I agree... but giving someone a copy of this game is not enterally illegal... its just like saying, "here, you can have it im done with it." But all the same, we should all read the EULA and such first. And building a replica of Sony's Live servers wouldn't really be too good, as seeing how most want something different, or unique... as i for one do ... I'm not saying go ahead and do it, but this is just my 2 cents ehe... and connecting to any server that is not owned by some big franchise, whether it be Sony, Blizzard, or any of those similar, but ran by an independent person, is and always be illegal. There is nothing that we can do about that. And as far as becoming to big, On EQ1 Emulators, Shards of Dalaya is huge. and they have taken it upon themselves to make their own patcher and such. but thats besides the point ( maybe ). My main point is, I agree with everyone, Alpha, Lethal, etc. distributing this game is illegal, but trading it in real life, person to person, is not. as long as you don't take money in exchange for it . Also, I hope that EQ2 does become huge, i really, really, really do... I want to see this emulator prosper far then any others... I for one, have waited a couple of years for this to happen, and I am glad that it is going again, and that someone has taken the time to put together a dev team into seeing that others, like myself, have such a wonderful emulator to play on later... Once i get RoK, which should be this Tuesday, I will be on it, and playing the hell out of it ... Hope to see you guys on it.
And a BIG thanks to Everyone one on the Dev team. Thank you so much.

kingmen30264 wrote:I agree... but giving someone a copy of this game is not enterally illegal...

It's redistributing SOE's content, it's not a criminal matter but a civil one. We haven't gotten permission from SOE to redistribute their content.

kingmen30264 wrote:And building a replica of Sony's Live servers wouldn't really be too good, as seeing how most want something different, or unique...

For the purposes of interoperability with SOE's client it is perfectly legal to reverse engineer the data that Sony is sending to us and receiving from us.
You're not allowed to reverse engineer binary programs, but you are allowed to reverse engineer protocols in the interests of interoperability with Sony's client program on our server.

kingmen30264 wrote:and connecting to any server that is not owned by some big franchise, whether it be Sony, Blizzard, or any of those similar, but ran by an independent person, is and always be illegal.

No. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It is against SOE's EULA (which means nothing, legally) and their Terms of Service which you agree to when you play their game.
If it was illegal to connect to any other server then using windows file sharing on Linux is also illegal as it does the same thing, reverse engineers the smb protocol..
Reverse engineering isn't illegal for the purposes of interoperability. Since we're trying to be interoperable with SOE's EQ2 client there is nothing illegal about it.

kingmen30264 wrote:My main point is, I agree with everyone, Alpha, Lethal, etc. distributing this game is illegal

It is not illegal. Copyright Infringement is not a criminal offense, it is a civil offense.

kingmen30264 wrote:but trading it in real life, person to person, is not

Very wrong, it's SOE's content, downloading person to person off bit torrent doesn't make it the least bit better. It's still redistribution of their content without permission. Just because money isn't involved doesn't mean anything.
If you purchase the game you purchased or downloaded the trial you have the right to view their content. You didn't purchase any right to redistribute their game, even between different players.

kingmen30264 wrote:I will be on it, and playing the hell out of it ... Hope to see you guys on it.

I think you have been majorly misinformed about the server's playability..
I hope this clears things up for people. Developing and running this server is not against the law. Running a server with SOE's data (item names, etc) on it probably is going to land someone in court with SOE though.

This is an exerpt(sp?) from the original EQ2 box. Inside is a Buddy Key and instructions on its use:

Sony Online Entertainment wrote: To get started, give this key code and your EverQuest II discs to a friend.
They will need to create a station.com account at http://signup.station.sony.com
Once they install EverQuest II they can enter their Buddy Account Key and begin playing right away!

Maybe I'm misreading this, but common sense is telling me that SoE is giving permission for those people who have purchased the game that has a buddy key, they can let other people use their original game discs and install EQ2.
From what I understand, the RoK box comes with a buddy key...or does it? Someone will have to clear that up.
However, if it does come with a buddy key, SoE is granting permission to the owner of the RoK box the right to distribute their client (even if it is SUPPOSED to be one other person).
That's my take on it. If RoK has a buddy key, then you have permission from SoE themselves to distribute it privately.

I do wish people would quit interpretting the law on-the-fly and making grandeous assumptions witn no substantial examples except their casual understanding of international and domestic copyright laws. Nothing being done _here_ is wrong or illegal. Discussing where to get free versions of commercial software is. Don't be a cheap ass, go pay for the damn client, end of discussion.
My hats off to you guys who are still trying to convince the guy who only wants to steal software that it's wrong, no matter how he spins it.

Something is being worked on at the moment to help players out with this.
LOCKED
Reason: Endless discussions about the law of acquiring 'illegal' copies of the EverQuest II client will not help us in any way. A tool will be released soon to give players the necessary files they need to play.