zatoicchi
16.07.08, 06:05
Blizzard has emerged partially victorious from its case against Michael Donnelly of MDY Industries, the creator of the advanced WoW-playing bot program MMOGlider (originally known as WoWGlider) thanks to a summary judgment handed out yesterday. US District Court Judge David Campbell has ruled that, yes, Glider does actually violate Blizzard's copyright, but that MDY's tool did not violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as Blizzard claims it does.
Campbell's ruling (hat tip to Virtually Blind) essentially boils down to the fact that use of Glider is prohibited by World of WarCraft's license, and thus violates Blizzard's copyright. "Blizzard owns a valid copyright in the game client software, Blizzard has granted a limited license for WoW players to use the software," Campbell wrote. "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."
Blizzard's case against MDY has been well-documented since it was filed in 2006. It started with a representative from Vivendi-Universal showing up at Donnelly's door, demanding that he shut down his operation and return all profits from Glider's sales. Since Glider goes for $25 and over 100,000 copies have been sold, Donnelly was less than-than-thrilled by that idea. Calling Blizzard's tactics "audacious threats," he decided to duke it out with the game developer in court.
Popular WoW automation tool infringes Blizzard's copyright (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080715-popular-wow-automation-tool-infringes-blizzards-copyright.html)
Campbell's ruling (hat tip to Virtually Blind) essentially boils down to the fact that use of Glider is prohibited by World of WarCraft's license, and thus violates Blizzard's copyright. "Blizzard owns a valid copyright in the game client software, Blizzard has granted a limited license for WoW players to use the software," Campbell wrote. "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."
Blizzard's case against MDY has been well-documented since it was filed in 2006. It started with a representative from Vivendi-Universal showing up at Donnelly's door, demanding that he shut down his operation and return all profits from Glider's sales. Since Glider goes for $25 and over 100,000 copies have been sold, Donnelly was less than-than-thrilled by that idea. Calling Blizzard's tactics "audacious threats," he decided to duke it out with the game developer in court.
Popular WoW automation tool infringes Blizzard's copyright (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080715-popular-wow-automation-tool-infringes-blizzards-copyright.html)