Gravity Is Taking Legal Action Against Ragnarok Online Rogue Servers

Over the past two decades, Gravity has mostly turned a blind eye to the multitude of Ragnarok Online servers that continue to be available to players all across the globe. In an entirely unexpected move, the South Korean developer announced that it’s taking action against the so-called illegal private servers on the grounds of copyright infringement.

“With the cooperation of official and private agencies, we are looking into private servers and taking measures in accordance with relevant laws and regulations,” read the announcement. “An illegal private game server is defined as a game server which uses protected copyrighted works and intellectual property without license or proper agreement from the legally recognized owner. This damages future development of the official game as private servers siphon revenues away from the rights holders.”

Gravity reported that they’ve filed at least a dozen lawsuits against rogue servers in North America and other parts of the world. According to MassivelyOP, one of these copyright infringement lawsuits is aimed at Novaro LLC, operators of NovaRO, which Gravity describes in the complaint as a pirated counterfeit version of Ragnarok Online. The rogue server notably has links to a cash shop and is selling Nova Points for real-world money. Gravity is seeking monetary damages, recovery of legal costs, and an injunction to block Novaro from continuing to operate.

Several rogue servers have already taken steps to avoid potential lawsuits. At least one popular server has abruptly shut down while others are attempting to reduce their digital footprint by changing their names and being more discreet. Gravity is also reportedly mass reporting content creators and streamers on rogue servers which has led to several seemingly innocent streamers getting banned.