Re: Is cncnet illegal to download
My goodness, you're paranoid. 😕
CnCNet strives to keep the classic C&C games alive, has active patching support for getting rid of game bugs and online cheats, and does not offer downloads for any of the C&C games except those that are freeware.
Fan-patching in general is a bit of a legal grey zone; technically it could be considered as being against EULA, but in reality, the community manager for the C&C series (back when we still had one) gave me the full Ultimate Collection for free as thanks for my patching work on C&C1 (and, probably, so I'd be able to adapt my patch to work on the TUC version 😉). Quite simply, the CnCNet team is doing the job the official C&C team (again, back when we still had one) never got the means or permission to do, and the official team have always shown themselves very supportive towards that.
So, everything together... CnCNet is not illegal to download or use. The fan-patches may be a bit of an odd case, but EA will not oppose or act against something that ensures people still have a reason to buy their games. After all, of the four C&C games CnCNet offers multiplayer services for, only three are freeware, and plenty of people have bought The Ultimate Collection to play the fourth one; Red Alert 2. And even if they had all been freeware, EA would have nothing to gain from acting against it; all they'd do is drive away their customers. Any money given to those particular lawyers would be much better spent actually fixing the games themselves 😛
So I don't think you have anything to worry about. 😉
