Nexon threatens, shuts down Aura Project

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ferghus
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Nexon threatens, shuts down Aura Project

Post by ferghus »

Nexon America hired a legal firm to go after the Aura Project devs in an attempt to shut them down. The devs decided that the legal troubles weren't worth it and bowed to Nexon's demands. They've been doing great work, so this is most unfortunate. :(

For those who aren't aware, Aura Project was a Mabinogi server emulator. It would allow people to use the Mabinogi client to connect to someone's privately hosted server, though the current version of Aura only had basic functionality implemented. As far as I know, Aura was built from scratch and didn't contain copyrighted material, so it wasn't necessarily illegal. There are many server emulators for different MMOs built on the same principle, though the MMO publishers do sometimes try to silence them using questionable tactics.

...not that anyone cares about Mabinogi these days, but I just thought I'd leave this here for reference/historical purposes.

Announcement from Aura's forum:
On Monday, July 20th, 2015, we were contacted by Interactive Entertainment Law Group, who were hired to represent Nexon America Inc. In short, Nexon requested the removal of Aura, as they feel it threatens their copyright of Mabinogi. After discussing the situation, we, the development team, decided to officially sunset Aura.

During the last few years, we’ve accomplished a lot and learned even more. We’re all proud of what we were able to achieve with Aura. However, while developing a server emulator is very interesting and a great exercise, we feel that it’s not worth a potential legal battle. We love Mabinogi, and we didn’t start this project to compete with Nexon or infringe upon their intellectual property, but merely to learn more about the game and development of MMOs.

With the steady decline of Mabinogi, the slow, often tedious, progress of the project, and the recent letter, we’ve decided it’s time to stop emulating an existing game and create something of our own, to put what we've learned to good use for the community.

Check the "new project" category on this forum for more information.
http://aura-project.org/forum/topic/27-goodbye-aura/
Aegis

Re: Nexon threatens, shuts down Aura Project

Post by Aegis »

Just like most privately hosted RO servers
Sky

Re: Nexon threatens, shuts down Aura Project

Post by Sky »

As much as it sucks, from business stand point it doesn't benefit them whatsoever so I get the sentiment. Though, if I was involved in the development I most likely wouldn't feel bad as it seems like a fun learning experience.
kev

Re: Nexon threatens, shuts down Aura Project

Post by kev »

Also anyone who wanted to see what the post said and other old posts here is a archive link to it
Spoiler: show
http://web.archive.org/web/201508131553 ... odbye-aura
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