Blizzard taking legal action vs. the creator of "Glider"

[Itzena]

Originally Posted by Wizarddeath

I hope it goes to court, and blizzards EULA gets proven illegal just as other games EULA has been.

Blizzard's EULAs have gone to court already, and have been proven legally binding already, and have been appealled already, and found legally binding on appeal already.

Do try to keep up.

[Composter]

Originally Posted by Itzena

Blizzard's EULAs have gone to court already, and have been proven legally binding already, and have been appealled already, and found legally binding on appeal already.

Do try to keep up.

I'm assuming that you're talking about the Bnet issue, and what was held up was not the EULA but rather the DMCA law. That the people had violated the EULA by reverse engineering to bypass Blizzard's copyright/anti-piracy protections was considered an aggravating factor, but the simple truth of the matter is that they were prosecuted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which is already considered law.

Any EULA is not a law, and therefore can not supercede a law. For example, I can sign a contract with someone that says it is all right to kill me. I can get it witnessed and notarized, and add in a lot of legaleeze that would prevent anyone from holding charges against the person who killed me. However, when that person kills me, the state will still get him on at minimum manslaughter charges. The contract may contribute to a lower sentence, but the fact that the person BROKE A LAW still stands.

[Wizarddeath]

Originally Posted by Composter

I'm assuming that you're talking about the Bnet issue, and what was held up was not the EULA but rather the DMCA law. That the people had violated the EULA by reverse engineering to bypass Blizzard's copyright/anti-piracy protections was considered an aggravating factor, but the simple truth of the matter is that they were prosecuted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which is already considered law.

Any EULA is not a law, and therefore can not supercede a law. For example, I can sign a contract with someone that says it is all right to kill me. I can get it witnessed and notarized, and add in a lot of legaleeze that would prevent anyone from holding charges against the person who killed me. However, when that person kills me, the state will still get him on at minimum manslaughter charges. The contract may contribute to a lower sentence, but the fact that the person BROKE A LAW still stands.

Correct, this is the US, NO company is a island to themselves. I can make a law saying it's ok to kill someone in my home, but in reality its not, Im not a president or US supreme court justice. There's quite a few gliders who have made quite a bit of gold already willing to contribute to Merc's cause, so while he may not have as much money as blizzard, he could sure put up a decent fight and drag it out for aslong as he wanted, unless they just paid him off.

I actually think blizzard should incorporate glider into there system and just buy the rights. Just put some restrictions on it, like only 2 glided lvls per day or some shit.

[Furism]

Originally Posted by Tasso

From what I read theres a proxy to decode the information from the server to the client, This is not a public protocol so decoding it is breaching the dcma.

Duh? Isn't that called reverse engineering and perfectly legal?

[Lenardo]

my 2c

i hate bots- period.

that said- IF merc did not pay taxes on the income generated via selling the keys to his program, he is going to get fucked up by the irs by the end of the court case.

blizzard is well within their rights- as the owner of the ip property- to go after merc - since he sells a program designed to cheat in their ip property, will there be jail time for THIS? nope, a monetary fine- yes.

i do not think blizzard has lost a case yet when suing to get people shut down, and the only other goldseller/hacker case i know of was daoc where the defendant lost the case (i think by not showing up- black ice/snow or something like that was the "company" that was doing it)

if merc wins the case- he loses because lawyer fees and the fact that blizzard will actively prevent his program from working in the game.

if merc loses the case- he loses because if lawyer fees and penalties he has to pay to blizzard..

[Wizarddeath]

Originally Posted by Lenardo

my 2c

i hate bots- period.

that said- IF merc did not pay taxes on the income generated via selling the keys to his program, he is going to get fucked up by the irs by the end of the court case.

blizzard is well within their rights- as the owner of the ip property- to go after merc - since he sells a program designed to cheat in their ip property, will there be jail time for THIS? nope, a monetary fine- yes.

i do not think blizzard has lost a case yet when suing to get people shut down, and the only other goldseller/hacker case i know of was daoc where the defendant lost the case (i think by not showing up- black ice/snow or something like that was the "company" that was doing it)

if merc wins the case- he loses because lawyer fees and the fact that blizzard will actively prevent his program from working in the game.

if merc loses the case- he loses because if lawyer fees and penalties he has to pay to blizzard..

You sir are incorrect. If Merc wins the case- He wins. Blizzard has attempted to stop this program many times in the past, and failed. They may detect them, but he always comes back. Blizzard should actually GIVE MERC HIS SHARE OF THERE BOX SALES. Because if it wasnt for his program 100's of people wouldnt of been banned and rebought boxes.

If merc loses the case- No problem, theyll be another bot site up within a few weeks, and well be good to go. Make a game thats good, and people wont cheat =)

[TKarrde]

Originally Posted by Furism

Duh? Isn't that called reverse engineering and perfectly legal?

Actually, no. Since the DMCA, reverse engineering a program and then coding it based off of that is illegal. (Go go evil lawmakers!). What people have to do now is called "Clean room" reverse engineering, which involves two people. One person who reverse engineers the program, and then learns how it functions, etc. They then write a specification sheet, and give it over to a coder, who creates new code based on that.

It's an absolutely ridiculous law that should be repealed.

There are statutes on the books that could very well land Merc in deep shit. All of them are knee jerk reactions to various things, and none of them should be allowed in our legal system. It's a complete joke.

[TKarrde]

Originally Posted by Composter

I'm assuming that you're talking about the Bnet issue, and what was held up was not the EULA but rather the DMCA law. That the people had violated the EULA by reverse engineering to bypass Blizzard's copyright/anti-piracy protections was considered an aggravating factor, but the simple truth of the matter is that they were prosecuted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which is already considered law.

Any EULA is not a law, and therefore can not supercede a law. For example, I can sign a contract with someone that says it is all right to kill me. I can get it witnessed and notarized, and add in a lot of legaleeze that would prevent anyone from holding charges against the person who killed me. However, when that person kills me, the state will still get him on at minimum manslaughter charges. The contract may contribute to a lower sentence, but the fact that the person BROKE A LAW still stands.

As much as I hate Itzena (All he/she does is sackride WoW and Eve, and make condescending posts about other MMOs.), he/she is right. The EULA did come into play, though it wasn't anywhere near the scale of the DMCA in the proceedings.

EFF: Blizzard v. BNETD

[TKarrde]

Originally Posted by Itzena

Blizzard's EULAs have gone to court already, and have been proven legally binding already, and have been appealled already, and found legally binding on appeal already.

Do try to keep up.

And other EULAs have proven invalid. The ones involving bnetd were upheld in court - yes. But they were a very tiny part of the proceedings. The major reason that the court ruled in Blizzard's favor is that Bnetd allowed players to play Blizzard's games without paying for them. Glider does no such thing.

[Sheaf]

Originally Posted by Wizarddeath

I actually think blizzard should incorporate glider into there system and just buy the rights. Just put some restrictions on it, like only 2 glided lvls per day or some shit.

Originally Posted by Wizarddeath

Blizzard should actually GIVE MERC HIS SHARE OF THERE BOX SALES. Because if it wasnt for his program 100's of people wouldnt of been banned and rebought boxes.

Thank you for the laughs. It has been a long, long time since I have read anything quite so idiotic on these boards. And that is saying a lot.

[Kaxmax]

Originally Posted by Wizarddeath

Make a game thats good, and people wont cheat =)

So you don't like the game, yet you pay a monthly subscription and re-buy the game when banned. How the fuck does that make any sense?

Here's a novel idea...if you don't like the game, stop playing. It's fascinating to me that the glider retards think they're sticking it to the man (Blizzard) while they continue to buy copies of the game and pay subscription fees.

[brekk]

Why do people keep bringing the EULA into this argument?

He made a third party piece of software that OTHER people use with the game. He is not the one willingly breaking the EULA. He just gives other people the means to break it.

[Parabola]

So are you saying he created the software and repeatedly circumvented the detection systems put into place by never playing wow?

[frott]

Originally Posted by Parabola

So are you saying he created the software and repeatedly circumvented the detection systems put into place by never playing wow?

His punishment is to subscribe to and play WoW.

*Sounds gavel*

[Parabola]

play it or glide it? haha