HappyNoodleBoy
15 May 2008, 07:27 PM
Blizzard and MDY industries are in the middle of a lawsuit that will affect more than just WoW gamers. The big issue here is not that Glider (the bot program) helps WoW players cheat, but instead that Blizzard is trying to use copyright laws to protect their business model. Blizzard charges ~$15 a month to play WoW, Glider helps you get through the game faster and Blizzard claims this causes a decrease on their profits. However, Blizzard goes further and claims that by using Glider the customer infringes on its license to use their software and is therefor commiting copyright fraud.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/blizzard-wow-warcraft,news-28162.html
Cheating is bad, but does cheating infringe on a video game publisher?s copyright? World of Warcraft-maker Blizzard, a subsidiary of Vivendi, is trying to argue in court that it does. If this argument succeeds, it could change the way all software copyrights operate in the eyes of the law.
Blizzard is currently wrangling in court with MDY, a small company that makes a software bot called Glider that helps WoW players with tedious aspects of character leveling. While it is pretty clear that the MDY software helps users cheat, and even violates the contract Blizzard makes players accept before playing (known as the End User License Agreement), Blizzard goes a step further and says that violating the agreement violates the WoW copyright since players, after accepting the EULA, automatically create a copy of the game in their computer RAM. If the courts agree, and MDY and its customers are found guilty of copyright infringement, Blizzard could reap statutory damages at the rate of $750 per infringement. The company says about 25,000 copies of MDY?s Glider software have been sold.
A variety of organizations are chiming in with briefs to convince the courts that if they accept Blizzard?s argument, it will imply that all media companies with End User License Agreements (software companies, music labels, and movie studios) can prevent the existence of all interoperable software in court. One of these groups, called Public Knowledge, writes that if Blizzard?s argument wins in court, it would prevent any company from selling used media, such as CDs and video game discs.
Blizzard is focused on winning its case against MDY and stopping the WoW cheaters, but it is unclear if the company has fully evaluated the way its argument could change the law for all copyright-holders. The argument hinges on some unusual legal logic: Blizzard?s EULA allows users who accept the agreement to make a copy of the game in their RAM, but people who accept but violate the agreement and still make a copy of the game in their RAM are copyright infringers.
However, all software when run copy and utilize data in system memory, and buyers of any kind of software already have the implicit right to make a copy of the software in their RAM. This is an issue of a copyrights and owner?s rights. Blizzard doesn?t want to treat Wow players are game-owners, but rather as license-holders. Blizzard might have trouble in court with this part, since in past legal issues with video games, courts have treated players as owners.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge imply that rather than pursuing the argument that these cheaters are copyright infringers, they should stick to a simple contract violation suit. However, contract violations don?t come with built in statutory damages, and would win less money from Blizzard.
I use Glider myself and have been following the case since it started. Back then it seemed that Blizzard was trying to make the case that Glider makes them lose money and makes them lose reputation with their player base. MDY made a great case defending against this by saying:
1. Every Glider customer must also be a Blizzard customer
2. Gliders usually pay for more accounts than a normal WoW player, therefor increasing Blizzards revenue
3. Since Glider has been sold WoW's player base has grown, and continues to grow. WoW had less than 1 million subcribers when glider first launched in 2005, now they have over 10 million subcribers.
The only legitimate case they had was that the presence of glider lowers their companies reputaion with their customers. Blizzard had long been known as "hard on cheaters." They have press releases every few months declaring the number of users they have banned on battle.net and WoW. Also about (2), I am at best a casual botter but I have gone through 7 WoW accounts to date 5 of them Expansion upgraded. Thats ~$455 dollars not even counting subscription fees past the mandatory first month. If I didn't bot I would only have 1 account.
But now Blizzard has moved on the the copyright arguement, and made this into a "serious business" case. This makes it a bit more interesting.
I find the case filings particulary hilarious though. The fact they are trying to explain certain Video Game lingo in legal terms, but also because of some of the ridiculous arguments on both sides. For example MDY says that Glider can help disabled children play WoW, they even found their own "cancer boy" who is parapalegic, orphaned, and who can only enjoy wow through glider. The case filings can be found here.
http://www.mdyindustries.com/legal/MDYReply.pdf
http://www.mdyindustries.com/legal/BlizzardReply.pdf
http://www.mdyindustries.com/legal/B...lyExhibits.zip
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/blizzard-wow-warcraft,news-28162.html
Cheating is bad, but does cheating infringe on a video game publisher?s copyright? World of Warcraft-maker Blizzard, a subsidiary of Vivendi, is trying to argue in court that it does. If this argument succeeds, it could change the way all software copyrights operate in the eyes of the law.
Blizzard is currently wrangling in court with MDY, a small company that makes a software bot called Glider that helps WoW players with tedious aspects of character leveling. While it is pretty clear that the MDY software helps users cheat, and even violates the contract Blizzard makes players accept before playing (known as the End User License Agreement), Blizzard goes a step further and says that violating the agreement violates the WoW copyright since players, after accepting the EULA, automatically create a copy of the game in their computer RAM. If the courts agree, and MDY and its customers are found guilty of copyright infringement, Blizzard could reap statutory damages at the rate of $750 per infringement. The company says about 25,000 copies of MDY?s Glider software have been sold.
A variety of organizations are chiming in with briefs to convince the courts that if they accept Blizzard?s argument, it will imply that all media companies with End User License Agreements (software companies, music labels, and movie studios) can prevent the existence of all interoperable software in court. One of these groups, called Public Knowledge, writes that if Blizzard?s argument wins in court, it would prevent any company from selling used media, such as CDs and video game discs.
Blizzard is focused on winning its case against MDY and stopping the WoW cheaters, but it is unclear if the company has fully evaluated the way its argument could change the law for all copyright-holders. The argument hinges on some unusual legal logic: Blizzard?s EULA allows users who accept the agreement to make a copy of the game in their RAM, but people who accept but violate the agreement and still make a copy of the game in their RAM are copyright infringers.
However, all software when run copy and utilize data in system memory, and buyers of any kind of software already have the implicit right to make a copy of the software in their RAM. This is an issue of a copyrights and owner?s rights. Blizzard doesn?t want to treat Wow players are game-owners, but rather as license-holders. Blizzard might have trouble in court with this part, since in past legal issues with video games, courts have treated players as owners.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge imply that rather than pursuing the argument that these cheaters are copyright infringers, they should stick to a simple contract violation suit. However, contract violations don?t come with built in statutory damages, and would win less money from Blizzard.
I use Glider myself and have been following the case since it started. Back then it seemed that Blizzard was trying to make the case that Glider makes them lose money and makes them lose reputation with their player base. MDY made a great case defending against this by saying:
1. Every Glider customer must also be a Blizzard customer
2. Gliders usually pay for more accounts than a normal WoW player, therefor increasing Blizzards revenue
3. Since Glider has been sold WoW's player base has grown, and continues to grow. WoW had less than 1 million subcribers when glider first launched in 2005, now they have over 10 million subcribers.
The only legitimate case they had was that the presence of glider lowers their companies reputaion with their customers. Blizzard had long been known as "hard on cheaters." They have press releases every few months declaring the number of users they have banned on battle.net and WoW. Also about (2), I am at best a casual botter but I have gone through 7 WoW accounts to date 5 of them Expansion upgraded. Thats ~$455 dollars not even counting subscription fees past the mandatory first month. If I didn't bot I would only have 1 account.
But now Blizzard has moved on the the copyright arguement, and made this into a "serious business" case. This makes it a bit more interesting.
I find the case filings particulary hilarious though. The fact they are trying to explain certain Video Game lingo in legal terms, but also because of some of the ridiculous arguments on both sides. For example MDY says that Glider can help disabled children play WoW, they even found their own "cancer boy" who is parapalegic, orphaned, and who can only enjoy wow through glider. The case filings can be found here.
http://www.mdyindustries.com/legal/MDYReply.pdf
http://www.mdyindustries.com/legal/BlizzardReply.pdf
http://www.mdyindustries.com/legal/B...lyExhibits.zip