'Warcraft' maker wins round in exploit 'bot lawsuit
A federal judge has sided with the maker of World of Warcraft in its attempt to shut down a third-party application that allows players to advance more quickly in the game than they normally could.
Blizzard Entertainment won a partial victory on Monday when a court granted its request for summary judgment on copyright infringement grounds. Blizzard is suing Michael Donnelly of MDY Industries, which sells the WoWGlider (or MMO Glider) utility for $25 and has sold some 100,000 copies.
U.S. District Judge David Campbell ruled that because using the Glider 'bot is prohibited by Blizzard's World of Warcraft license, "Glider users therefore infringe Blizzard's copyright."
A scene from Burning Crusade, Blizzard Entertainment's first major expansion to its venerable World of Warcraft game.
(Credit: Blizzard Entertainment)He did, however, reject part of Blizzard's attempts to invoke the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's controversial anti-circumvention sections against Donnelly. (The DMCA follows a parallel track to traditional copyright law, meaning it's possible to infringe a copyright without violating the DMCA too.)
The lawsuit represents Blizzard's attempts to continue by legal means what it has been trying to do for years through technical methods.
Because World of Warcraft is so sprawling and popular--with something like 10 million active players and $1.5 billion in annual revenue--players have a strong incentive to find ways to cheat, "farm" gold, or advance in character levels more rapidly than the game's designers intended. Blizzard responded with a utility called Warden, which tries to detect illicit third-party programs.
The case is relatively unusual in that it attracted an amicus brief filed by Public Knowledge, a group that advocates scaling back copyright law. It said that Blizzard's copyright theory was overly broad and dangerous.
In his opinion, Judge Campbell in Arizona wrote: "Although the Court appreciates these policy arguments and has benefitted from their excellent presentation, the Court is not a policy-making body. The Court's obligation is to apply the law, particularly the law of the Ninth Circuit... No matter how persuasive arguments might be for positions contrary to Ninth Circuit law, this Court is not free to depart from that law."
In October 2006, Blizzard representatives visited Donnelly and asked him to stop distributing his software. He replied later that day with a lawsuit asking the judge to rule that Glider was perfectly legal; Blizzard then filed a countersuit alleging copyright, trademark, and DMCA infringement.
Neither side prevailed entirely in this round. Blizzard won summary judgment in its copyright claims; Donnelly won summary judgment on part of the DMCA claim. The rest will be resolved later, meaning the case continues until there's a settlement--or a trial and eventual verdict.
Read on for some excerpts from the court opinion:
The Court reaches the following conclusions on the basis of undisputed facts, construction of the EULA and TOU, and controlling Ninth Circuit law: Blizzard owns a valid copyright in the game client software, Blizzard has granted a limited license for WoW players to use the software, use of the software with Glider falls outside the scope of the license established in section 4 of the TOU, use of Glider includes copying to RAM within the meaning of section 106 of the Copyright Act, users of WoW and Glider are not entitled to a section 117 defense, and Glider users therefore infringe Blizzard's copyright. MDY does not dispute that the other requirements for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement are met, nor has MDY established a misuse defense. The Court accordingly will grant summary judgment in favor of Blizzard with respect to liability on the contributory and vicarious copyright infringement claims in Counts II and III.
Blizzard alleges that MDY has violated the DMCA. Specifically, Blizzard claims that MDY traffics in technological products, services, devices, or components designed to circumvent technological measures Blizzard has put in place to control access to its copyrighted work and to protect its rights as the copyright owner of WoW. Blizzard moves for summary judgment on all of its DMCA claims. MDY moves for summary judgment on Blizzard's claim under 17 U.S.C. ? 1201(a)(2). The Court will grant MDY's motion insofar as it applies to Blizzard's game client software code, but deny the motions in all other respects.
1. The parties' motions for summary judgment (Dkt. ##39, 45) are granted in part and denied in part. The Court grants summary judgment in favor of Blizzard with respect to MDY's liability for tortious interference (Count I) and contributory and vicarious copyright infringement (Counts II-III); grants summary judgment in favor of MDY on the portion of the DMCA claim (Count IV) that is based on 17 U.S.C. ? 1201(a)(2) and applies to Blizzard's game client software code; grants summary judgment in favor of MDY on the unfair competition claim (Count VI); and denies summary judgment on the unjust enrichment claim (Count VII).
Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent, chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says, "We oughta have a new federal law against this." E-mail Declan. 
A case that states that copyright law forbids copying software into computer memory so that it can be altered. Who would have thought! What's next, a trademark case that forbids use of someone else's mark in a trade?
The cheating software guy has $2.5 million in revenues, can you say settlement?
Copyright implies distribution... it wasn't designed for you not to remember a book that you read, to recall a photograph that you saw. When you get a game, it comes on DVD, it will be copied into your computers memory....moron.
Hahaha per you computer memory=person's memory. Oh OK. I disagree. Even if it did, it is copyright infringement to read a book, remember it, then copy the contents from memory to a new book. That's how all copyright infringement starts and it's exactly what these people are doing.
They take COPYRIGHTED code, copy it in computer memory, then they change it (to do the cheating). Lastly, YEP they distribute the changes since they sold 100,000 copies of this stuff. If that ain't distribution then I don't know what is. So even in your strange notion of copyright, these people infringe. Who's the moron now?
gem
It will be altered, it will come in 4:3, it can be zoomed, it can be panned and scanned.
The idea that copyright prevents that is ludicrous. People talk...talking heads, don't know what they are talking about.
I agree with the Ninth Circuit...they don't write the law, and we just went through about 8 years of disastrous lawmaking....we need new lawmakers, with sensible heads, to rewrite most of the copyright laws.
We posted a blog post on this over at GameRates.com on what this means for some other ToS/EULA violators such as virtual currency sellers.
"What does this mean for the gold industry however?
First off it may embolden Blizzard to actually take on major gold sellers in the courtroom. However, this could be a very dangerous move as if they lost or perhaps a U.S court found that virtual currency has real worth it could awake the sleeping giant of legal problems. For example if Blizzard bans someone accidently, or it?s servers crash, or they nerf an item all which destroy virtual goods (with real legal value) in the process one may be able to sue Blizzard for these ?real? damages caused. For this and many other reasons we doubt that such a case will arise although the reverse may be true (a gold farmer suing blizzard for preventing them from selling its legally acquired in-game goods for cash outside the game). For those of you that have been around for a while you may remember the BlackSnow Case against Mythic where such a thing happened.
Still the scary thing is the wide ruling that violating a Terms of Service (ToS) or End User License Agreement (EULA) that you haphazardly click every time you play the game can be counted as copyright infringement. An EULA can say virtually anything it wishes. Does violating any part of it really count as copyright infringement? If you choose to farm items by hand using normal game mechanics without interfering with anyone else and then you mail the items you acquire to another person that is fine (it would be considered ?twinking? a friend or new character), yet if you do the same action and the person sends you $10 through PayPal for the gift is it then considered a copyright violation because it violates Blizzards ToS?
That?s ridiculous and as such we don?t see the case ever being applied to the virtual currency market.
In fact we think that if the case is appealed it has a very good chance of being reversed. It?s simply too broad in its scope"
Q: Is using Glider cause for suspension/ban?
A: Yes, Glider is against the Terms of Service as provided by Blizzard for World of Warcraft.
This is a Q&A from their own website. They admit they are violating TOS they are not the underdog they are parasite that thrives on the host that supports them. Without the host they die but they harm the host as they thrive. Good for Blizzard for going after the source instead of trying to run around swating at every little flea.
soy edwin ok
- by Chaotic84 February 13, 2009 9:23 PM PST
- in reponse to VirginiaLewis comment.. first have you ever even played the game..? Let us look at the facts here. There are millions of games out there Wow, Pogo, Yahoo etc... all have cheat programs for there games that you can buy, For instance "Playbuddy" but they don't get sued do they? because they payt a portion to yahoo and pogo each year so yahoo and pogo doesn't press charges. - they make money why would they?
- Reply to this comment
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(15 Comments)Now let's look at blizzard, they ban and close thousands of accounts each year just because they can, they even say it in ther TOS. Now is it fair for those thousands of players who didn't cheat, played the game fairly and spent hours upon hours , weeks upon months of leveling there character just to lose there account so they have to pay for the game, and expansions again just to start over? No it's not but can you do anything about it? no because you aggree to it when you sign up. MMo glider makes 25$ for there program for people who want to get past the painful hours of leveling , cause unless ur 80 the game isn't fun- you can't do raids, you can do arenas etc. blizzard made it that way so people would push hours of playing to get to the point it's fun, MMo glider simple helps you get there faster. Now granted people use it for the wrong reason, farming gold etc BUT!!!!! Mmoglider does not force you to buy or use it, and people need to take responsibility for there own actions not the people who create the program, they are trying to make a living and money just like the tabaco companys that sell ciggaretts. Ya smoking kills you but they still make millions off it each year, so how many of you ******** about a programmer making money because it gives players a boost in leveling but sit there and smoke till you get cancer? morals are the same..
Also you quoted there website that they said yes useing mmoglider is against Blizzard terms... thats them taking responsibility and letting you know, if you choose to buy it anyways and use it then it becomes your resposibility not theirs, they gave you the heads up.
Fyi heres the full warning not just a part of it
""Yes, Glider is against the Terms of Service as provided by Blizzard for World of Warcraft. If you are detected using Glider, your account will be suspended for 72 hours and very likely banned completely. While Glider does not violate any of the terms listed under Blizzard's "Client/Server Manipulation Policy", it is still a third-party program and their Terms of Service are very open in what falls under that definition, meaning they can find you in violation for pretty much anything they want""
^^^^ MMoglider does not break the TOS because they aren't useing it on the game you are...
And one last thing..
World of warcraft = 20$
Expansion Burning Crusade =25$
Expansion Wrath of the Lich king = 45$
Monthly Fee for playing =15$
now if my caculations are correct and it don't take a rocket scientist to figure out that blizzard makes alot more money everytime they bann someone for useing MMoglider and that person has to buy all the games and a motnhly fee again. So MMoglider makes 25$ and blizzard makes just over 90$ in the Cd Keys itself.. for each customer so how exactly is blizzard loseing any kinda money here, and since when it become Chaos to have a idea to make a program that helps people while it makes you money? if u had the know how and the idea to do it first you would have in a second.
As even MMo glider states and i back this up 100%, What is worth more , time or money?.. 25$ u get glider you level up to 80 while u continue doing your daily life, then when you hit 80 you can play the game and have fun, if you choose to speend over 500+ hours getting to 80 then unless you have no life ytou should hit it about next year.. like stated above and on the site, you don't have to use this program and blaming glider and sueing them because blizzard customers broke the TOS even tho it was stated on the site is stupid and you people need to stop blaming the wrong people and take responsibility for yourself, not use it and then blame the company.