Are Private Servers legal?

[RockHardStallion]

Because this game is still running (albeit with a significantly-reduced player base - I remember when it was just Nexon, the good ol' days before this game got ♥♥♥♥♥♥) are Private Servers actually allowed? If not, how are servers like Atlantica Online Eternal and others allowed to exist?

Secondly, lol - Where is the Clover Fairy Merchant? No information exists in game.

Thanks!

[NocheLuz]

They are not legal. However, I think they don't have enough resources to deal with them. Quite a lot of games have private server even if the main server still open.

As for Clover Fairy Merchant. She is at the gate in Rome.

[Rem Best Girl]

Private servers are not legal, but only the owner of the server can get in trouble. All they would have to do is serve a cease and diciest order to shut down the game. But 99% of the time companies don't do that.
I play ragnarok online on many private servers, as well as Archeage and a WoW server from time to time.

[Partyrock]

I miss nDoors

[Sui]

Is eternal safe? I was looking to come back to AO but the new devs are basically everything wrong with F2P mmorpgs. Eternal seems to be the last private server standing, but is very russian/registration keeps glitching for me and all I can find online are people saying it's full of viruses.

Might just go find a safe looking lineage 2 one but this game had a special something that nobody else has recreated.

[Unrealtairo]

Illegal only for the host, but the laws aren't severe enough for doing it for nearly any company to even bother trying to shut it down, it's basically a slap on the wrist meanwhile the company would have to pay out the anus in attorney fees just for that slap.

Only time it becomes worth it for them is if the hoster is trying to collect any money, even just a donation. (As they should in that case, they have no rights to collect a single penny, they wanna host an illegal server then it's on their dime, period)

They 'will' get arrested for fraud for that one ^

As a player, not a hoster, it's legal. Only breaks eula.
And if the server is only ever played on privately, (solo), it's also not illegal.