I want to make awesome server with the new approach to game process in Conan Exiles and I want to monetize it and to get money support for it to rent good hardware server, and advertise it on youtube . So people should be a lot, but I want to sell white list access to my server.
I need money to support my family, pay for my time, pay for programmers to create some mods I needed, pay for good hardware server, for advertising.
Can I ? Or not?
You can try, but, with all the free servers out there, it will have a high bar to gain monetization.
My question concerns precisely the legality of this action.
It might depend on how you frame it.
Pay for access, Pay for membership, Pay for admin services, Rental Share, etc. are all different. Also by region I think too - some countries specifically prohibit some very common on-line policy clauses while other countries add to them. etc.
IMO it’s usually better to do first and apologize later than to go through all the hassle of making sure everything is perfectly within the law. Especially when talking about low dollar amounts and low customer numbers.
Flag all you want but this is morally bankrupt
You wouldnt be selling access to the software; you’d be selling access to your server which is what gportal does when renting you one. The legality would depend on local laws but in the US this should be fine. For a definitive answer that you would feel absolutely comforted by, you’d have to seek professional legal advice. All we can give you is opinion.
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Here’s the issue, you want a legal opinion on a gaming forum.
Wrong place to ask.
Contact a lawyer who specializers in this sort of thing, have them make a ruling.
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So you already answered your own question - LOL, and if you wish to proceed you will need to phrase it properly. i.e. “they are paying for membership to a group of gamers - regardless what game it may be and just happens to currently only include CE” or “pitching in on the cost of server rental.” check clause “iii”.
Most law is common sense and many here may have a good understanding of it or even be lawyers so asking here can’t hurt and isn’t wrong. Anyone knowing anything about law will know lawyers don’t and can’t make rulings - lol. I wonder how many millions of people were fined, penalized, or even incrassated who also said: “But your honor, I was acting on the advice of legal counsel.” Bahahahaaaaa…
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So you’re looking for someone who’s an actual legal professional to give you their legal counsel for free over the Internet?
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So basically you want to start a company.
Nothing illegal about starting a company.
You are charging for access to the server.
So you will be in competition with free servers.
You cannot sell mods (meaning creating only unique mods not available thru FC approved sites).
But as far as starting a company, that is not illegal.
What would/could be illegal is paying employees (programmers, admins) and not reporting the taxes.
Also there is safety standards, minimum wage etc. Unless you go contractual, which now requires legal jargon to avoid those.
So in short starting it no, not illegal, but running the company you describe has lots of ins and outs legal-wise.
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I do not know much about Us tax laws and their laws in general, but I am sure that in Europe every regular income above a certain amount has to be legally taxed. If you want to sell a service without owning a firm the amount is very small.
Besides this I agree to what the others have said. I have seen some serverowners set up paypal for donations to allegedly pay for their servers before, but it never went ending well. I have noticed admins selling items for money or giving favours in return to the donation. In most cases a lot of adminabuse was done. Some people donated and got banned afterwards for bs claims. I even doubt that all money only just went into paying for the server. most of this servers died out after a month or two so I guess it was more of a try to rip of people.
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Almost certainly 200% wouldn’t be needed or warranted for something like this. Unless he plans on charging thousands of dollars and/or having thousands of customers, etc.
It’s about on the same level as crossing the street, not something normal-brained people need professional legal advice for.
“Normal-brained people”, whatever that means, don’t go around gaming forums asking weirdly pointed questions about the legality of their actions. When was the last time you saw someone ask insistently about the legality of crossing the street?
Speaking as someone who actually managed to get a jaywalking ticket in the US, “normal” behavior is to just cross the street and pay the fine if you get one 
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I suppose there’s some truth to that… 
You got a jaywalking ticket? LOL You criminal, you… 
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Do you speak for Funcom? Because only they can answer this question. How is it distasteful to have a monetized server? Plenty of games have it, including paid for VIP spots on servers.
Doesnt need a lawyer, he needs to contact Funcom.
Hes specifically asking about monetizing a server, which some game companies allow…which is why he needs to get ahold of Funcom itself, and not the forums like you pointed out.
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Never said I did. But I have read the terms and conditions, which I’m assuming you haven’t.
Because you’re building a third party paywall around the game. Why would anyone ever want to pay you to play on a server when any other server is free?
Oh I know. But the listing of everything he was gonna pay with this server fee seems more than small potatoes. who I am to tell someone not to reach for the stars. I was just pointing out with the lofty expectations of revenue 0lanned, it would classify as a company.
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Youre not in this case. Your charging for access to a specific server. I agree against free ones it probably wont get people who arent friends, but they can still play CE in this instance freely.
Yeah this is more of a paid service for adminned server, mods, and guaranteed log in (whitelist).
The OP said they wanted to make their own unique gaming experience and hire modders to make new mods and content.
Some people do that for free, some people want a paid server. Their choice, and it might work, might not.
Point out where it says “you cant run a monetized server”, or link it so that others can see where you read that.