Charging donations to keep a server up?

[Legacy_Calous Caine]

               So, I have a question which I can't really seem to find a solid answer for. The eula seems to say that a person can not ask for donations to keep a server running or for perks etc and so forth, but I have seen this done for at least two years now on a server. Does this mean that they are infact violating the agreement and breaking the law?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Elhanan]

               Not a lawyer, but there would seem to be a major difference between charging a fee compared to asking for donations. Believe the latter is fine, while the former is likely invalid.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_WebShaman]

               It is ok to ask for donations, as long as one is not receiving any special favours ingame for doing so - like items, levels, etc.

It is against the Eula (afaik) to demand pay-to-play, and to grant special favours ingame to those who "donate".
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Mystery X]

               A statement that one will take donations to cover the server expenses does not seem to be covered by any of the words used to describe the EULA's prohibited acts:

"rent," "sell," "lease," "lend," "offer on pay-to-play or timesharing basis," "commercially exploit," "commercially distribute," "hosting pay-to-play servers," "hosting pay-per-download websites," "charge for bandwidth use"

That's a long list of prohibited acts, and accepting donations to cover server expense seems to be left off.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Mystery X, 17 février 2014 - 08:31 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Calous Caine]

               So, what you are telling me, is that by hosting a server, it i perfectly legal to ask the players on my server to cover my internet bill of over $500 dollars a year, and web site fees for the server, and storage fees for downloads so that they can play on it and that in doing so it violates no eula rules what so ever? So long as I classify it as a donation?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_T0r0]

               You can ask, it's quite another matter if they'll give. Times are tough.

Having said that, IMHO, I'd have no qualms about kicking in once in a blue for a place that I really loved.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy__Guile]

               

So, what you are telling me, is that by hosting a server, it i perfectly legal to ask the players on my server to cover my internet bill of over $500 dollars a year, and web site fees for the server, and storage fees for downloads so that they can play on it and that in doing so it violates no eula rules what so ever? So long as I classify it as a donation?

 

Nothing is free, especially not hosting a game server, but if you can't afford to host, then why host?

 

Regardless of what the EULA says, morally there is nothing wrong to asking for donations if you are providing people with a place to play....

 

Donations is not charging them to play, it's purely voluntary....

 

However, like the above poster stated, don't expect any results (Unless you have been hosting for some time now.)

 

You need a quality base (15+ Active Players who are constantly on) in order to even expect even 2-3 donations infrequently at best...

 

Strong groups have no issue with donating to the server to sustain it, especially if it's a lot of fun to play on the server & everyone enjoys one another...

(It's your DM that makes the biggest difference!  ^.-)

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_kalbaern]

               

So, what you are telling me, is that by hosting a server, it i perfectly legal to ask the players on my server to cover my internet bill of over $500 dollars a year, and web site fees for the server, and storage fees for downloads so that they can play on it and that in doing so it violates no eula rules what so ever? So long as I classify it as a donation?

It all depends on how you ask and your response to those that refuse to contribute.

 

- You cannot require a donation to play/participate on your server.

- You cannot grant access to places/things based on whether someone has made a donation.

- You cannot grant other special priveledges/items only to donors.

- You cannot make a donotion plea that includes threats to take the server offline if donation amounts are not met. This could be interpeted as "pay for play" otherwise.

 

The bottom line is, you can ask for, but never demnad or require donations.

 

Good luck.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Fatal Assassin]

               

Charging donations is absolutely wrong and in violation. First of all that's not a donation. It's a charge. It's a fee or cost your are incurring on people who want to play your world. It is attempting to sell something that is someone else's intellectual property (biowares.) The same with selling items for real money, or characters, or privileges in a world.

 

Having the server be community supported (e.g. accepting donations) on the other hand, is not only par for the course (pretty much every established server out there does this), but only reasonable. Why shouldn't a group of players (a community) be able to share the burden of hosting costs? Servers don't host them selves. Someone has to pay for them, and bioware certainly doesn't. So who then would that fall on? The players naturally... Of which PW owners, and developers are too.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_simuseb]

               

Charging donations is absolutely wrong and in violation. First of all that's not a donation. It's a charge. It's a fee or cost your are incurring on people who want to play your world. It is attempting to sell something that is someone else's intellectual property (biowares.) The same with selling items for real money, or characters, or privileges in a world.

 

Having the server be community supported (e.g. accepting donations) on the other hand, is not only par for the course (pretty much every established server out there does this), but only reasonable. Why shouldn't a group of players (a community) be able to share the burden of hosting costs? Servers don't host them selves. Someone has to pay for them, and bioware certainly doesn't. So who then would that fall on? The players naturally... Of which PW owners, and developers are too.

 

This. You cannot "charge" a donation, because that contradicts what a donation is supposed to be. 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Fatal Assassin]

               

Exactly my point.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Swordplayer]

               

However if a server is 'good', the donations should be allowed without continual harassment or request to get the players to donate or tout how wonderful it is in a bunch of threads all at the same time. Really, the threat of 'donate or it's going away' isn't a reliable way to secure long-term funding for a server, and as much as it's maybe not fair, the admins of small PWs should simply expect they'll need to foot the majority of the bill because there isn't going to be the number of players to do it for him or her.