WoW Glider suing Blizzard
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. Lawyers and non-lawyers can read the full text of the complaint and chime in with your own opinions below.[Thanks, Baratrill]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Cheats, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
rm_you Jan 19th 2007 4:30PM
I'm fairly certain that Blizzard's EULA only applies to you if you play their game. While it is clear that the writer of this program violated Blizzard's EULA, the worst they can do is ban him. If he doesn't have an account, then he never agreed to their EULA, therefore he hasn't *personally* violated it.
As far as the DMCA, I am a programmer myself, and from my experience this law causes way more trouble than it's worth. I would actually love to see it overturned (too bad that'll never happen) as it currently makes it illegal for me to play my legally bought DVDs in Linux in any US territory (that's a rant for another time).
As far as their "injection method" (I don't like this term, since it implies some sort of direct memory or data tampering), all it does is replay keyboard and mouse macros in an intelligent way. The program never actually touches any of WoW's internal memory. This makes it about as illegal as any macro program.
The complaint itself does contain some interesting language about not threatening users of the program with litigation, although I doubt Blizzard would *sue* them; they would just ban them from the game, which would remain within their rights (as this isn't actually litigation).
In conclusion, let me say that I no longer play WoW (my highest level character was 35 or so) and even if I did, I doubt I would use this program. Regardless, it annoys me whenever I see large corporations threatening independant software developers with only dubious accusations. They can include in their game whatever measures they want to detect the program (they already have a list of the processes running on your machine whenever you load their game) and ban whoever they want as far as I care... Going and harassing the creator without so much as a clear and straightforward complaint is going too far.
WhiteDragon Jan 21st 2007 9:12AM
by saying that wowglider is illegal is like saying DVD burners are illegal too. DVD burners are made to burn DVDs but people do use them for illegal use of burning copyrighted DVD's. so what some of you guys are saying is that it is the DVD burner creators are breaking the rules/laws and that they should be held accountable for the miss use of the burners. if wowglider losses and is forced to stop making wowglider and distributing it then what is next? Next it will be DVD burners that they will want to no longer be made or distributed then why not make programing books illegal to read because it teaches you how to make programs like wowglider. then why not make any study or education against the law as well because it teaches people to become smarter and some of those people use that knowledge to break the law. if wowglider losses then where will it stop?!?!?!
I am for freedom that is governed by just laws. I am not for those of you out there that are against those of use who are creative and who want to put stipulations on our creativity because of the miss use of the things that we create.
I for one hope wowglider wins because like I said where will it end if they don't.
Justin Feb 13th 2007 11:59AM
150,000 accounts * 10 - 15 / month = 1.5 Million 2.25 million per month lost - that's Blizzards choice they are choosing to ban these accounts.
Blizzard should just buy out all these companies and be done w/ it. I see why Blizzard would do want to stop them when they keep having to ban people to keep the economy stable.