not till they could do it right. seems they are a llc now, should shield a single person from the tax burden
I am having trouble wrapping my head around this. I understand the LLC to protect them from taxes, as well as to shield their personal assets from being used to pay off fines or things. I don't really know what the non-profit part has to do with anything. All of this is perfectly acceptable as a personal shield for those putting in all this effort, which I very much appreciate. I have been playing on here since I could first get logged in and have been on pretty much every available moment I have had. What I am having trouble with is, how is this LLC, or non-profit status, going to prevent NCSoft from shutting it down? As long as no money was changing hands, it would be somewhat easy for NCSoft to turn a blind eye. When you start accepting money, even strictly for upkeep costs, you have crossed a legal line. This is a server farm running stolen code, without the permission of the owners of the software. If you accept money, even without making a profit, it is still a crime, and it is something that the owners of the software would have a much easier time proving as a crime with higher penalties than if it were simply a "hobby" server. Unless things have changed, the rules regarding abandoned software, still do not apply to MMOs, except in a very narrow set of situations.
Don't get me wrong, I do not begrudge ANY of the teams from defraying some of the costs of this. I work with large datacenters, and in software development. I know the costs as well as the effort involved in things like this. They shouldn't have to shoulder the cost on their own. What I am afraid of is, NCSoft swooping in and suing them out of business, and the game disappearing again. Granted, we will always have local servers, and there will be lots of other servers popping up, but I want something with some level of permanence. The Homecoming team have taken a hobby serer, and turned it into an actual corporate entity, whose entire purpose is to provide, modify and disseminate stolen software, and are taking money for doing so. That paints an awfully big target on their backs.
There are other ways money could have been solicited to do this, that would have at least made it harder to say "Hey look at that company that is very publicly ignoring copyright and trademark law as their primary function!"
I just really do not want to lose these servers. So far, they are the largest, and most closely resemble what we had at shutdown. I could care less about the inter-group drama going on. Until it actually impacts my ability to enjoy the game, I don't really care about the different groups and who did what or who said what. Maybe there is a lot going on behind the scenes that would put my mind at ease if I knew. I have not seen the papers of incorporation. Maybe the way it is worded, it won't seem to brazen. Naming the LLC after the group you have been publicly using with this game doesn't seem like a great plan, but still.
I guess what I really want is, what assurances do we have that this LLC and/or the non-profit will shield the GAME being run? I completely understand how it protects the people RUNNING the LLC.