Electronic Arts has directed its legal team toward the community project Revive Network, resulting in a request that the project both stop distributing and using its intellectual property.
Electronic Arts has directed its legal team toward the community project Revive Network, resulting in a request that the project both stop distributing and using its intellectual property.
Revive Network itself had been in operation for around three years prior to EA’s action, and had made it its mission to bring multiplayer servers back online for a number of Battlefield titles that were either discontinued or lost when GameSpy ended its server hosting services in 2014.
While there have been some official efforts to bring the classic titles affected by GameSpy’s closure back online, doing so unofficially often lands fans on the wrong side of a publisher’s legal department since doing so usually involves reverse engineering a game or distributing it without permission.
It is worth noting however that EA opted to send a casually-worded takedown request rather than a full-blown DMCA. The Revive Network team shared the notice itself in a farewell message on its website.
The request itself can be found below:
“I write on behalf of Electronic Arts Inc. and its development studio DICE or, in other words, ‘those guys that make Battlefield.’
“We’ve noticed that Revive Network has several projects and websites devoted to being a Medic by ‘reviving’ older Battlefield games, including Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield 2, and Battlefield 2142. It’s great to see your enthusiasm for these titles. Not to brag, but we too get the nostalgia chills when booting up these classic entries in the Battlefield franchise.
“We need a favor though: we must ask that you stop throwing down Ammo Crates. In other, more legal-styled terms, please stop distributing copies of our game clients and using our trademarks, logos, and artwork on your sites. Thing is, your websites may easily mislead visitors to believe that you are associated or affiliated with EA—we’re the only ones that get to wear the ‘Official EA’ dog tag. Since you’re Battlefield community members, we know that you are smart and helpful, and will respect that we must protect our intellectual property rights in the franchise.”
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