How dangerous are Habbo retro's ?

[Shortey]

Hi, I've found a lot of quotes from people but some of them must be bullshit..

Read this..
(The next quotes are http://retronet.nl/Thread-Hoeveel-vraagt-Sulake )

Als je hotel nou eens word betrapt door Sulake, hoeveel geld vraagt Sulake zo dat je je hotel mag houden?
Want Sunnieday/sim-hotel/alle andere bekende retro hotels zijn toch ook niet legaal?
Als mijn hotel betrapt word wil ik graag Sulake betalen maar wie weet wat een bedrag zal zijn?

Ik hou teveel van mijn hotel

TRANSLATION: If you get caught by Sulake, how much money does Sulake claim to let you keep the hotel? Because Sunnieday/Sim-Hotel/ All the other big hotels are not illegal are they?
If Sulake busts me, I want to pay the fee but anyone who knows how much it is?

Sulake doesn't give you this option right ??

Een tip is; Host je VPS in Rusland, daar is het legaal omdat er daar geen officiele Habbo bestaat, en daar ook geen Sulake accountancy is in de buurt.

Of je deelt de helft van je inkomsten met Sulake (Zoals Sunnieday). Waardoor ze je laten spammen op Habbo, zonder een ban.

Mvg,

TRANSLATION: If you host a VPS in Russia, you don't have to worry about Sulake since there is no Official Habbo there.

Or you share half of the profit with Sulake (like Sunnieday.net) if so, they will let you spam your hotel link on Habbo without having too worry about getting banned.

Complete bullshit right??

Er is 1 jaar geleden bewijs op tafel gelegd van sulake zelf, zwart op wit. Jet van Habbo (=Manager), heeft ook bekend dat dit waar is.

TRANSLATION: One year ago, proof was put on the table by Sulake itself.. Jet from Habbo (=Manager) also said it's true.

Anyone got proof of this?? --> Bullshit

Is Sulake stopping retro's ??
Source: http://blog.habbo.com/2012/05/31/lets-talk-about-retros

[QUOTE]So if it’s a problem, and it’s illegal, are we doing anything to stop them?
Oh, we are! We can’t speak directly to what we’re doing, because we would be jeopardizing the proceeding of these cases. However, we are following the scene actively and have already prepared and commenced legal actions against certain people. We are especially focused on shutting down and prosecuting individuals who are developing server emulator software, the people that enable others to set up retro sites. Legally speaking they are jointly responsible for the rights violations made by the actual retro sites.

------
Believe me, there is a balance, and we haven’t really been talking about retros out loud for a while, for that reason.. however, lately we’ve had a surge of people asking questions about retros, wondering if it’s legal, and that’s why we’re putting this post out there.
If your friend has a retro, he could be charged, as Taina pointed out. It is illegal.

So they're undercover?

Retros are for people who want responsibilities of owner or Staff. Some retros can be dangerous but not every single one. I understand that they use illegal material to keep their retro alive by adding new furni , New EMUs and stuff like that. But why shutdown sites owned by youngsters?

Answer from Sulake Employee:

Bottom line is that the retros are illegally taking advantage of the things that we are paying people to create… it’s got nothing to do with how old the people in charge of retros are, it’s still stealing…

Age doesn't matter..

It’s not about whether or not I have a problem with it, the issue is that if you infringe on someone’s copyrighted and branded materials, then you are doing something illegal.
Sulake pays good people money to create something unique, and I think people need to stop and think about the effect this has.. when Habbos go to retros for free stuff, that in turn was not paid for… it’s a circle that goes down the drain. We can afford less, less is offered and in the end.. what is left?

This might be the answer why most of you complain about the current quality of habbo.

They’re doing something illegal, obviously they’re not about to tell you.. which is sad, yes, and it’s also why Taina says in the post above, that these creators are the ones they’re focusing on going after…

They won't tell you !
Source: http://blog.habbo.com/2012/05/31/let...-about-retros/

They’re doing something illegal, obviously they’re not about to tell you.. which is sad, yes, and it’s also why Taina says in the post above, that these creators are the ones they’re focusing on going after…

Some hotel owner claimed they had a license which gave them the oppurtunity too use the copyrighted materials.
Using this method also makes users/staff members feel safer.

BUSTED!
Source:http://blog.habbo.com/2012/05/31/let...-about-retros/

Employee:As far as I know, we have no “legal licenses” to run a retro, and your operation is illegal.

The problem is that we cannot afford to do absolutely everything we would like to do… however, we decided to try and give Habbos the abilities to be more than just a Habbo. Habbo Talents will eventually roll out with not just Habbo Helpers, but Habbo Hosts, Habbo Traders, Habbo Builders.. giving you the opportunity to become something more, and we’re hoping to bring back the fun, but not just because we have one or two famous Habbo Staffers in the Hotel, but because we have loads of famous Habbos who create fun games and competitions. Obviously, we’re trying to come up with fun ways to do competitions from our end, too, and we have been testing Facebook games, Kick Wars and some community challenges — these are not the only competitions we’ll be doing, as more are planned :)

You're a multi-million company, take less for yourself and invest more in the game ??

Earnings


Source:http://retronet.nl/Thread-Hoeveel-ve...-je-retrohotel

Question: How much do you earn from your hotel?

Lang geleden 700 euro. --> A long time ago 700 euro.

660 - 2700

Sure.. You got to realize that the guys who say this are not the owners of the big dutch hotels..

Met m'n oude hotel ongeveer 300,00- Dagelijks 80+ online. --> I used to earn 300 With my old hotel with around 80 users online.

Yeah Right...

If they earn 500+ a month, they can't do anything with it because the money is illegal.
As soon you get into the bank, you will get in trouble..

So how do big hotels manage big amounts of money ??

Sunnieday verdeelt kosten met habbo --> Sunnieday shares it's cost with habbo.

He must be joking.. Habbo paying for a retro.. Yeah Right...



Please share all your experience..

- Shortey

[MentaL]

[flx5]

I've never hosted a retro that big and I don't host one anymore, but here are some thoughts I had about that topic:

If you are using Tor and/or a secure VPN and never use the same Username in your Hotel as in Real Life, they should have a pretty low chance of catching you.
The most severe problem is paying your server. This would require you to use Bitcoin or to create a anonym PayPal account (with a VPN). You must not connect the PayPal account to a real bank account. The money would have to be directly from a Ads Provider to the PP account and from there to the server. But I'm not sure wether this method still works as it's quite some years ago that I've setup a anonym PP account.

About hosters accepting Paysafecards:
I guess that the store where you bought it will be sure saved with a timestamp, so the police could theoretically use the surveillance of the shop to identify you. Not sure wether that's just a paranoid thought, but technically it would be possible.

You can find some good VPNs here:
http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-se...dition-140315/
And the tor project here:
https://www.torproject.org/

About the payments:
Habbo.st is hosting at OVH, which I guess they are paying with PayPal as OVH doesn't accept Bitcoin nor Paysafecard.
I hope someone else may give some more information about this.

[Shortey]

Updated & edited the thread.

- Shortey

[Shorty]

Your thread gave me a headache.

Private Servers aren't exactly the issue, it's the hotels. You are using images which are owned/copyrighted to Sulake the company of Habbo.
Therefore any images or material you use is illegal. This includes web images (avatars, headers, news articles) all the way up to the client Habbo.swf, furniture files, etc.

Dangerous is the wrong word to use, they are harmful and illegal. Sulake will more likely stop you if you're a large hotel because they know you'll be making money from their material which is easier to upheld in a court.

-
Replied via Tapatalk

[Droppy]

Your thread gave me a headache.

Private Servers aren't exactly the issue, it's the hotels. You are using images which are owned/copyrighted to Sulake the company of Habbo.
Therefore any images or material you use is illegal. This includes web images (avatars, headers, news articles) all the way up to the client Habbo.swf, furniture files, etc.

Dangerous is the wrong word to use, they are harmful and illegal. Sulake will more likely stop you if you're a large hotel because they know you'll be making money from their material which is easier to upheld in a court.

-
Replied via Tapatalk

But I don't know - if you have an domain/ip in countries that doesn't have copyright laws, you don't register with your real name, and if you pay using Bitcoins, so you would be completly anonymous, and your website intouchable, right? Or I'm wrong?

[NoOne96]

Your thread gave me a headache.

Private Servers aren't exactly the issue, it's the hotels. You are using images which are owned/copyrighted to Sulake the company of Habbo.
Therefore any images or material you use is illegal. This includes web images (avatars, headers, news articles) all the way up to the client Habbo.swf, furniture files, etc.

Dangerous is the wrong word to use, they are harmful and illegal. Sulake will more likely stop you if you're a large hotel because they know you'll be making money from their material which is easier to upheld in a court.

-
Replied via Tapatalk

We are running a retro with daily +500 users (finnish habbo has only 400), but we aren't selling any VIPs. Haven't received yet a single letter from sulake, and been running it almost for a year

But yeah there's smaller retroes (with only 20 visitors daily) that sell VIPs and has received dmca letters from sulake. Do you guys think they haven't sent a letter because of not selling VIPs or they just don't have my email or address?

EDIT: And these small retroes get dmca from like month after opening it :d

[Droppy]

But yeah there's smaller retroes (with only 20 visitors daily) that sell VIPs and has received dmca letters from sulake.

Anyone can fake email domain, just read the headers to see if it is official. Most of them must be fakes. Ofc there's official letters (a.k.a received to Sojobo, Quackster, Leon, even Shorty recently).

[flx5]

Anyone can fake email domain, just read the headers to see if it is official. Most of them must be fakes. Ofc there's official letters (a.k.a received to Sojobo, Quackster, Leon, even Shorty recently).

The problem about that is that most users and smaller hotels nowadays use cloudflare, which gives you the option to fill in a form.
With this form there are no mail headers that could be verifierd, but if you ask Cloudflare themselfes they would just say that it is real...
(At least I guess that that was the case when I got my DMCA)

[Squashing]

It isn't just Habbo. It is illegal in almost all country's to infringement copyright.

ps;
I earned 300 euro's, sometimes more and sometimes less like 210 a month with 115 (peak) online (Fuzz). And that was like 1,5 year ago

[Unphased]

Is Sulake stopping retro's ??

Duhh...

You're right about one thing, there is no official Russian Habbo Hotel. However hosting a retro from Russia, you take the same amount of risks as you do when hosting your retro in any other country. Hiding your retro in a place where a Habbo Hotel doesn't exist does not ensure safety. You're still using copyrighted images and you're still at a high risk of a C&D. Some people also thought it would be a genius idea to change their domain names from stupidhotel to playstupid. They thought that this would hide them but Sulake found out about that too.

What I'm trying to explain is that you're always going to be at risk. If you want to take that risk, go right ahead but be aware of what I'm saying here. You'll get caught and you'll receive a nice email or a letter though your door, if you choose to ignore THAT, you're gonna have a fun trip to court.

[Droppy]

Duhh...

You're right about one thing, there is no official Russian Habbo Hotel. However hosting a retro from Russia, you take the same amount of risks as you do when hosting your retro in any other country. Hiding your retro in a place where a Habbo Hotel doesn't exist does not ensure safety. You're still using copyrighted images and you're still at a high risk of a C&D. Some people also thought it would be a genius idea to change their domain names from stupidhotel to playstupid. They thought that this would hide them but Sulake found out about that too.

What I'm trying to explain is that you're always going to be at risk. If you want to take that risk, go right ahead but be aware of what I'm saying here. You'll get caught and you'll receive a nice email or a letter though your door, if you choose to ignore THAT, you're gonna have a fun trip to court.

You can always setup at The Onion Router, but it blocks Flash, and people don't trust pages there with javascript, so it would be more for your protection than user's. You can setup, but it's easier just fake everything up, enter by a coffee shop, or whatever.

[Unphased]

You can always setup at The Onion Router, but it blocks Flash, and people don't trust pages there with javascript, so it would be more for your protection than user's. You can setup, but it's easier just fake everything up, enter by a coffee shop, or whatever.

Sounds like something a desperate retro owner would do.

[Liam]

You guys make it sound like we're fugitives running from the police. It's plain and simple, retros are illegal, retros aren't dangerous, they're just troublesome. If you own a large retro which is 'out there', expect Sulake to be up your ass soon. Just don't forget, it takes time for Sulake to build a case against a retro, it's not like they see a newly opened retro and go after them.