Intellectual property in game hints

CNET has an interesting story about Blizzard being sued by a guy selling hint guides for WoW. Basically the guy put together a "book" in pdf format, with hints on how to level and make gold faster, and was selling it on EBay. Blizzard was trying to stop him, by claiming copyright infringements, and made EBay stop the auctions and ban the guy as seller. So now he sues Blizzard, claiming that the use of screenshots etc. in his guide constitutes "fair use".

He is supported by a public interest advocacy group, who argue that "in effect, if the video game industry's actions are upheld, then selling a how-to book about Microsoft Word would infringe Microsoft's copyright, especially if the book contained one or more screenshots of Word's user interface."

Now I'm not a big fan of people selling unofficial hint guides, because they usually just have a bunch of information that the buyer of the book could have gotten for free from a number of fan sites, or even by reading this blog. But I do agree that writing *about* World of Warcraft is not a copyright infringement, even if screenshots are used. Sites like Thottbot or Allakhazam make money by advertising revenue or premium subscriptions, and all they offer is secondary information about games. Just like the guy selling a hundred copy of a $15 hint guide, just in a bigger style. I don't think that can be illegal. And going after the small guy is a sure way to bad publicity.
- posted by Tobold @ 7:20 AM Permanent Link