Gaming Legal battle over Warcraft 'bot'

[Darg]

The makers of World of Warcraft are locked in a legal battle with a firm that has produced a tool to automate many actions in the virtual world.

Blizzard is suing Michael Donnelly, the creator of the MMO Glider program, which performs key tasks in the game automatically, such as fighting.

Both sides have submitted legal summaries to a court in Arizona.

Blizzard says Glide is a software bot which infringes the company's copyright and potentially damages the game.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Legal battle over Warcraft 'bot'

news.bbc.co.uk

 

[darkRae]

Using bot?
Aw, come'on, you're losing the fun in gaming!

 

[Turnip]

More than 10 million people around the world play Warcraft.

Ten million? Last time I checked it was only six. Quick, into the bunkers, WoW is spreading faster than Christianity!

 

[DDRtists]

Using bot?
Aw, come'on, you're losing the fun in gaming!

This is opinion based.
However, I don't feel he should get sued, hes not doing anything illegal...

 

[darkRae]

I thought MMORPG should be fun during leveling, farming, and battling

> hes not doing anything illegal...

Have you read the article completely?

Blizzard argued that Michael Donnelly's tool also infringed the End User License Agreement that all parties have to adhere to when playing the game.

EDIT:
Or wait... it's still an argument

 

[Oninuva]

Well he's not the one botting now is he?

 

[Turnip]

That's like saying a dictator is not the one killing all of a country's civilians, it is the dictator's military, and therefore all the blame should be placed on them, not the dictator himself.

 

[esb]

A dictator gives orders. The guy that made the bot simple made it, doesn't use it, doesn't force others to use it, it's simply there. It is legal what he is doing (I've seen similar cases) as he himself isn't doing. All he would need to do is make his own ToS or something similar saying that they won't use it for botting in WoW and only for learning purposes or something like that.

 

[Ninja_sheep]

imo a game should only have parts a bot can't do or its crap (mb with some exeptions). Thats why I don't play WoW: endles farming.

 

[hell_knight]

Well I think this is how it works. Some chinese farmer comapnies buy their gold from botters so if the bot goes so will some of the online gold and people who make a living off wow.

(running multiple bots , then selling gold to companies for $$) gold prices are extremely high compared to before BC. Before about 10$ would get you 100g , 1/10th of epic mount now 1/10th of epic mount would cost a LOT more.

 

[Matemeo]

Really old news, bout a year and a half ago, I used to play WoW, and near the end of my 2 year spree, I botted a lot. Then I got my account banned on my birthday, haha And he was being served papers, and sued back then still.

 

[DDRtists]

Yeah, it's been around for a long time though.
I don't see where blizzard would win, though.

Think about it, his bot does not modify anything at all with the WoW Client. It simply pushes buttons based on things it "sees". The ToS says you are not allowed to change or deform packets sent to and from the WoW server, he is doing nothing of the such.

All and all, I think he will end up winning against Blizzard. After all, if private servers can win legal battles with blizzard, I don't see why a bot programmer wouldn't.

 

[hell_knight]

Agreed with DDRtists

The difference is he's using it to make money , by selling it . The players who use it then sell the gold =O. Im pretty it states somewhere the stuff in WoW isn't to be sold for cash in real life.