These days it seems the norm for retail MMO games and free to play MMO games to be remade by people into emulators or private servers as some people call them.

I have come across two opinion on this matter and I'm curious to see how many people agree with them.

Opinion One is that these emulators are a bad thing because they are not only copyright infringement but also that they take away from sales the games normal make through play time, cash shops, and buying of software.

Opinion Two covers the opposite. People say this it is not copyright infringement and most maintain they do not like how the original game is run. They say they are seeking freedom to enjoy the game in their own way and add variations to the game that the original staff never would have considered.

Where do you stand?

I never got an answer on this and I'm still curious.

The only way I used to be able to play RO was on a private server so I didn't have to pay for it. I didn't see anything wrong with it.

I have no problem with emulators if people want to use them. Like fiarra I played RO on a private server for a short while. I stopped because the client I used was corrupted somehow and it caused many problems for my computer.
Since then I haven't used an emulator but that experience hasn't affected my opinion of them.

I like them, myself. It's often the only way a person can play a game.

Looking past the issue of copyright infringement and violation of a game's TOS (which, in general, running a free server of an MMO is an explicit violation of TOS), I feel that MMO emulation is simply software piracy - you're getting for free or for extremely cheap something that ordinarily costs money. In the past I didn't really feel this way, but having played a number of MMOs (legally), my opinions have changed.

My stance on software piracy is somewhere in the middle, but to cut a long rant short, while I believe that some things are alright to download (a program that ordinarily costs $800 - 1000 US that you would probably never buy and is for business use or a CD that you already own or are buying) I find that it's kind of, well, shitty to pirate a game that would ordinarily cost you 15 - 30 bucks down and $5 - 18 per month. You're getting a ton of play out of it, assuming you enjoy the game.

I can understand the reasoning behind why people would play on a free server beyond "I don't feel like paying.": Free servers are sometimes better than originals (as is often the case with RO) and sometimes you're fifteen and your parents won't pay for the subscription.

At the same time, though, I, personally, still feel like these are kind of crappy reasons. Don't like the original game? Find something else. There are a million Ragnarok Online ripoff MMOs out there now that are free to play, have better customer support and are easier, tougher, more fun, less of a timesink, more engaging, prettier, etc.
If you're fifteen and your parents won't pay, either suck it up and wait until you can get checking, or go get a job in fastfood. Your parents will probably be 800% more likely to pay for something for you if you're holding down a job of your own and being responsible.

This is, of course, just my own opinion. Not really something worth debating, because I won't change how I think and I'm sure others won't change how they think.