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Originally Posted by BruceM
Why would it not be ethical or legal?
There have been one or two pay leagues in tha past, however I don't know if they still exist.
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If you read the license agreement you will see that you can't have business transactions with the software. It is for personal use. The licensing fee for the game engine would probably be astronomical if it were used for business use. Almost every software license states this. For personal use on one pc at a time. Not many will allow you to install on a server for multiple users and allow you to profit from such. This is not the same thing as having everyone own the game and splitting the cost to have their league on a website, because then the game players are not paying to play, they are paying to have a service - the website.
My idea was to have, with SI/SEGA agreement, a pay-site which requires the game players to own or to purchase the game and I would simply sell franchises to play the game with some of the proceeds returning to SI/SEGA after expenses of the site. I would like the opportunity myself to go into a web gaming site full time but only if I were to get the go ahead from a game company to use their game engine in return for a portion of the profits plus publicity for the game.
Some would wonder why people would pay when there are free leagues out there. The answer is that subconsciously people feel that there is added value when you have to pay for the item rather than getting it free, that there is a difference even if it is not a huge difference in the product or service offered.