Turkey: the convict

In November 2009 the national daily Sabah devotes a page to Musa Kang, twelve, from Erzurum: kidnapped, according to the accusation, because he knew Metin2 very well (he would have earned three or four thousand lira reselling characters), and found dead. F Six weeks later Turkey begins banning the game. Not over copyright: for the protection of minors, with a fine, one prefecture at a time.

The Gaziantep Prefecture order, in force from December 24, 2009: "…'Metin2' oyununun web siteli bütün türevlerinin oyunları ve bu oyunları çalıştıran sitelerin zararlı oyun kapsamına alındığı", the games of all web-based derivatives of the game Metin2, and the sites that run those games, are included among harmful games. 143 lira fine, art. 32 of law 5326. F

"The web-based derivatives and the sites that run them" are the private servers. It is the first act by a public authority anywhere in the world against that ecosystem: three months after the Chinese release, and five years before any German lawsuit. Next come Hatay (2/5/2010, with a photograph of the notification served to internet cafés), Muğla (7/14/2010, with a university expert opinion), Balıkesir (1/5/2014) and Antalya (1/21/2016). F In Antalya the machinery behind it surfaces: a commission of academics from the Malatya Prefecture had examined 55 video games and failed twelve, handing the report to the police. F In 2017, after the death of Hakan Ekinci, thirteen, the national press calls the game sabıkalı, "with a criminal record". F

Turkey had become the largest Metin2 community in the world (paid launch in October 2007; European peak in 2010 with 7 million active accounts and 300,000 concurrent players between Turkey and Germany). F The Turkish private-server scene is dated to the minute: October 11, 2009, 03:36, on Ekşi Sözlük, "after the Chinese servers, the Turks are making their own private server too, via Hamachi". F

Germany: six cases in twenty years, all over trade

The Singapore licensee TEC Interactive, on Ymir's behalf, sends the first full cease-and-desist to European servers on September 30, 2011, against BambooMT2, InfinityMetin and LOCMT2; F an ultimatum had already circulated in July 2011. T Then silence until 2016, when the GVU (the German anti-piracy association) starts investigating on Gameforge's behalf: raids by the Heidelberg Prosecutor's Office on 9/14/2016 (Cyperia and a second server; eleven others shut down in a chain reaction), F a ruling by the Heidelberg Amtsgericht on 4/20/2018 (90 daily fines of 20 euros, roughly 110,000 euros seized, servers "Cyperia" and "Hardcore Reloaded"), F a Kassel ruling on 11/8/2018 (121,000 euros collected between 2014 and 2017, server in Romania), F the Berlin LKA against the operator of "Tsuyoshi2" on 3/16/2018. F Then M2Bob, Voria2, Sirius (2021-2023). F

Webzen, the code's rights holder, acted once: the DMCA notice to GitHub on 2/26/2015 against the entire enhanceMT account, the only one concerning Metin2 among the 22,114 notices published that year. F It knows how to chase down an emulator (two DMCA notices on Rappelz in 2018 list nine forks); on Metin2 it never does so again. F

China and Korea: ex officio, but not over Metin2

In China the Xi'an licensee has had three pirate server operators convicted: 3 years suspended on 9/23/2019 for 《倚世天下》, 3 years and 6 months on appeal in 2023 for 《新八零倚天》, a case praised by the National Copyright Administration. All of these are Metin 1 cases. On Metin2, no one has ever taken action in China, while Chinese private servers have opened every week since 2010, advertised in broad daylight. F

In Korea the law punishes ex officio: on 11/29/2007 NCSoft and Webzen had 46 MU Online private server operators identified, one arrested and 45 reported, and the record states that "client and server had been stolen and taken abroad". F In 2014 the Ministry of Culture and the Prosecutor's Office announce a campaign against private servers, operators "and the web-hosting businesses". F Between 2021 and 2023, MapleStory's private servers are wiped out over three years. T It is the proof by contradiction of why the Metin2 scene grew outside Korea.

The thesis

It is not that rights holders don't act: they don't act in Europe, and not over Metin2. Those who have pursued the scene did so for three different reasons: the protection of minors (Turkey), the trade in exchange rates and currencies (Germany, via the European publisher and the GVU), the copyright of the first game (China). The code, in twenty years, has had only one measurable cease-and-desist.