illegal.
There are different reasons for both, so I'll post them fully.
1. IF you ONLY run ascent for yourself, it's not illegal.

2. It's not illegal to take donations to help your server to stay up. As long as none of the charitable donations go into your pocket it's a legit donation. Not form of income from the game.

3. Allowing anyone except yourself (the localhost) to connect to your server, and play is illegal. It goes against blizzards eula that clearly states you're not allowed in any way to host their data, or modify their files in any way shape or form.

4. The odds of blizzard finding out who is hosting the site, AND having proof of it is too much of a hassle for them to really do anything about it.
You may recieve threatening e-mails after you get about 500 members on your server, however they cannot legally take actiono against you without one hell of a fight, cuz the only ways that they can prove YOU are the one hosting is if they hack the computer, or server it's on, and find out the info (meaning they broke their eula by accessing files outside the standard folder that of which they ARE allowed to view at any given time.
Or they can use the second option, and spend COUNTLESS hours days, or hell, even months tracking your ip, then speaking with your host, then tracking you down. They're not going to do all that unless you pose a MAJOR threat like somwehere close to 2000 players.
So, in short to answer your question
1. No, ascent is NOT illegal
2. Yes, allowing anyone to connect through ascent is illegal.
3. Donations are not illegal
4. Blizzard won't (more than likely) **** with you for having it.
Hope this helps ya out.
Dracconus

[*TraPStaR*]

ok thanks very detailed