Nexon America vs. Aleks Manov

[maplefreak26]

Straight copy+pasta from another website in which Aleks Manov is/was posting current updates about his status.
He also goes by the name of Sparks.

Thread Title: [Update] Court
He originally stated that his court date was in April 15 or something like that and he said, like below said that he made a mistake and is actually on the 18th.

Hey there everyone,

I've got a few PM's asking how my court went. Well, I hope this can be considered more of a discussion rather then spam but with that said, let me say this.

I was mistaken and the court date was actually April 18th (not the 1st as I think I mentioned in 1 thread on here). Which yes, hasn't arrived yet. April 18th is a Wednesday for me and I'm flying out this Tuesday April 17th at 7:35 EST my flight leaves from Toronto, ON to Vancouver, BC (5 hour flight ... Boring) for the Trial Hearing. I will be leaving BC on April 20th at 11:35PM (PST) and arriving on Saturday at 7AM EST

I do not know if everything will be settled on Wednesday as far as the case goes, there may be following hearings but I'm hopeful everything will be settled on Wednesday because I must say.. It's about dang time. It's been nearly 3 years since I first went on this "Journey", if you will, with Nexon, so you can imagine it's nerve racking. Not because you think they may lose or anything of the sort but because you don't know how the out come will be. Because where I'm at, there's a 50/50 chance, which is better then 1/99 chance. lol ..

In any case I wish Nexon the best of luck, I've reviewed the evidence papers they had to send to me and I have to say .. They do have some tough arguments to make but I'm hopeful that I can answer their claims in full and hopefully the judge will base his decision on that.

I can't go into any further discussion as far as it goes because it is something that has yet to be decided but we will see :)

As for anyone reading this, this quite possibly may be the last post I ever make in this section or anything MapleStory related on any website (if worst comes to worst in terms of the case), so with that being said I'd like to make this my hello and goodbye. Despite all that's happened on -REDEACTED- within the last 4 years I've been around, the feud between KDev + RZ, or the enemies I've made, and the friend's I've made, amongst vaaaaarriiies other things.

This has still been one of my most visited places in my browser, despite the amount of people I hate due to their obnoxious posts, or talking nonsense, it certainly is entertaining to read for a time killer :P (oddly gets my spirits up ahaha .. ) I love to lurk around and read the posts and threads. I love to see the progression made since Titan / Odin first arrived and where we're heading in this field for the future.

I certainly love the friends I've made directly off here and still continue to have chats with them here and there, IE. LaiLaiNoob, Anthony, Shoot, Sifl, MrSaints (Ian), RaptorJesus, Xterminator (if anyone still remembers him :P), Purple, Snow and many many others, just to name a few.

So with all that being said some of you may be wondering, "well Sparks, what's next for you if this doesn't turn out so good?", well I've decided after much thought that I will continue to be involved within the Private Server community, but not MapleStory. I've decided to set my sights on a few projects I've been working on over the past few years, but haven't made much headway due to time restraints on my end (further then in-game any who), I've worked on over the years for games that have attracted my attention and have had a lot of fun playing, perhaps get something going there and get back more into actual Application Development as a pose to Web Development.

So again, I hope to see you guys around sometime, my public email is always open for adds, for chats and other things :) (aleks.sparks@live.com).

If you do not ever see another post from me in this section again then you can consider this my goodbye. I wish everyone here the best of luck, keep doing what you're doing. Don't let anyone stop you guys from gaining Knowledge and Experience. I don't regret anything I've done or this experience in any way, nor will I ever for the rest of my life. I have made friends, learned a WHOOOOLE lot of things and been able to understand things otherwise a normal human mind would have never fathomed. Who knows, what you learn here may 1 day take you further then you have ever imagined :)

And a very special thanks to Mental for supporting my case! That means a great deal to me :) thank you Mental.

Take care everyone! :)

DISCUSSION ----

If Nexon doesn't stop at me, if I end up losing this case and they continue on a suing spree. Who do you guys think may actually have the ability to win against a Multi-Million Dollar Company, and what would be the bases for their Win against them? What would be the material and idea way for someone to avoid legal troubles (aside the obvious own client / source) with a gaming company (not only Nexon) for someone involved within the Private Server field?

He posted this roughly 20 hours ago from this thread's post time. This was basically about all the stuff that went down in the court and a few tips for the pserver community. There will be a final outcome in May because of the Judge's schedule, and from he thought this went better than expected.

Hey there everyone,

I can't go much into it, but let's just say things went a LOT better then I had ever expected :) due to a couple papers I missed filing and the fact that they were able to get me for "Facilitation" on KryptoDEV it looks like I may lose.

But I will take that ANNNNNNYYYYY day of the week over Unauthorized Production / Reproduction and Copyrighted distribution. And you want to know the only reason that came up ? :P Because of the modified / hacked .exe released by Spudgy on KDev. But I took the full wrap for KDev no names / ips or anything else given out, fully took the blame, and I presented my defence case and counter-arguments after they have presented theirs.

I argued the ridiculous claims made against me, and the Canadian Copyright Act of 1921 to 1988 and 1997.

All in all, I cannot go too much into it, there will be 1 more hearing to decide the final outcome in late May (Due to the Judge's Schedule). In any case, but at this point there is absolutely nothing they can say or do that will change the outcome of this case :) I'm quite happy with it.

I was however .. nearly ripping out my hear when Nexon's 2 Lawyers started explaining how the "Client Component" (Also known as the MapleStory.exe (modified / hacked)) worked and so forth, but I kept cool and explained to Your Madam Justice how it all worked. And I do believe she understood quite well considering the circumstances. I'll keep you guys updated here and there.

But here's a couple tips to the MapleStory community for the future, take this with you wisely!

1. Java Source Code *OdinMS* -- OR ANY OTHER ORIGINAL PRODUCED SERVER SOURCE CODE (Also refereed to as the "Server Component" in the statement of claim)
This is not something they could argue, nor did they, simply because this is original work (OdinMS) Developers (.de) And they could not claim nor prove that it was in any way stolen work or infringing upon their "Server Component"
2. Client Source Code *Modified / Hacked MapleStory.exe *LocalHost** (Referred to as the "Client Component" in the statement of claim)
This is in fact something that can indite you, for the simple fact that this has been debatable and argued over years within this community, well .. now I am telling you this as a confirmation and as proof. Nexon's / MapleStory's "Client Component" is in fact infringement! Because all you're doing essentially is jumping lines of code within original work and infringing on trademarked and copyrighted work! -- Take something away from this. The only real way for this to be considered development is if something original and open source was released! Nothing to do with Nexon!
3. . WZ Source Code *XML / .WZ* (Referred to as the "WZ Files" - "WZ Component" - "Character Component")
This is something that left untouched .. Could be treading a fiiiiine line upon Copyright Infringement and Legitimacy depending on your geographical area. I cannot comment on this because here in Canada left untouched, it is border line .. "Legal". I say that hasty because on what the judge says or indites you for, you could be facing some serious consequences. Again, only way to avoid something like this would be to find your own file packing method, extraction and information methods.
So with all that being said. If you guys are willing to make all those changes, then why not just code your own game all together? It would honestly be the best thing =\ I mean .. Otherwise there's no avoiding it.

But that's about as far as I can comment now, there is still 1 more hearing to go through which will decide the absolute final outcome of this case. Depending on what Nexon's 2 Lawyers and Myself agree too upon a Judgement, the Judge will half to meet us half way based on the evidence, or as far as I understood. So take my advice from earlier everyone :) review it and hopefully you can be on your way!

Cheers for the support everyone and good luck to you guys!

- Sparks

[MrTouchnGo]

Is this guy being sued for running a private server? I'm not even sure what I'm reading here, a little context would be nice.

[Rains]

After skimming it, I believe he is responsible for OdinMS?
Or another private server.

[maplefreak26]

Is this guy being sued for running a private server? I'm not even sure what I'm reading here, a little context would be nice.

After skimming it, I believe he is responsible for OdinMS?
Or another private server.

Sparks is responsible for creating a MapleStory Private Server development community.
A forum which houses public releases, tutorials and all that fun stuff.

He is not only the owner/admin of that, he is also involved in a private server but Nexon doesn't seem to be suing him for that.

[nRxUs]

After skimming it, I believe he is responsible for OdinMS?
Or another private server.

I believe Sparks was part of the OdinMS project but he wasn't the person originally sued for OdinMS. He is being sued now for a different private server if I am reading correctly.
Then again OdinMS was so long ago that I don't quite remember the names of the people in charge. Man I miss OdinMS, it was fun :(

[MrTouchnGo]

1. Java Source Code *OdinMS* -- OR ANY OTHER ORIGINAL PRODUCED SERVER SOURCE CODE (Also refereed to as the "Server Component" in the statement of claim)
This is not something they could argue, nor did they, simply because this is original work (OdinMS) Developers (.de) And they could not claim nor prove that it was in any way stolen work or infringing upon their "Server Component"

Well, IMO that's the most interesting part of the entire thing.

Although... do most private servers use "original" code or did they grab it from Nexon (BMS, for instance)? And if they used BMS' source code, would that be considered copyright infringement? This is probably a stupid question since I've no idea how one would make a private server, but yeah.

[XxSilencer]

Wow I can't believe I'm seeing this here lol, this is my friend in real life and I've told my friends about this various times as he's updated me on it as well. Before OdinMS which he and his team put together Aleks was programming and creating numerous other private servers and at the same time was getting many calls from Nexon America's lawyer at the time Loydd Korn I believe it was? About shutting down everything he was working on and getting rid of it as well as the community and the team, he uploaded the phone call to YouTube a couple times but it was quickly removed of course but I'll see if I can get my hands on that again.

He went underground for a long while before he was discovered again and was out getting gas one day when someone had approached him asking if he was Aleks Manov and he then aproceeded to handed him an envelope full of count papers then walked away. I don't remember 100% but I believe he was being sued for constant development of Private Servers/running communities when he was given personal warnings various times. And he was a main developer that brought OdinMS to life and it was indeed their own coding they did from complete scratch and nothing stolen like all the other copy pasta from Nexon most Private Servers do. Going to see if I can get a hold of him about this lol, can't believe it made it's way here.

I'll see if I can't get him to join SP and give you guys a little more info about the whole "so and so" VS Nexon America INC. and how much of a money grabber it is for them and how they like to bankrupt people for their whole life.

[ChronosXIII]

Lolwhat.

Two "lawyers" were "beaten" by one person who most likely has less experience in the courtroom then they do. Or at least, he got away with a hell of a lot less than what they were aiming to pin him with.

No love between Nexon and its lawyers with judges, huh? From the two cases so far, it seems like the judge rules in favor of the person being sued into financial death by Nexon.

[CarrionCrow]

I'll see if I can't get him to join SP and give you guys a little more info about the whole "so and so" VS Nexon America INC. and how much of a money grabber it is for them and how they like to bankrupt people for their whole life.

Don't make it sound like he is a victim though.

[FreeNoods]

Don't make it sound like he is a victim though.

From what xxsilencer said, OdinMS was all Alex's coding, so how would he NOT be a victim? In my opinion he's not responsible for the actions of the other developers and people in the community and its fairly easy to see that Nexon goes after "normal" people in a sense for MILLIONS of dollars that they don't have. In my opinion at least, thats a bit of a victim

[VerrKol]

From what xxsilencer said, OdinMS was all Alex's coding, so how would he NOT be a victim? In my opinion he's not responsible for the actions of the other developers and people in the community and its fairly easy to see that Nexon goes after "normal" people in a sense for MILLIONS of dollars that they don't have. In my opinion at least, thats a bit of a victim

As is clearly stated in the second quote, he isn't being held responsible for the code he developed for OdinMS server. He is only responsible for using the client which Nexon developed.

I don't know if he can be held legally responsible for other developers that he recruited and/or hosted on his forums, but that doesn't appear in the original quote. Without more specific/factual information about the case I don't see how an opinion can be formed either way. Maybe other people here know something I don't, but this is the first I've heard about the case.

If he did in fact go "underground" as XxSilencer says to try and dodge a subpena, I'm guessing he knew he was engaged in dubiously legal actions and that there were going to be consequences. Does that sound like a victim to you?

[FreeNoods]

Fair enough.