|
What if they accept donations in excess of server costs and use it to advertise or buy themselves meals? There's effecitvely no way to tell where the money being sent to a MUD is going. They might say they're using it to pay for the server, but there's no public accounting available.
This doesn't fit any standard definition of a non-commercial enterprise. There's absolutely no reason a non-commercial enterprise couldn't offer in-game benefits for money if they're not doing it to make a profit but just to stay afloat on server costs and whatnot. What makes an enterprise non-commercial isn't how they obtain money to stay afloat, it's the idea that the money is not being used to realize a profit for anyone.
And there's the problem. How are you going to demonstrate that a MUD is or isn't trying to turn a profit? Again, no public accounting. I mean, I happily proclaim that IRE muds are commercial, but there are definitely MUDs out there that are taking in more than they need to stay afloat while maintaining the illusion of being non-commercial.
--matt
|