https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/ea-shuts-down-fan-run-servers-for-older-battlefield-games/
Since 2014, a group of volunteers going by the name Revive Network have been working to keep online game servers running for Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, and Battlefield Heroes. As of this week, the team is shutting down that effort thanks to a legal request from publisher Electronic Arts.
"We will get right to the point: Electronic Arts Inc.' legal team has contacted us and nicely asked us to stop distributing and using their intellectual property," the Revive Network team writes in a note on their site. "As diehard fans of the franchise, we will respect these stipulations."
EA's older Battlefield titles were a victim of the 2014 GameSpy shutdown, which disabled the online infrastructure for plenty of classic PC and console games. To get around that, Revive was distributing modified versions of the older Battlefield titles along with a launcher that allowed access to its own, rewritten server infrastructure. The process started with Battlefield 2 in 2014 and expanded to Battlefield 2142 last year, and Battlefield Heroes a few month ago.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by crafoo on Saturday October 28 2017, @11:23PM (2 children)
In a better universe this would be unquestionably legal. Reverse engineering and 3rd part built tools for the purposes of interoperability. A thing that a customer has paid for and would like to continue to use.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday October 29 2017, @12:38AM (1 child)
And where is the EA headquarters, as well as the headquarters and location of all these assholes making those kinds of decisions?
Yep, you guessed it, the "progressive" Bay Area.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 29 2017, @01:05PM
Silicon Valley and Disney are politically liberal in many respects, but when it comes to intellectual property, copyright, and digital rights management they're as evil as you can get.