Blizzard sends a C&D to Warcraft Characters, other iPhone apps
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 29th 2009 at 9:00PM
The good news here: Blizzard may be planning to do more with the iPhone. The bad news: they're apparently trying to squelch useful iPhone apps that are out there right now. They've already sent out cease-and-desist orders to two Warcraft-related iPhone apps that were charging money (Armory Browser and the Warcraft Arena Calculator), and now we've heard from its creator that Warcraft Characters has gotten the C&D treatment as well (here's his post on the subject, though his site appears to be down at the moment). Just before he was set to announce the alpha of the 3.0 version of the app, Blizzard dropped him legal notice to stop distrbution. As of this writing, however, the app is still on the App Store, so get it while you can. Warcraft Chest and WoWTalent appear to still be available on the store as well, and WoWTalent is still charging 99 cents.For whatever reason, it appears Blizzard is going after even free programs released on the iPhone that use their information from the Armory. We're not quite sure why -- an optimist might guess that they're planning to release an Armory app of their own on the iPhone, or they're worried that people might confuse the official iPhone app with one that's unofficial. Or maybe they're just being cautious of their copyrights, though that's a pretty harsh assessment -- there are other MMOs who surivive and thrive off of unofficial iPhone and desktop apps.
It would be a real shame if Blizzard legal was simply going after fans who have invested a lot of time and effort into these apps even when there's no clear reason for them to do so. Clearing the field for an official app is one thing, but closing down a useful product for your players built solely by your fans just to erase a perceived threat is entirely another.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Blizzard, AddOns, Hardware
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Hoggersbud Apr 29th 2009 11:41PM
Or maybe the armory costs money to operate, and all these iPhone apps are eating up their bandwidth, and Blizzard's just a bit concerned about that.
Liltimmy Apr 29th 2009 11:48PM
Except the people that are using the app would just use the armory site anyway if they didn't have it...might be a slight increase in bandwidth due to these apps but I doubt it's anything substantial.
Mike Schramm Apr 30th 2009 12:02AM
No more than the other Armory-querying sites out there, and as far as we know, Blizzard isn't shutting any of those down. I agree that bandwidth may be a problem, but I doubt it -- there are tons of other services and sites pulling bandwidth off the Armory and Blizzard hasn't gone after any of them.
Hoggersbud Apr 30th 2009 12:14AM
>Except the people that are using the app would just use the
armory site anyway if they didn't have it.
Sure, some of them will use the armory site, some of the time. That's why it is there. Most of the time anyway.
However, most people won't be at their computes as much as they have their iphones with them. Which means they'd use the armory less. So it'd be less of a bother on the bandwidth.
As far as the other services go, maybe they'll receive some letters too. Or maybe Blizzard just accepts their usage as it is somewhat limited compared to the iPhone's. I dunno, not in on the Blizzard decision process. For all we know it's AT&T driving it.
ahac Apr 30th 2009 6:17AM
I thought that one of the reasons why they are using xml is to make it easier for 3rd party apps to access armory data.
Just load a char in armory and look at the webpage source: it's basically asking to be parsed.
rosencratz Apr 30th 2009 6:35AM
Looks to me like they wanted to crack down on the guys selling it for money and the legal team simply went for every iphone app rather than the valued ones
Garviel Apr 30th 2009 9:39AM
That may be, but then how is any IPhone based armory application anydifferent than using Safari (on the IPhone) to browse the armory?
Pulling down a whole web page is going to consume more bandwidththan pulling down the raw data. Depending on how the app is written of course.
F0REM4N Apr 30th 2009 11:50AM
I'd like to point out http://microarmory.com/
Which works just fine on iphone browser and actually better than the ap.
Mohrlock Apr 29th 2009 11:48PM
I'd agree with Hoggers on this as well.
One way I see it is that it will also cause even more traffic to the already over-abused WoW Armory address than there already is.
You've got WoWHeroes, Be.Imba, ArmoryLight & a whole throng of other websites, even those little signatures we use in our forums thanks to Siglaunch.net that all send constant incoming traffic to the site requesting information.
I think Blizzard is just trying to cover themselves here on all bases and not let it crash their Armory server(s) as well as watch out for the legal implications. I guess it's on fair standing that if they won't let people charge for in game addons then why would they allow for people to charge for out-of-game related applications?
Cheese Rations Apr 29th 2009 11:57PM
Didn't Blizzard previously give these Apps the 'OK' as long as they didn't charge for them? I believe that Warcraft Chest or Characters used to cost money but started offering it for free at the request of Blizzard.
idburns Apr 30th 2009 9:02AM
I've been using characters for a while now and the author has never charged for it.
As many have mentioned, Blizzard isn't bothering the web-based armory scrapers...just the iphone "apps". I see this being one of 2 problems:
1) This is all just another Blizzard double-standard. The right hand does one thing and the left hand does the exact opposite
2) Their lawyers are stupid because:
a) they don't know the difference between some that is paid for and something that is free
b) they took the lazy and heavy-handed approach and just sent letters to all the app writers without doing the proper research.
Either way the community is only hurt in the end.
Avan Apr 30th 2009 12:05AM
They're probably going after free apps to be consistent.
As for why they're going after iPhone apps at all, its likely they're trying to protect their users. Everyone knows that a lot of stupid people are out there. Granted, I have no idea what these stupid people would need protection from.
Satn Apr 30th 2009 12:13AM
Blizzard - wait for someone else to have a good idea, then copy that idea.
Hoggersbud Apr 30th 2009 12:19AM
Pft. What good idea did any of the makers of these apps really have?
Take data existing on the web already and export it to the iPhone?
I'm pretty sure that idea pre-dated the iPhone, let alone anybody involved here. It's the same principle as sports scores, weather or traffic information, movie times and the like.
Really, there's nothing innovative or original about it.
Geoff Apr 30th 2009 12:15AM
I still don't see it as being a good thing.
- They're not going after web based armory interfaces
(AFAIK) which are just as vulnerable to deception tactics as any iphone app.
- Even if they're bringing out an awesome do everything iphone app of the future... what if I like my old app better? What's wrong with there being a bit of 'competition' in this area?
Cedrich Apr 30th 2009 12:56AM
I'd bet good money that this was pushed through by Blizzard corporate/Legal and went right over the head of the development /community teams who might actually understand what these applications even do.
Karilyn Apr 30th 2009 6:57AM
I doubt it, Blizzard is a very small company, specifically so they don't have communication problems like that.
More likely, Activision's Legal Department went over the head of Blizzard. Or, simply demanded that Blizzard do it.
MrWee Apr 30th 2009 2:31AM
DAMN!!! I use these all the time!
SelfMadeCelo Apr 30th 2009 2:48AM
Man those are pretty good apps. Hopefully they'll make their way into Cydia...
Neirin Apr 30th 2009 3:39AM
Anyone who thinks this is a bandwidth issue needs a little perspective. Sites like WoW-achievements, warcrafter, all the souped up (or slimmed down) armory sites, WoWJutsu (if anyone still uses it), and the huge number of arena and pve progression sites out there all likely use several times more bandwidth than an app like Characters. The reason being is that these sorts of sites frequently make huge numbers of queries at a time (specifically, I'm thinking of sites where you can search for a guild and any non-cached characters will all be queried simultaneously).
I can sort of understand going after the pay-based apps after they went after addon devs. Maybe the free ones got caught in the crossfire. If going after the freebies isn't just a case of mistaken identity, though, I have to believe they're clearing house for their own app. If they really didn't want people to integrate their armory into other things they wouldn't have written the code for easy export. It also doesn't make much sense from a business standpoint. Common logic says that if people like you more they'll do business with you more and the costs to blizz for these little fan projects is clearly worth it. Hell, just the fact that it's mobile means you can have WoW on your mind more and get yourself more excited to come home and play.