[Shendare]

Agreed. Distributing actual EA assets and using EA-owned branding (and artwork?) seems to be the problem.

Simply running alternate servers, distributing patches to the game, and using their launcher without copyrighted artwork or branding (maybe a "not endorsed by or associated with EA" sort of disclaimer) would seem to be fine.

It's reminiscent of the EverQuest server emulation community. They distribute patches and run open-source server infrastructure, but forbid distributing copies of the EQ game itself, pointing people to legitimate acquisition methods.