Topic: WoW Glider sues Blizzard

[idolminds]

Geez...

In case you're out of the loop, WoW Glider is a 3rd party application that automates all major aspects of gameplay. You set the parameters and it starts farming loot, experience, reputation -- whatever you'd like. This is, unsurprisingly, against Blizzard's terms of service -- those things you have to click agreement to before you play the game after every patch. But this lawsuit isn't just about whether or not WoW Glider breaks the terms of service: it's about whether or not Blizzard has the right to kill the distribution of WoW Glider. WoW Glider's complaint suggests Blizzard has been attempting to strong-arm them into stopping distribution based on alleged copyright and DMCA violation -- and WoW Glider's makers are jumping in with the first lawsuit, which (and, no, I am not a lawyer) seems to be asserting their rights to distribute WoW Glider and telling Blizzard to back off.

I think Blizzard can stop the program. It only exists to operate within WoW, to blatantly break its ToS. And the guy sells it and makes money off it. Hell, they got the bnet emulator and Freecraft shut down and those were free.

You want a laugh, read the banned Glider forum where all the players that got banned post. There was a huge banning spree recently.

[angrykeebler]

I hope these guys die in a horrific accident.

[Quemaqua]

I hope these guys die in a horrific accident.

Seconded.

[idolminds]

I dont know if We've had another thread on this, but the Glider people lost and were ordered to pay a shitload of money.

However, Blizzard might have gone a little too far.

The US 9th Circuit appeal court has broadly upheld a 2008 ruling that WoW Glider, an auto-play program for World of Warcraft, is illegal.

However, while the court agreed that the Glider violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act due to its side-stepping of Blizzard's 'Warden' anti-bot software, it overturned a judgement of copyright infringement.

Said the court, "Were we to hold otherwise, Blizzard - or any software copyright holder - could designate any disfavored conduct during software use as copyright infringement, by purporting to condition the license on the player's abstention from the disfavored conduct.

"The rationale would be that because the conduct occurs while the player's computer is copying the software code into RAM in order for it to run, the violation is copyright infringement. This would allow software copyright owners far greater rights than Congress has generally conferred on copyright owners."

This may, reasons Gamer/Law's Jas Purewal, limit Blizzard's potential pay-out from Glider-maker MDY Industries.

It could also set precedents for the treatment of EULA statements in similar cases. "Just because Blizzard said that using a bot was illegal and a breach of copyright, didn't actually make it so."

The ruling that Glider constituted DMCA violation may also affect the course of future rulings, as it effectively endorses the right of game-makers to seek legal action against the circumvention of access control measures.

Despite the upheld ruling that Glider is illegal, Blizzard is to pay its own, likely high, costs for a case which has now been running for almost three years.

The case may not yet be over, with the court hinting at a future retrial of Blizzard's tortious interference with contract claim (which sought damages for subscriptions potentially lost as a result of Glider's presence on servers). This could impact the original $6.5m fine ordered against MDY.

In addition, the option for either party to appeal to the Supreme Court remains.

[W7RE]

These fucking botters are ruining my cash flow. I try to mine in the middle of the night, and they're teleport hacking to the nodes faster than I can fly, or just moving on obviously preset paths. They're probably out drinking with their buddies while simultaneously stealing ore out from under me. It sort of makes me want to bot too lol. It's not like Blizzard is doing much to stop individual players.