Prankster
Conference
Sany I think we all love the effort you're putting into these easy installers and the happiness they bring people, but until now EvoWeb has only really had to worry about one company: Konami , who have a vested interest in not nuking their most dedicated fan site - it's bad PR and hurts their own engagement. But by hosting a library of random games from other publishers we're massively increasing the site's risk profile.
Companies like EA (or IP trolls who buy rights just to sue) have no reason to look the other way and might just see a "football warez site." These companies act incredibly fast these days - especially anything football-related due to the Premier League's aggressive stance on piracy. Often they just hit a "kill" button on a host or domain the moment they're notified, without even looking at the rest of the site. In the 2000s a company might send a "Cease and Desist" letter, giving the admins a week to delete the post but in 2026 many rights holders use automated DMCA bots. These bots report links directly to domain registrars and hosting providers. Hosts often have a "shoot first, ask questions later" policy to avoid their own legal liability. They might just suspend the entire EvoWeb server immediately to stay compliant. Furthermore, because we use a .uk domain, we are under the direct jurisdiction of Nominet and UK law. Unlike a .com, Nominet can suspend a domain without a court order if they receive a formal complaint from a group like EA. Under the current Online Safety Act, if the site is branded as hosting "warez," the authorities can even force the implementation of age/ID verification which would effectively kill this community overnight.
Usually, a forum owner is safe if they are "passive" meaning they don't know what users are posting.
If a moderator or admin "likes" a post with an illegal link like Chris Davies has, or if someone reports it and the admin doesn't delete it, the team lose their "Safe Harbor" protection. They are now active participants in the distribution of those files.
I know piracy/warez is tolerated more in Russia, but for a site hosted in the West, the legal environment is much more automated and dangerous now in 2026. All it takes is one troublemaker sending a link to a companies legal department to start a fire that the admins might not be able to put out.
I’d suggest closing this thread and deleting these posts. At the moment the forum can plausibly claim to be a research and preservation community for a specific game series with only one company that can sue it. It's in a great position so why take any risks.
Companies like EA (or IP trolls who buy rights just to sue) have no reason to look the other way and might just see a "football warez site." These companies act incredibly fast these days - especially anything football-related due to the Premier League's aggressive stance on piracy. Often they just hit a "kill" button on a host or domain the moment they're notified, without even looking at the rest of the site. In the 2000s a company might send a "Cease and Desist" letter, giving the admins a week to delete the post but in 2026 many rights holders use automated DMCA bots. These bots report links directly to domain registrars and hosting providers. Hosts often have a "shoot first, ask questions later" policy to avoid their own legal liability. They might just suspend the entire EvoWeb server immediately to stay compliant. Furthermore, because we use a .uk domain, we are under the direct jurisdiction of Nominet and UK law. Unlike a .com, Nominet can suspend a domain without a court order if they receive a formal complaint from a group like EA. Under the current Online Safety Act, if the site is branded as hosting "warez," the authorities can even force the implementation of age/ID verification which would effectively kill this community overnight.
Usually, a forum owner is safe if they are "passive" meaning they don't know what users are posting.
If a moderator or admin "likes" a post with an illegal link like Chris Davies has, or if someone reports it and the admin doesn't delete it, the team lose their "Safe Harbor" protection. They are now active participants in the distribution of those files.
I know piracy/warez is tolerated more in Russia, but for a site hosted in the West, the legal environment is much more automated and dangerous now in 2026. All it takes is one troublemaker sending a link to a companies legal department to start a fire that the admins might not be able to put out.
I’d suggest closing this thread and deleting these posts. At the moment the forum can plausibly claim to be a research and preservation community for a specific game series with only one company that can sue it. It's in a great position so why take any risks.
but it doesin't seem very prudent to me for us to be acting like a warez site. The forum should be kept clean going forward, because no doubt aswell that these regulations will get more harsh year on year, and in the future if the admins so need to write an appeal letter to the regulator proving the site is a specialized hobbyist archive with a specific purpose... If the regulators document instead reveals a library of general pirated games, the appeal will fail.
