Sulake sending Habbo Retros DMCA Copyrights

[SageSaga]

I'm sure most of you here have definitely made research about this before as the risk is always there. Throughout the few years of Habbo Retros I am confident that we have all at least seen 1 retro go down because of Sulake. We're now in 2021. Are Sulake still trying to take Retros down? Or have you ever gotten a copyright before? What would you do if you got a Sulake DMCA Copright? Share your experience and thoughts here.

 

[Zenuyasha]

Nope they realized retros is better than Habbo itself so got tired suing them.

 

[boz]

rip Otaku gone but never forgotten.

 

[Teilzeitschlunze]

Long ago, Sulake actually took legal action against Retro Hotels. Today Sulake sees that there are too many retro hotels and there is no chance of going against each one.

 

[Roper]

Long ago, Sulake actually took legal action against Retro Hotels. Today Sulake sees that there are too many retro hotels and there is no chance of going against each one.

There were more back in the day. A dying community I think these days.

They probably just can't do much depending on server locations I guess and whether copyright laws are a thing or not in whatever country the servers are in?

 

[Parsov]

They don't really care for the stealing & reverse engineering what they mostly care about is you making money with their assets.
If you make big money they'll be on your ass quick. Not that you will become their competitor but that's a possibility. If you become popular enough obviously you will start making money because if you have 2000-3000 online users daily that means atleast 500 of them are the people who buy shit constantly (let's assume they buy something every month). And atleast 1000 of them has bought something at some point let's not forget about the other users who don't come online anymore but still bought something let's say if you have 1million users registered 10,000 of them has bought something but they no longer come online or they barely do. Habbo is the type of game that you can only enjoy if you pay for it. Same with all these chat box games.


I don't want to go into detail so we won't care how long the retro has been open for. Let's say those 10,000 users bought something for $5. Already $50,000 which is big money for a retro. And let's assume that 1000 people who come online and bought something has also donated 12$ that's another $12,000. What about the monthly payers? Those guys are the addicts.
And will go as far as donating $20 a month. And another $10,000. This all together is a lot of money for just some guy or guys ripping of a game and using a premade 2000's emulator. It's like someone copies your painting and starts making good money from it which they obviously don't deserve because they didn't make it first. Not that Retros ever made as much as Habbo did.

These kind of people who run these hotels and make this kind of money or similiar typically don't stay under the radar that well they are sloppy. That's why they always get caught. And the ones who aren't sloppy and take it seriously are around till this day. The people that get a letter on the other hand is not so severe they see a potential of that hotel growing but it's not as serious for them to start immidiate action against the hotel owners. So as a threat and a warning they send out a letter telling you to sign it. Or they will most likely just take it down.

Nowdays no one gets this much popularity since the original game is dying itself retros are also. Habbo doesn't have the money and effort to go around sueing hotels who barely get 1000 online. They know it's not worth it and those hotels most likely don't make too much for it to be a concern.

The calculations were just estimate. And this explanation is just how I think it is. It's realistic enough.
And in most private servers this is how it goes.

Forgot to mention also the people who were around back in the day and are gone now. Majority of them just have their lives to deal with they have jobs they have family they don't have time to fiddle with a game. And whoever does they just do it as a hobby.

 

[Bran]

they gave up on suing a very long time ago

 

[MicheryS]

There are still packs of old holos to use

 

[DDDDec]

they gave up on suing a very long time ago

nah my friends got one but not sure how theyre handling it haha

 

[Sledmore]

Haven't personally had one in a very long time.

 

[SageSaga]

Haven't personally had one in a very long time.

But yourself being a Developer for Habboon, in which during 2020 you hit 1000 daily users during Covid 19, didn't Sulake mark Habboon or something? There were even rumours that Boon itself had more users then Habbo that returned. And if your case, what would you have done if you received a copyright DMCA from Sulake?

Post automatically merged: May 25, 2021

They don't really care for the stealing & reverse engineering what they mostly care about is you making money with their assets.
If you make big money they'll be on your ass quick. Not that you will become their competitor but that's a possibility. If you become popular enough obviously you will start making money because if you have 2000-3000 online users daily that means atleast 500 of them are the people who buy shit constantly (let's assume they buy something every month). And atleast 1000 of them has bought something at some point let's not forget about the other users who don't come online anymore but still bought something let's say if you have 1million users registered 10,000 of them has bought something but they no longer come online or they barely do. Habbo is the type of game that you can only enjoy if you pay for it. Same with all these chat box games.


I don't want to go into detail so we won't care how long the retro has been open for. Let's say those 10,000 users bought something for $5. Already $50,000 which is big money for a retro. And let's assume that 1000 people who come online and bought something has also donated 12$ that's another $12,000. What about the monthly payers? Those guys are the addicts.
And will go as far as donating $20 a month. And another $10,000. This all together is a lot of money for just some guy or guys ripping of a game and using a premade 2000's emulator. It's like someone copies your painting and starts making good money from it which they obviously don't deserve because they didn't make it first. Not that Retros ever made as much as Habbo did.

These kind of people who run these hotels and make this kind of money or similiar typically don't stay under the radar that well they are sloppy. That's why they always get caught. And the ones who aren't sloppy and take it seriously are around till this day. The people that get a letter on the other hand is not so severe they see a potential of that hotel growing but it's not as serious for them to start immidiate action against the hotel owners. So as a threat and a warning they send out a letter telling you to sign it. Or they will most likely just take it down.

Nowdays no one gets this much popularity since the original game is dying itself retros are also. Habbo doesn't have the money and effort to go around sueing hotels who barely get 1000 online. They know it's not worth it and those hotels most likely don't make too much for it to be a concern.

The calculations were just estimate. And this explanation is just how I think it is. It's realistic enough.
And in most private servers this is how it goes.

Forgot to mention also the people who were around back in the day and are gone now. Majority of them just have their lives to deal with they have jobs they have family they don't have time to fiddle with a game. And whoever does they just do it as a hobby.

And in your case, would you think so that Sulake will attempt to sue Retros after they die down? In your opinion, how should one handle such matter when issues like this arise?

 

[Bran]

nah my friends got one but not sure how theyre handling it haha

surely not? they don't sue non-popular hotels?

 

[Blackburn]

They sometimes still do reports (to Google) according to Lumen.

They mainly go after developers, though.

It would not surprise me if Talpa Gaming/Azerion gave Sulake some cash to sue.

 

[Parsov]

But yourself being a Developer for Habboon, in which during 2020 you hit 1000 daily users during Covid 19, didn't Sulake mark Habboon or something? There were even rumours that Boon itself had more users then Habbo that returned. And if your case, what would you have done if you received a copyright DMCA from Sulake?

Post automatically merged: May 25, 2021

And in your case, would you think so that Sulake will attempt to sue Retros after they die down? In your opinion, how should one handle such matter when issues like this arise?

As I mentioned Sulake does not have the strength to go around sueing private servers most games have private servers which get more than 1k users. It's normal. Their main worry should be how to stop people from doing it not catching people that do.
It might only be a big concern if the people who run the private server make a lot of money. And yet then if they are able to cover themselves it'll give the company a hard time. But in Habbo's case theres not too many hotels that are making good money.

I don't know what you mean. If retros die down why would Sulake sue them? That's what they want to happen. There would be no reason to sue a private server that makes / gets barely anything.

It depends where you live and where your hosting is. And it's policies. If you are like me and live in a 3rd world country full of corruption. No one will really care for what Sulake has to say. And even if they go far as you getting called in. You can just bribe to get yourself out and carry on what you were doing. And if you are making money that much that Sulake is concerned. You might aswell just host it yourself.

If you live in UK or some European country that's a different story and might end up having big consequences.

I don't think they will start an international investigation on something like this since you're not making money from malware or scamming. It's just a game.

Basically what I'm saying is if you live in UK and get a letter by email (most likely). You should just accept your fate and move on from private servers. But if you do get a letter that means there is not really an investigation on you. And you're not really a target they just don't want you to become one. They see a potential you might end up making good money from it. So this situation is not really that severe it's like the HMRC sending you a brown letter telling you need to pay tax.
If you ignore it, It might become more serious but if you just accept your fate and end what you are doing then you're good.

On the other hand if you live in a foreign 3rd world country and you get this email. You can just ignore it and hope they will never find who you are and even if they do. Nothing will happen.

If you are a target they will not send any emails. They might've found you months ago you just don't know. Now there might be many scenarios here again depending on where you live and how severe your case is. You might have a few officers come knock on your door and seize what they are suspicious of. And have you on bail. Or you get a letter directly calling you to court on some date. And again they will most likely seize a few things. In most cases you lose all the money you made or more.
And mostly hard disks get taken away. I don't think in any case it wont be as severe as FBI breaking your door and you get sent to jail for 100 years. (This entire explanation is mostly Western countries).

But in any country they can just take down the website. So that's that.

 

[boz]

They don't really care for the stealing & reverse engineering what they mostly care about is you making money with their assets.
If you make big money they'll be on your ass quick. Not that you will become their competitor but that's a possibility. If you become popular enough obviously you will start making money because if you have 2000-3000 online users daily that means atleast 500 of them are the people who buy shit constantly (let's assume they buy something every month). And atleast 1000 of them has bought something at some point let's not forget about the other users who don't come online anymore but still bought something let's say if you have 1million users registered 10,000 of them has bought something but they no longer come online or they barely do. Habbo is the type of game that you can only enjoy if you pay for it. Same with all these chat box games.


I don't want to go into detail so we won't care how long the retro has been open for. Let's say those 10,000 users bought something for $5. Already $50,000 which is big money for a retro. And let's assume that 1000 people who come online and bought something has also donated 12$ that's another $12,000. What about the monthly payers? Those guys are the addicts.
And will go as far as donating $20 a month. And another $10,000. This all together is a lot of money for just some guy or guys ripping of a game and using a premade 2000's emulator. It's like someone copies your painting and starts making good money from it which they obviously don't deserve because they didn't make it first. Not that Retros ever made as much as Habbo did.

These kind of people who run these hotels and make this kind of money or similiar typically don't stay under the radar that well they are sloppy. That's why they always get caught. And the ones who aren't sloppy and take it seriously are around till this day. The people that get a letter on the other hand is not so severe they see a potential of that hotel growing but it's not as serious for them to start immidiate action against the hotel owners. So as a threat and a warning they send out a letter telling you to sign it. Or they will most likely just take it down.

Nowdays no one gets this much popularity since the original game is dying itself retros are also. Habbo doesn't have the money and effort to go around sueing hotels who barely get 1000 online. They know it's not worth it and those hotels most likely don't make too much for it to be a concern.

The calculations were just estimate. And this explanation is just how I think it is. It's realistic enough.
And in most private servers this is how it goes.

Forgot to mention also the people who were around back in the day and are gone now. Majority of them just have their lives to deal with they have jobs they have family they don't have time to fiddle with a game. And whoever does they just do it as a hobby.

I love the ‘I don’t want to go into detail’ then pursues writing a lengthy explanation , v good read though.

 

[SageSaga]

As I mentioned Sulake does not have the strength to go around sueing private servers most games have private servers which get more than 1k users. It's normal. Their main worry should be how to stop people from doing it not catching people that do.
It might only be a big concern if the people who run the private server make a lot of money. And yet then if they are able to cover themselves it'll give the company a hard time. But in Habbo's case theres not too many hotels that are making good money.

I don't know what you mean. If retros die down why would Sulake sue them? That's what they want to happen. There would be no reason to sue a private server that makes / gets barely anything.

It depends where you live and where your hosting is. And it's policies. If you are like me and live in a 3rd world country full of corruption. No one will really care for what Sulake has to say. And even if they go far as you getting called in. You can just bribe to get yourself out and carry on what you were doing. And if you are making money that much that Sulake is concerned. You might aswell just host it yourself.

If you live in UK or some European country that's a different story and might end up having big consequences.

I don't think they will start an international investigation on something like this since you're not making money from malware or scamming. It's just a game.

Basically what I'm saying is if you live in UK and get a letter by email (most likely). You should just accept your fate and move on from private servers. But if you do get a letter that means there is not really an investigation on you. And you're not really a target they just don't want you to become one. They see a potential you might end up making good money from it. So this situation is not really that severe it's like the HMRC sending you a brown letter telling you need to pay tax.
If you ignore it, It might become more serious but if you just accept your fate and end what you are doing then you're good.

On the other hand if you live in a foreign 3rd world country and you get this email. You can just ignore it and hope they will never find who you are and even if they do. Nothing will happen.

If you are a target they will not send any emails. They might've found you months ago you just don't know. Now there might be many scenarios here again depending on where you live and how severe your case is. You might have a few officers come knock on your door and seize what they are suspicious of. And have you on bail. Or you get a letter directly calling you to court on some date. And again they will most likely seize a few things. In most cases you lose all the money you made or more.
And mostly hard disks get taken away. I don't think in any case it wont be as severe as FBI breaking your door and you get sent to jail for 100 years. (This entire explanation is mostly Western countries).

But in any country they can just take down the website. So that's that.

This is a very detailed explaination and I'm sure it will let people around who are curious or new to this industry to learn more and know more of what to do and what not to do, what happens and what doesn't. Cheers buddy.

 

[Haid]

Basically what I'm saying is if you live in UK and get a letter by email (most likely). You should just accept your fate and move on from private servers.

(From UK) We had one around a year ago now. Ignored. Never heard anything more.

Doubt they're interested in pursuing on retros, did they ever?
Only situation I ever heard of was the phoenix license fiasco which isn't really comparable to a retro.

 

[Bran]

(From UK) We had one around a year ago now. Ignored. Never heard anything more.

Doubt they're interested in pursuing on retros, did they ever?
Only situation I ever heard of was the phoenix license fiasco which isn't really comparable to a retro.

it would literally be a waste of money for them to sue retros, what would they even get out of it

 

[Joe]

They'll go for the server developers rather than individual hotels. For example Aaron over at Otaku back in the day.

Money and time come into it as well, I'd say you're pretty safe hosting something small, just go off shore, change domains and owner details of the servers/domains. They eventually give up chasing even the big hotels these days.

Post automatically merged: May 26, 2021

it would literally be a waste of money for them to sue retros, what would they even get out of it

You would be surprised how much money some of these hotels accumulate, especially over the years they've been around. In Habbo's sense, yes, a massive waste of money, but it would surprise you how much some of them are taking in