bimbi Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 (edited) Hey i got this message today, the question is now, what should i do? MISE EN DEMEURE"NOTICE" Sirs, Our company owns the rights to the online videogame published onto the internet under the registered trademark Ragnarok. We have noticed that you are operating an online game which reproduces unique materials taken from our game Ragnarok at the following adress http://www.united-mmorpg.com/ without our formal authorization. You have reproduced identically the game characters and the universe : graphics, user inteface, designs... You are also operating this game under the name United-MMORPG wich constitutes a trademark infringement. According to french law, all of the above contitute a trademark/copyright infrigement (Livres I, III et VII du Code de la Propriété Intellectuelle). As such you are subject to be fined up to €200 000 euros and 3 years jailtime. As such we request you to stop immediately the service and operations of the said game and report to us in the next 10 days. We will start prosecution afterwards. Please we're kindly request that you contact us should you have any questions. Gravity Europe SAS 15/27 Rue Moussorgski 75018 Paris +33170385582 Edited October 9, 2012 by bimbi Quote
Akkarin Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 It's fake, i've had around 40 of those sent to me when i was hosting eA servers a few years ago. 1. Why use a facebook URL to your site? 2. Representing Gravity Europe, why are they using american spellings.. Europeans use en-GB. 3. Why didn't it come from Gravity itself, instead of a European subsidiary? 4. I hate to say it, but there's traces of pinoy grammar in that thar letterz. 5. In official Gravity letters, they address you by Salutation then Surname. However, on what you should do, is entirely up to you. 5 Quote
Yuki Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 (edited) ^ Totally agree with the points above. Why so specifically the French law? And ew, they didn't even capitalize the letter F in French. It's not a very good professional letter or response to the situation at hand, especially with the grammatical errors I see... You can contact them via phone calls and see how that goes... --- What are Gravity's exact views on private servers now? Edited October 9, 2012 by Yuki Quote
Vach Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 Private server software is legal, because Gravity releases the client for free, and there is no EULA to agree to with depreciated clients. Their art assets are theirs though... so dont use those on a site or loader (screenshots are OK). Aegis, is obviously not OK. The only thing that is criminal is hexing clients, but thats where it gets gray because you're not profiting from it. That letter is probably BS. 3 Quote
Judas Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 I stopped reading after "Sirs,". haha same reaction 2 Quote
bimbi Posted October 9, 2012 Author Posted October 9, 2012 Yea thats really curious. But the letter was sent by the official "European Ragnarok Facebook Fansite"..... Quote
Akkarin Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 the letter was sent by the official "European Ragnarok Facebook Fansite"..... Quote
KingMez Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 Yea thats really curious. But the letter was sent by the "Official European Ragnarok Facebook "..... This is the Official Ragnarok Europe Facebook Page (Not the Fan Base) they can only contact him via Facebook because They dont got any e-mail/post adress from Bimbi Quote
bimbi Posted October 9, 2012 Author Posted October 9, 2012 just facebook page, sorry not fansite Quote
OnNplay Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 You are lucky to have one e-letter like that sent by someone from Gravity. May be you going to have another one after this. Someone is following you. Quote
Yuki Posted October 10, 2012 Posted October 10, 2012 Lol XD, probably because you made yourself more well-known haha. But yeah, the "Sirs" part just threw everything off... and then the grammatical errors. Quote
F0xxy Posted October 10, 2012 Posted October 10, 2012 "all of the above contitute" "Please we're kindly request" Just ewwwwww >.> Quote
Marionimous Posted October 15, 2012 Posted October 15, 2012 a fake letter... so many wrong grammars and spelling in there. there are letters that should be capitalized. and i agree with what the people above my post said. Quote
Winz Posted October 17, 2012 Posted October 17, 2012 wow, looks like we have the rAthena Grammar Nazis. hahahhaa Quote
Bin4ry Posted October 17, 2012 Posted October 17, 2012 Agreed. I just stop reading after the sirs Quote
Winz Posted October 17, 2012 Posted October 17, 2012 I guess this letter should be brought to the court for fake name issue eehh, no, I will neither do it nor stand back if someone does it. Wait, I guess they are the one who reported my 7th september miruku client parts on MF that leads to deletion.. =.= Quote
DustNoNo Posted October 18, 2012 Posted October 18, 2012 (edited) Hi everyone, Some people know me, i'm the administrator of Ymir-Online. We got the same warning on the facebook page, i live in Paris so i decide to try to met them. So you can be sure, this warning letter is serious and they are ready to start prosecution. I prefer to warn you before you get in trouble. I will close my server for sure (i have no choice anyway) and if you decide to let open your server just be ready for the tribunal. Ps : Just in case if people dont know me i posted here a long time ago : http://rathena.org/board/topic/66765-dustnono-showcase/page__hl__dustnono Edited October 18, 2012 by DustNoNo Quote
Kamion Posted October 19, 2012 Posted October 19, 2012 Quick question, if you don't mind my asking: doesn't a C&D from Gravity usually have a bunch of lawyer-speak in it (like "your server name or URL" (hereafter referred to as "rogue website") or something like that)? And this might be a stupid question, but aren't companies that hunt down private servers usually more forgiving, especially if their only income is donation money? I notice they say "shut down your server AND we'll press charges", instead of "shut down your server OR we'll press charges". Just curious. Quote
Vach Posted October 19, 2012 Posted October 19, 2012 Quick question, if you don't mind my asking: doesn't a C&D from Gravity usually have a bunch of lawyer-speak in it (like "your server name or URL" (hereafter referred to as "rogue website") or something like that)? And this might be a stupid question, but aren't companies that hunt down private servers usually more forgiving, especially if their only income is donation money? I notice they say "shut down your server AND we'll press charges", instead of "shut down your server OR we'll press charges". Just curious. I used to writ (not write) legal documents for a living and you are exactly correct. Since the initial letter in situations like this is the most important, if Gravity was serious they wouldn't make it seem so unprofessional. Someone native to the area (especially if they have an address there) would write the letter and it would be sent in multiple formats and not just once. Like I said in my other post, private servers aren't illegal if you don't misuse assets - especially now that Gravity has free servers themselves. I mean, think about it, this site shows up on Googles search in the top 10 listings... wouldn't they be hunting people down on here first hand? Especially people that offer paid services. This is why I was confused at DustNoNo's post... because that doesn't make sense. If they're this serious they'd be going after the big servers with VIP modes instead. Dead Horse. Quote
DustNoNo Posted October 21, 2012 Posted October 21, 2012 This is why I was confused at DustNoNo's post... because that doesn't make sense. If they're this serious they'd be going after the big servers with VIP modes instead. Ymir-Online got 350 players connected and he was the biggest french server. We got of course paiement method like all the international server. Anyway i just warn you that's all, i prefer to close my server. Like i said il already met them and some server will got trouble it's already late for them. Quote
Vach Posted October 21, 2012 Posted October 21, 2012 That's still not a large amount of players, but charging for VIP server usage is a horrible idea because it infringes on what they're doing right now with their official server and THAT they can sue you for because it is idea control on an established product to which they did create ALL the assets. Quote
Lordamax Posted October 21, 2012 Posted October 21, 2012 LOL!! And Gravity won't even bother spend $$$$ to close RO Private servers. lol! It's everywhere now! Quote
Yuki Posted October 21, 2012 Posted October 21, 2012 How did you meet them? Did you clarify more about the situation? Do you have to close AND pay? Quote
RagnaGaga Posted October 21, 2012 Posted October 21, 2012 Gravity sends out emails a few times a years. We got this Facebook post on our page as well. It's probably just some community manager who's trying to scare private servers. Sending an email is already not a legitimate way of handling things. A Facebook post even less so. If ever they'd want to do something, they would have to send a real letter. Not to mention they are in France. If you are in a different country and your server is in a different country, what do they want to do? Quote
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