I was just wondering if anyone knew an answer to something that I have received many differering replies on. I plan on designing a place where one could play LAN games with other people in a really cool enviorment. What are the costs involved in getting a multi-user licensing agreement for a specific game made by a software company? How would I go about getting the right to use for example Rouge Spear in such a way? The End user agreements that no one looks at when installing a game usually have a statement to the effect that you can not use said game in a for profit way. Any insight that anyone has in this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Pavil

Generally the Lan shops I know that have done this did it the easy way.

6 Player Network with Rainbow Six = Buy 6 copies of the game

Generally in small environments like that, it''s no sweat and they''d look the other way if you charge people to play. If you''re planning something on a grand scale, I''d contact the developer though.

There is no general legal way to do such a thing. You would have to contact each of the publishers (or developers depending) and get permission and pricing for each title you wish to use. This is the same situation as if you built an arcade cabinet using say a PS2, you would not have the legal right to operate it for profit. If you look at most rental places, you''ll find that there have been some which offered game rental, but in general it was too much work to negotiate such deals (and I''m talking after such rental was made legal again). The trick is this, you do NOT ever own software which has a license agreement. So assumptions about what can and cannot be done with copywritten material are moot - software is not a owned copywritten item, it is a licensed copywritten item. So you are allowed to do with it exactly what it allows you to do with it . Good Luck.