How are old MMO's handled?

I’m wanting to submit installers for Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, a very old game whose servers have long since shut down. The only way to play this game is through private servers such as Ephinea or Ultima; I’d like to create installers for all the notable private servers so that people can easily get these working on Linux (even if it would have bronze support at best). I’d also like to submit an installer for the open-source private server software so that people can play this game offline or only with friends.

What is Lutris’s policy for somewhat gray area stuff like this? Obviously Lutris isn’t a place to submit pirated versions of games, but games like PSO:BB cannot be played in any way except through unofficial means. Sega itself has said they won’t bother these private servers so long they’re not making money off of it (I know at least Ultima accepts “donations” that are in fact microtransaction purchases for in-game benefits) and the servers themselves are legal as they’re completely reverse-engineered and original code.

This article by the Electronic Frontier Foundation gives an overview of the relevant DMCA exemption, though it seems that multiplayer components of games may or may not be exempt even though the servers for these games are by definition (much to the EFF’s frustration). I would imagine that it would mean that it would be absoutely fine to create an installer for Darkspore as none of its content is multiplayer, but for a game like PSO:BB that also stores the vast majority of its content locally it seems a bit murkier.

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We have very loose rules regarding game files hosting. We’re pretty much okay with anything as long as the original game can’t be bought and played through regular means.

One of the goals of Lutris is to preserve video games, making sure they are playable and available for anyone.

If you want a file hosted on our server, please send a link and I’ll mirror it and make it available publicly.