Legal Disclaimer

Ownership

Dark Ages and all original game software, code, artwork, music, sound, text, characters, names, logos, trademarks, and related materials are the property of their respective copyright and trademark owners. Nothing in this project transfers, limits, or challenges those rights.

The contributors claim authorship only over the original documentation, diagrams, research notes, and explanatory pseudocode created for this project. References to the game and its behavior are included only where needed to explain the research.

Independent project

This is an independent and unofficial research project. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, approved by, or endorsed by the developers, publishers, operators, or rights holders of Dark Ages.

Purpose and fair use

This project is undertaken in good faith for noncommercial education, scholarship, preservation, commentary, and interoperability research. The maintainers believe that the limited analysis, factual descriptions, and necessary references presented here are consistent with fair-use principles under 17 U.S.C. Section 107.

Fair use is determined from the facts of each use. An educational or noncommercial purpose does not automatically make every use fair. The U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index provides general information and examples, but this project does not offer legal advice or guarantee that every possible use of its material will qualify as fair use.

What is not distributed

This repository does not distribute the game executable, supporting DLLs, game assets, music, artwork, private packet captures, IDA databases, license material, or reconstructed proprietary source code. Contributors must never force-add or commit such material. A local IDA database may remain in the ignored .local/ workspace described in the README.

The documentation is not a substitute for obtaining the game or any other copyrighted work through lawful means. Users are responsible for ensuring that their own research, implementations, and distribution choices comply with applicable law and any agreements that apply to them.

Rights-holder concerns

A rights holder who believes this repository contains material that should not be present may contact the repository maintainers through the GitHub project. Please identify the material and explain the concern so it can be reviewed promptly.