Why not just ask Games Workshop to give you the source code?

[Resheph]

Since he already sent an e-mail to keaven, project is already possibly compromised. Well let's hope that it won't backfire...

[boog]

I admire his passion for the game. I really do, and if some fluke this works out and we gain code/knowledge/resources of some form to help the dev's complete the game that's wonderful. However, this is an incredible long shot and a HUGE risk. In hindsight asking the developers there opinion regarding the matter would have been nice...You know I think they would be pretty pissed off to know that they lost MONTHS worth of hard work because someone lacks patience. Moral of the story, think before you speak and act.

[Luth]

Mailing Keaven Freeman is pretty pointless...
He is working @ carbine studios (Wildstar) since mid 2013.

As i see it, EA owns the game but has no right to use it and GW owns the right to use it but isn't the owner of the game.

I don't even think EA has the right to sell the game...

Edit:
Even if EA is able to sell it, to whom should they sell it? Who is owning the game after the sale? A "bunch o' fans"?
I'm pretty sure none of us is opening a business just for a fan project and none of us want's to get ripped of some EA lawyers when they sell their game.

[verterdegete]

Well as someone who knows a lot of people that pirate all their movies/musics/games (and have been pirating all through their teen life) I think you are overestimating how much companies care about people using their intellectual property.

Are you aware that GW sued a writer for naming her novel "Spots the Space Marine", just because it had "space marine" in it? They lost the case, but it shows pretty nicely how far they can go.

[herrmarek]

it should be to write some ex devs of Mythic, or other group who keep Warhammer last years, but unofficially.
Maybe some good spirit have backup of server part of application

[Infero93]

It is stupid to try contact the Games Workshop or/and EA. They will definitely not handle the source code of the game nor the source code of the server to us. What is worse they will do anything to bring down this project. We should try to attract as less attention as possible.

On the other hand reaming "in the shadow" can be proven most difficult. As the community grows we can be sure that someday EA/GW will realize the existence of this server and they will take action.

About contacting the old devs of game - noble idea but we don't know them and we don't know if they like the idea of War-Emu. It will be better to just wait - maybe someday one of them will join us and will not even notice this.

TL;DR - do not try to do anything that involves big companies. It will bring just harm!

[Kharnamatic]

Mailing Keaven Freeman is pretty pointless...
Edit:
Even if EA is able to sell it, to whom should they sell it? Who is owning the game after the sale? A "bunch o' fans"?
I'm pretty sure none of us is opening a business just for a fan project and none of us want's to get ripped of some EA lawyers when they sell their game.

I said that money to pay for the rights to the game would be raised via Kickstarter/crowdfunding.

It's extremely easy to get money from Kickstarter. It just drops from the sky. Somebody raised $55,000 to make potato salad (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/32 ... tato-salad), and everyday hundreds of thousands of dollars are being denoted to the devs (aka con artists) of terrible indie games with awful graphics, ideas and expertise. If EA/Game Workshop set a reasonable price for the game rights / source code, I think Kickstarter will be able to pay for it given the popularity of the franchise.

[altgrimreaper]

Kharnamatic...you have no clue about the real world. AND Elven told you not to do the f-ing email but you did anyway and said you represent this group. You only represent yourself.

[altgrimreaper]

OK, now that I have calmed down a little...

One of my jobs is to protect the IP of a software company.

I have a lot of crap to chase down on the internet, so I have to prioritize. How much money is it costing my company? Is it portraying our IP in a bad light? Are the offenders making money from it? Is it a pain in the ass for me because I get stupid emails about it? And so on. This server really isn't a big deal for the GW or EA IP guys unless it becomes a constant irritant for them. Like stupid emails or their boss saying shut it down because it's an irritant for him/her.

As far as EA goes, they probably don't care at all, since GW owns the IP. It's just an orphaned game/code at EA. GW might think differently. Does the existence of this server make them look bad? Is it an irritant to the actual people at GW who deal with IP? Does this game compete with SEGA for subscribers?

As far as asking for server code...well that is a big problem. Don't do it. It will really piss someone off at EA or GW and the law will come down on us like a sledge hammer. Do you really think Keaven or one of the other devs will risk their career and financial ruin for this? Get serious.

The best thing to do is just keep a low profile. Be sure to present this as a fan site that is paying homage to WAR. That the site makes no money. That the number of players is low. Run the server in a country where it is hard or near impossible for them to shut it down. But whatever you do, for God's sake, don't start getting into EAs or GWs face about this game.

[Luth]

Spoiler:

Mailing Keaven Freeman is pretty pointless...
Edit:
Even if EA is able to sell it, to whom should they sell it? Who is owning the game after the sale? A "bunch o' fans"?
I'm pretty sure none of us is opening a business just for a fan project and none of us want's to get ripped of some EA lawyers when they sell their game.

I said that money to pay for the rights to the game would be raised via Kickstarter/crowdfunding.

It's extremely easy to get money from Kickstarter. It just drops from the sky. Somebody raised $55,000 to make potato salad (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/32 ... tato-salad), and everyday hundreds of thousands of dollars are being denoted to the devs (aka con artists) of terrible indie games with awful graphics, ideas and expertise. If EA/Game Workshop set a reasonable price for the game rights / source code, I think Kickstarter will be able to pay for it given the popularity of the franchise.

Kickstarter is only the platform to allow random people to give money for a specific project. Someone has to be the creator/owner of this project.
That said, there is a rule that forbids using kickstarter as a simple "ebay-like" buy/sell platform:
...
Resale. All rewards must have been produced or designed by the project or one of its creators — no reselling things from elsewhere.
...
Source:
https://www.kickstarter.com/rules/prohibited
https://www.kickstarter.com/rules

And that potato salad example only shows, that some people seem to have too much money and/or a serious lack of braincells...

I wonder if the founder of that project could also raise that much money, if it was some kind of "food 4 the third world" project.
I don't think so...

Edit: I just realised, that charity projects are also not allowed

Edit 2: The guy with the potato salad had a stretch goal at 3000 $:
...
My kitchen is too small! I will rent out a party hall and invite the whole internet to the potato salad party (only $10 and above will be allowed in the kitchen)! The internet loves potato salad! Let's show them that potato salad loves the internet!!
...
I'm pretty sure this is against the "no charity" rule