Blizzard wins lawsuit against bot makers

[MMOpwn]

You may recall the long running Blizzard vs. MDY battle from various reports here on WoW Insider. In short, Blizzard sued MDY, the makers of the MMOGlider bot (formerly the WOWGlider bot), claiming that the bot violated Blizzard copyright by writing portions of the game to RAM in order to work (since you only have a license to run the game files, and do not actually own them, unauthorized copies are against the EULA). They also claimed that the bot tortiously interfered with Blizzard's customer base. MDY sued them right back, claiming they had every right to sell and distribute their bots.

MDY received a crushing blow yesterday as the court ruled against them, Virtually Blind reports (http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/07/14/blizzard-wins-sj-mdy/), declaring them guilty of copyright infringement and tortious interference (http://www.oracle-training.cc/t_webstalker_185_tortuous_interference_.htm) (Apparently, bots stealing your kills is now a legal issue, which is sort of cool). The ramifications of this decision are still being discussed in various corners of the net and legal world.

Tobold puts it most succinctly (http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2008/07/cheating-and-modding-now-illegal.html) when he says that cheating is now officially illegal. At first glance, he certainly seems to be correct. Any program that loads a part of Blizzard's code into the RAM looks like it can now be declared criminal, not only bots, but speed hacks and teleport hacks and other types of hacks as well. Now, in addition to banning them for breaking the EULA, they -- or any other MMO developer in any game -- can also bring them to court for copyright infringement in the USA.

Of course, others are seeing bad consequences for this. As you may recall, the advocacy group Public Knowledge filed an amicus brief on the case that stated that a ruling in favor of Blizzard could have disastrous consequences for copyright law, allowing copyright holders to sue and win over the smallest of EULA or TOS violations. Some commenters (http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/07/14/blizzard-wins-sj-mdy/#comment-18147) are even predicting that the RIAA may be able to use it to prosecute anyone who plays music on their computer.

So has Blizzard struck a blow for legitimate players and game integrity, or have they opened a Pandora's Box to a future of draconian digital copyright law enforcement? Whether either of these imagined outcomes is completely right on the money is something that only time may truly be able to tell. Right now, MDY still has a chance to appeal, so there's a chance that another ruling will put things right back where they were. In the short term, I'm pretty happy that Blizzard has another tool on their belt to deal with cheaters and hackers, whatever else occurs.


[via WoWInsider]

[MMOpwn]

What do you think?

[Tannim]

After reading the summary judgement, it sounds like the judge is a real old coot who doesn't understand what a computer is.

The basis of this is. Whenever you run any application on your computer, and pieces of it is loaded into ram (this happens on every application for every OS), it the pieces in ram is considered a copy of the original (that's on the HD). Due to that "logic", you committed copyright infringement.

According to the judgment, as soon as you turn on your computer, you committed copyright infringement, whether you bought the program or not.

I expect this to be over turned by an honest and competent judge, as well as an honest jury. MMO Glider have done nothing wrong, committed no crime.

It's just the judge is too stupid to do his job.

[Synithin]

After reading the summary judgement, it sounds like the judge is a real old coot who doesn't understand what a computer is.

The basis of this is. Whenever you run any application on your computer, and pieces of it is loaded into ram (this happens on every application for every OS), it the pieces in ram is considered a copy of the original (that's on the HD). Due to that "logic", you committed copyright infringement.

According to the judgment, as soon as you turn on your computer, you committed copyright infringement, whether you bought the program or not.

I expect this to be over turned by an honest and competent judge, as well as an honest jury. MMO Glider have done nothing wrong, committed no crime.

It's just the judge is too stupid to do his job.

That was not what the case was about if you would read it again it was about their program writing portions of the game to the ram and modifying them wich was a violation og the law since you have to have permission from the author to alter game files and so on.

Its a hard blow against MDY but they were breaking the law on copyright when they started altering the game files.

[Tannim]

I did read. I do know what the case is about. However, the summary judgment shown that the judge did NOT know what this case was about.

If you read the judgment, what I mentioned above is straight from the Judge's hand. If this case is solidified, then the judgment would basically be law.

[vincenpi]

If this case is solidified, then the judgment would basically be law.

The judge doesnt set the laws, only interprets what the lawmakers have sent him to work with. It may set a precendence, but if the government decideds the laws are inadeqate, they will change it.

Hence the power of the lobbygroups.

[MMOpwn]

Some interesting analysis at PlayNoEvil (http://www.playnoevil.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/2119-A-Pyrrhic-Victory-Blizzard-vs.-Glider.html):


1. This ruling is very dangerous to any third party utility provider. Especially security companies like Symantec, who load programs and "check them out" to see if they are malicious. Ironically, it would seem that Blizzard's own security program, Warden, would be imperiled by this notion of copyright.

2. Whose copyright and EULA is more important? After all, the user has agreed to both (probably). Why does the software tool company have lesser standing?

3. What if Blizzard wins? After a long fight, Blizzard defeated the unauthorized Battle.Net server developers, BnetD, which simply drove the system outside the US where it is still available. It is actually surprising that MDY didn't move its business offshore to a country where this suit could not have been effectively tried or did not have a copyright treat with the US.

4. Legal solutions to business and technical problems are terribly inefficient an expensive. While they may be able to shut MDY down and even bankrupt the company (and perhaps its owners), how much will this have cost Blizzard and how long until another equivalent product is made available. Might MDY simply publish the source code to Glider as a "finger in the eye" gesture at Blizzard? (or "leak" it onto the Internet?)

5. If Glider is that damaging and unique, it almost certainly would be cheaper to buy the company. If it is not unique, then this battle will have to be repeated.

6. If MDY goes away, it is highly likely that someone will invest in reverse-engineering Glider (why bother now, it is so cheap)... the Glider problem won't go away.