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Saturday, March 22, 2008
Blizzard vs. MDY (MMO Glider)
I'm afraid this will cause another big debate, but this is actual news: Both Blizzard and MDY Industries, the makers of Glider (previously called WoW Glider) filed motions for summary judgment yesterday, another step in their ongoing legal battle. You can find documents on the MMOGlider website: version 1 and version 2. I'm not legal expert enough to even explain what a "motion for summary judgement" is, I figured it is a request to find for or against before a real trial even starts. But what is interesting is that these documents are relatively readable even for a non-lawyer, and contain a range of interesting facts.
For example there are interesting details on how Blizzard's Warden software and another utility called Scan.dll work. It also contains this interesting tidbit on banning: "Blizzard does not ban, nor has it ever banned the licensee itself. If Blizzard bans a licensee’s account, the licensee may immediately sign up for a new account using the licensee’s name and same credit card number that it previously used for the banned account." People don't get banned, accounts are.
Blizzard is asking for damages because:
a) Because Glider can help advance a character’s level faster, Blizzard loses revenue from a licensee who uses Glider because of a shortened monthly subscription time;Blizzard's expert witness Dr. Edward Castronova argued that these bases damage Blizzard in the amount of twenty million dollars per year. Obviously MDY's expert witness doesn't agree, pointing out that not only is there no way to quantify these damages, Blizzard themselves recently shortened the time it takes to reach level 70. They also say that Glider is not the only unauthorized third party program, and Blizzard can't just sue one of them for all the cost for employees hunting down all of them.
b) Because a portion of Blizzard’s licensee’s oppose the use of botting programs such as Glider, many people quit in frustration thereby causing Blizzard to lose revenue;
c) Because the gaming world perceives people who use Glider as having an unfair advantage, many potential WoW players choose not to play WoW thereby causing Blizzard to lose revenue;
d) Glider users can use the software to “farm gold” in WoW, which damages the WoW game economy thereby causing people to quit the game;
e) Blizzard must pay employees to deal with complaints about bot programs; and
f) Blizzard must pay employees to locate Glider users in the WoW game environment and verify Glider detections from Warden so Blizzard can ban such accounts.
Even more interesting is MDY's claim that while the use of Glider is cheating and breaks the EULA and TOU, it is not a copyright infringement, because a) WoW can be copied freely anyway, and b) Glider doesn't make unauthorized copies of the game or circumvents any sort of copy protection measures. They say that Glider only does things that somebody playing 24/7 could also do, it's just a "bot", not duping or hacking anything.
The legal outcome of all this, if there will be one, should be interesting to watch.
- posted by Tobold @ 5:08 AM Permanent Link
Comments:
"Blizzard does not ban, nor has it ever banned the licensee itself. If Blizzard bans a licensee’s account, the licensee may immediately sign up for a new account using the licensee’s name and same credit card number that it previously used for the banned account."
Blizzard's credibility has now been
flushed.
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The interesting bit is that Glider only does what another person would do (but 24/7) and doesn't actually do anything to hack anything...
...and the other bit is that Blizzard doesn't actually take any real action against someone exploiting the system beyond banning a serial key.
As long as the makers of Glider realise users of their application may be banned, I'm not sure what Blizzard's legal case is - they themselves agree that they don't hold a "person" accountable for the actions of any characters.
And I haven't yet heard of anyone quitting over frustration of botting; perhaps over Blizzard's inability to permanently ban botters. And perhaps if they banned credit card holders, a lot of these problems would go away.
...and the other bit is that Blizzard doesn't actually take any real action against someone exploiting the system beyond banning a serial key.
As long as the makers of Glider realise users of their application may be banned, I'm not sure what Blizzard's legal case is - they themselves agree that they don't hold a "person" accountable for the actions of any characters.
And I haven't yet heard of anyone quitting over frustration of botting; perhaps over Blizzard's inability to permanently ban botters. And perhaps if they banned credit card holders, a lot of these problems would go away.
This makes Blizzard sound like an incredibly uptight company, and not something I'd like to give my money to. Which I am not anyway, but one more reason on the list of reasons why I won't play WoW.
# posted by 
: 22/3/08 12:27
: 22/3/08 12:27"Blizzard does not ban, nor has it ever banned the licensee itself. If Blizzard bans a licensee’s account, the licensee may immediately sign up for a new account using the licensee’s name and same credit card number that it previously used for the banned account."
Blizzard's credibility has now been
flushed.
# posted by : 22/3/08 14:58
: 22/3/08 14:58
tobold
your credibility is going lower and lower each day. first racism, then RMT and NDA breaker. are you doing this because you are not invited in some mmorpg beta ?
your credibility is going lower and lower each day. first racism, then RMT and NDA breaker. are you doing this because you are not invited in some mmorpg beta ?
# posted by : 22/3/08 16:50
: 22/3/08 16:50
A motion for summary judgment is ususally filed by both sides as an opening. Both sides will allege that there are no factual issues, and that based on the plaintiffs pleading and defendents reponse, the case can be adjudicated.
Reading through the defendent's response, and what Blizzard is arguing, my humble opinion is that both parties motions will be denied and it will go on to discovery. Based on the allegation and response, I'd say quite a few issues of fact exist.
Since this is in Federal Court, don't hold your breath for any final outcome, at least not for the next year and a half...if you're lucky.
One interesting thing I saw is that the defendent's actually use wikipedia as a reference. That may not be malpractice, but it sure the hell isn't professional. I can't imagine why an attorney would do that, since wikipedia isn't an established, reputable source of information.
I can just imagine the judge who reads the motions not having a clue about what the hell they are saying. Good thing the clerks do all the work anyway. If they are gamers, they're probably excited.
Reading through the defendent's response, and what Blizzard is arguing, my humble opinion is that both parties motions will be denied and it will go on to discovery. Based on the allegation and response, I'd say quite a few issues of fact exist.
Since this is in Federal Court, don't hold your breath for any final outcome, at least not for the next year and a half...if you're lucky.
One interesting thing I saw is that the defendent's actually use wikipedia as a reference. That may not be malpractice, but it sure the hell isn't professional. I can't imagine why an attorney would do that, since wikipedia isn't an established, reputable source of information.
I can just imagine the judge who reads the motions not having a clue about what the hell they are saying. Good thing the clerks do all the work anyway. If they are gamers, they're probably excited.
Oh please Tobold, delete a LOT more comments please please. Then hopefully the trolls would finally get so indignant over your actions, that they really would leave.
# posted by : 22/3/08 18:51
: 22/3/08 18:51
What's with all the idiocy and hate? I didn't agree with Tobold's RMT interview, but the venomous attacks are completely over the top.
Jamie Rs said...
your credibility is going lower and lower each day. first racism, then RMT and NDA breaker. are you doing this because you are not invited in some mmorpg beta ?
Racism? Do you realize how you sound when you make a silly remake like that?
Jamie Rs said...
your credibility is going lower and lower each day. first racism, then RMT and NDA breaker. are you doing this because you are not invited in some mmorpg beta ?
Racism? Do you realize how you sound when you make a silly remake like that?
# posted by : 22/3/08 19:08
: 22/3/08 19:08
a) Because Glider can help advance a character’s level faster, Blizzard loses revenue from a licensee who uses Glider because of a shortened monthly subscription time;
I find this reason kind of funny, although it is true of any game that people can get bored and stop playing more quickly if they play through more quickly, it is interesting to see an up front descriptions that the game is designed to be drawn out, and that the content isn't good enough to repat enough to make the shortened playing times negligible in terms of income.
I find this reason kind of funny, although it is true of any game that people can get bored and stop playing more quickly if they play through more quickly, it is interesting to see an up front descriptions that the game is designed to be drawn out, and that the content isn't good enough to repat enough to make the shortened playing times negligible in terms of income.
Well me personally, i think blizzard are a bunch of wankas, that cant control there own game. When they talk about revenue, maybe they should ask wow players, if they would like too add MMO glider, to lvl them faster. Especially from lvl 1 - 70. Blizzard should give a option to purchase this item, so that gives revenue to blizzard, and helps the customers, to get where he is trying - A OPTION, to have MMO or NOT. let the Players choose. Remember lots of us want to play wow 24hrs, but cant, health reasons etc, with MMO, this could resolve the issue
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# posted by : 6/8/08 14:21
: 6/8/08 14:21<< Home
