Then in a couple of months, almost everybody here gets bored again (even making the game optionally free to play the average population was much smaller in 2012) and leaves these guys holding the bag with a licensing commitment to NCSoft?
Some kind of truce with NCSoft is desirable, allowing servers to remain operating out in the open like this, that is the best possible option. Licensing would just betray anyone else who might run a private server and result in another kerfuffle when, very soon, NCSoft decides the time has come for Sunset two-point-oh.
Even a truce I wouldn't count on. Just get used to the fact we're involved in criminal activity here (the morality may be debatable, but the law is clear), and prepare for the likely eventuality of all servers having to disappear into the dark web.