[dj_mc_merlin]

If there's enough people interested in the game, someone will figure out how to run a private server. People are so persistent it happens even without the source code. For many online games the source code is either stolen or dedicated people black box reverse engineer it just to run private servers. That's how runescape private servers operated back in the day, although I don't know if it was a clean room reverse engineer.. someone probably stole the code given Jagex.