I’m not speaking from a source, I’ve been following the CoH story since the SCoRE server got leaked. Basically sometime after CoH shut down, the SCoRE folks started the private server and kept it as secret as possible. They ran the server for years before information successfully got out in a way they were not able to suppress. Among the many things they did, they had an alternate version of CoH running that was just the character designer and the ability to walk around the city. They said it was all that could be saved of CoH and used that to throw everyone off the trail any time leaks came out.

SCoRE eventually did share code, but they excluded some things including the work they did to update the game and the mission files, and they only did so after the community went absolutely nuts.

It took a while for other servers to make the game playable, but Homecoming was up within days of the “leak” and was using the newer version SCoRE had developed. They have since lost their lead on updates to Thunderspy and Ouroboros, but Homecoming remains the most popular server. Homecoming is taking donations but operates as an LLC. The donation amounts they say they need are very substantial and I doubt their costs are accurate. They claim they are working on becoming a non-profit but they have been saying that for a long time.

This is not a bad write up but it and the linked articles will be missing some context. Example: the person they call “Leo” in one of the attached articles is one of the assholes who hid everything and ran Homecoming. Kind of changes the tone a bit.