The private servers have been up a while. But it is always hard for fan projects to gain traction for devs, players, or donations, when the IP could be yanked at any time. NCSoft granting a license should provide one heck of a shot in the arm for this cult classic game.
Go. Hunt. KILL Skul!
They could already trivially shut down anyone using stolen code to host servers.
This doesn’t enhance that case at all.
The most interested and able people to run the code would be cut off, and are likely now known by name to the companies legal staff.
It’s a random server hosted somewhere in the Midwest vs John and Jacob Smith in Michigan.
But licensing this has literally zero impact on their ability to take action against that random server.
They have the exact same options available to them.
That would imply they actually know where the server is being run and by who without taking legal action.
No it doesn’t. This doesn’t change that.