General Blizzard attempt to kill WoW bot bad news for copyright law

[The Helper]

World of WarCraft is a game made of many parts: resource gathering, combat, item-creation... and some of those parts are more fun than others. A company called MDY wanted to help with the dull bits of the game, and maybe assist gold farmers a little bit, by releasing a program called Glider that allows your character to continue collecting gold and leveling while you're not at your computer. In 2006, Blizzard and Vivendi showed up at an MDY employee's home and threatened legal action against the company, claiming Glider violates the Terms of Service of World of Warcraft as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. MDY then sued to establish its right to sell its software, causing Blizzard to file its own suit to stop MDY from selling the program. The issue is whether or not Glider is breaking any laws, and Blizzard is hoping that by stretching the boundaries of what constitutes copyright infringement, it can get MDY shut down. If Blizzard succeeds, it could set a very dangerous precedent.

Read the whole story here.

 

[mushroom911]

Mad!

They've Gone Mad With Power! Mad I Tell You! Maaad!

 

[Asehujiko]

It looks like IGE is starting an all out legal attack as a last hope measure to maintain their source of income(Glider operated accounts hogging farming spots 24/7).

 

[TheDamien]

The bot clearly violates the ToS.

 

[konerboy]

the properly have a full-time lawyer and they gotta use him for something. like suing alot of programmers

 

[Asehujiko]

the properly have a full-time lawyer and they gotta use him for something. like suing alot of programmers

This is blizzard's second time they sue anything and both time the problem was something extremely game breaking(in game advertising was the first). Glider's cry of "omg this will allow them to 100% control our lives" however is pure hypocrisy because if they win, hacking becomes completely legal because my ram = my buisness and if it has bad effects for somebody on the other side of the line, tough luck.

I'm with blizzard on this one and i would be suprised to hear any sensible arguments from the botters camp.

 

[konerboy]

bot-ting doesn't necessarily means hacking

 

[duyen]

I don't see anything wrong with selling it.

I mean, people can get banned for using it if it's in the rules, but they can't stop them from selling it.

 

[phyrex1an]

"omg this will allow them to 100% control our lives" however is pure hypocrisy because if they win, hacking becomes completely legal because my ram = my buisness and if it has bad effects for somebody on the other side of the line, tough luck.

So hacking should be within copyright law?
The point of the article is that blizzard sues for copyright infringement and not for "hacking". The infringement supposedly took place when someone loaded the game into ram, something that is required to do to be able to use the product and that is protected in a clause in US law.

 

[Centreri]

One lawsuit that I agree with Blizzard with. These things should not be legal.

 

[Varine]

So the program basically just auto-fights for the player?

 

[Darthfett]

So the program basically just auto-fights for the player?

Yup.

I think it's a good step toward the companies that sell gold. Many of these do not sit there and have people play 24/7 just to get the gold, they simply make the money by doing one of these:
1. Hacking Accounts
2. Stealing Accounts via Keyloggers
3. Use bots

The first two blizzard already has protections in the game for, and can reverse the effects for the hacked/stolen account. However, the third is limited from warnings to banned accounts, and if it's a business using bots, then they can simply cancel the account, and start a new one.

This article is very biased. It fluffs up a lot of what it is saying. For example, this is full of crap:
"A company called MDY wanted to help with the dull bits of the game, and maybe assist gold farmers a little bit, by releasing a program called Glider that allows your character to continue collecting gold and leveling while you're not at your computer."

It's siding completely against Blizzard, and showing only one side of the story.

 

[DDRtists]

What you guys don't realize, is that theres like, 5 or 10 other bots, so even if glider goes down, it's not going to matter.

 

[SFilip]

> so even if glider goes down, it's not going to matter
Depends on how successful Blizzard is on this one.
If they're lucky enough, they will not only get rid of a company behind a bot, but also scare some others.

 

[Centreri]

It's siding completely against Blizzard, and showing only one side of the story.

Agreed. Farmers go to specific locations and steal kills and stuff from people that are actually wasting their own time on it.. I'd say that everyone who uses one of these deserves to have their computer explode. Not only is it copyright infringement, but its taking away from the enjoyment of others who actually follow the rules.

 

[Seb!]

Well but if they win the case then that will set precedent and others will follow

 

[Cornface]

I hope they succeed. There is a lot of players using Glider mostly for botting, which gives them an unfair advantage. While you have to sit at your computer mashing your keyboard in Alterac Valley, he may be botting with his character next to you, while being out with some friends. Gliding removes the farming, and goes straight to the rewards. And I have reported tons of botters, only to see that they still farm at the same place some weeks after the Game Masters insured they would take care of the problem.

 

[Karawasa]

While you have to sit at your computer mashing your keyboard in Alterac Valley, he may be botting with his character next to you, while being out with some friends.

Someday you will realize that it is YOU who is the sucker.

 

[Asehujiko]

Someday you will realize that it is YOU who is the sucker.

Well, since you are apparently so awesome that you are above electronic gaming, how would you feel if you trained realy hard for a soccer tournament only to find out that one of the opposition's players bought an exoskeleton somewhere that allows him to run 40mph with hardly any effort from the user among other things.

It's highly against the rules but so are bots.