Hmm.. seems this has moved to somewhat of a debate. LOL!
I agree with Gleech, if someone simply wrote a program where you could play City of Heroes as is. Then they could very well sue. City of Heroes is still their game no matter how much money you pumped into it. If it wasn't this would be a non-issue and we'd all still be playing right now, I'd assume. I think the question really should be, how far could someone go before they actually would sue?
Me personally I couldn't afford to find out. LOL! As has been said before. If anyone is working on a super secret project. Let's hope they do it wisely to were if NCSoft did want to sue. They would decide it wasn't worth the time, money or resources to go forward with a law suit.
Indeed.
Sometimes the easiest way with anything is simply knowing where the lines are. The easiest way to get caught up is simply being caught unprepared. An unprepared thing or person can lose, in this case a lawsuit, simply because they didn't know where the lines are and since they didn't know where the lines are, cant even build a good defense.
In court, morally right, charity, what is good or bad PR, what gamers want, what corporations want, usually all go out the window and come down to what the law says.
But a prepared person know where the lines are and can even avoid usually even getting so much of a letter. But being prepared do not involve simply ignoring or pretending the lines and risks don't exist even on what is good for the public or moral grounds. The lines lies where the law lies.
Even simple distribution may back fire because don't forget all the copyright stuff, which is a large part of the rights of the copyright holder. Distribution.
Now if one made something that don't use any copyright/trademarks/IP stuff and simply say, just make use of what is already on the user computer, then they should be ok. Nothing wrong with distributing programs to make use of other programs on the computer. But distributing the total package that is protected under copyright/ip/trademark, then that may be different story and simply because they cant shut down every single place where it distributed doesn't mean in the court that the judge will simply go, "Oh well, I guess that make it ok." usually it looks fishy and looks like intent was to do just that and may as well be who ever they grab ahold of that distributed whether original or not, liable for the distribution that they did. Not to mention add more ammo that many game makers are trying to push through with stricter IP protection and distribution controls regardless if one company wins or lose the lawsuit.
But remember the key is to simply know where the lines are. The most successful people that get away with stuff always know what they can get away with and that usually entails knowing the law, even if they plan on breaking it. Those that usually get caught in nonsense and lose when they should have won a cake walk, usually are the ones that downplay the risk, or think judgment will automatically go in their favor and or no one will do anything. Because anything released to the public on the internet usually don't stay secret for long. Someone usually squeals, either accidentally or get carried away bragging about how they got away with it. It all boils down to how it's done.
Done properly there is nothing to worry about. Done side ways, there might be some worry but at least know what can happen and be ready and take precautions. AKA don't make it easy for them. Make them argue among themselves whether it's worth it or not or do they have a case or not. Don't make it a dead simple choice for them that they do have a case. And it's not only the copyright holder that is the worry. Sometimes thing happen by simply someone reporting to the Copyright office and the ball end up getting the ball rolling there and yes, NCSOFT do have stuff registered with the US copyright office. And last thing the copyright office needs or want is to too like they condone copyright infringement. But even if and after it get released and it's done quietly and discreetly or balancing the line, they may not bother. But there is a department that strictly deal with internet stuff. While they don't monitor every single thing, they do look at stuff that comes across their desk.