Completed Scheduled Server Maintenance - May 30, 2015

actually I take that part back.
I'm pretty sure you can pay people to do DDOS attacks

 

Attacks on MS servers are usually carried out by other MS server owners.

 

I would love to see some people face the consequences of their actions. That'll learn 'em.

 

Too bad you can't trace attacks.

 

Pretty hard to justify reasoning for someone to prosecute a crime across oceans (most likely across oceans that is) while running a server that infringes upon copyright laws in the country of its creators licensing/origin (Korea, USA)

TBH, besides in countries with laws protecting its citizens against being prosecuted for copyright infringement (Netherlands, Sweden?, and a few other much smaller countries), each and every one of us is subject to the risk of getting rammed by Neckson America for playing on a private server which infringes upon their original source code. I believe the fee is $1,000 american dollars for everytime the program is opened or some RIDICULOUS crap like that. Of course, that kind of obscene amount would never hold up in court unless it was justifiable that you took that kind of money directly out of Neckson America's pocket, but the chance is still being run nonetheless.

 

Well a DDOS attack usually involves hijacking other people's computers, and then there's also the fact that this server isn't the only one affected. When being hosted by a VPS service, there are other clients, and they are negatively affected by the attacks as well. So there's that, anyway.

 

A small update to this update. If you seem to be stuck on logging in or trying to but can't get in. Wait about 5 to 10 minutes. The Auto unstuck algorythm should solve the issue for you.

 

Im currently unable to log in, the game isnt even opening for me im getting the unable to connect message that you get when the server is being restarted, is it currently down or is it just me?

 

Ehr...what? When ddosing someone you don't hijack anything, you literally just overload their connection by constantly sending requests to the respective IP. No clients are affected by such attacks...

 

Not true, servers infringe on Neckson's TOS and copyright law for a few reasons, but playing on them is perfectly legal:
1) Many servers use donation money as profit for their staff, which is fraud since they are making money off of intellectual material that belongs to Neckson.
2) Modifying Neckson's game is against their TOS and you can be sued for it.
3) Since the server is hosting a modified game, that can be loosely interpreted as passing the game off as your own, and thus an infringement of copyright law. Hosting it to many people publicly adds salt to Neckson's wounds and pisses them off.

Playing on the server is totally legal as you are simply consuming the material -- you are not the one violating TOS and copyright by reproducing, distributing, modifying, or profiting off of it unless you are staff (or someone hacking the files). When you are playing on a private server, you are playing maplestory, which Neckson allows. If someone argues that an old/modified version is an exception to the rule, then the whole TOS/copyright argument falls apart since private server would technically not be maplestory. But yes, consuming copyright-infringing material is perfectly legal because you are doing nothing to the copyright, so copyright law is irrelevant. Playing on private servers is actually not covered in Neckson's TOS so it is not against their rules either. They do however, have rules against "transmitting" "mirroring" "hosting" and "emulating" (literally the words they used) their services. Even if playing on Pservers would be against the rules for other games, Neckson has omitted it from their TOS and cannot hold it against you.

Fun fact: the last time Neckson sued a PServer was in 2012 -- the server was using lots of donations as profit and did not represent itself in court. Though Neckson had solid evidence and the defendant did not even show up, Neckson LOST because their idiot lawyers foolishly asserted that the small private server had cost them "millions of dollars" in revenue. The judge was so appalled by this obvious bullshit that the private server was charged with an EXTREMELY small fine and pretty much got away with it without even showing up to court. In an earlier 2012 case, Neckson won $3500000 but the defendant only had to pay $200 for the same reason that Neckson lost the other case. Since the former case, Neckson has not raised any issues with other private servers because even they were embarrassed by their own greed, which hurt their PR.

Back on topic: playing on a private server is NOT illegal because it violates neither copyright law nor the rules set forth by Neckson themselves. Even before fair use amendments, it was ruled in MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. (2005), that "one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright ... is liable for the resulting acts of infringement." This ruling already takes into account that an act such as playing on a copyright-infringing private server is copyright infringement (though it is no longer considered that way due to fair use changes), and states that server owners are liable for the players.

The "$1000 per use penalty"came from an even more hilarious situation - some firm was helping disabled people to find, and was sued for patent infringement for using photocopying machines. Apparently some company can fine you $1000 every time you use your copying machine.

 

Did we manage to stop the attacks, what were the results of this maintenance?

 

I was told another rat was thrown into the server. Some say it is animal cruelty.
Personally I don't care, as long as the server is running good.