EFF Takes Bnetd Case

An anonymous reader sent in: "As reported three previous times, Blizzard is attempting to squash the Battle.net emulator and open source bnetd project. The EFF has taken the case. Read the press release. LawMeme also has a satiric fable."

Comments

"Freedom" of thievery? Indeed.

[theonomist]

Blizzard has put a lot of money into creating a valuable commercial property. Why is it valuable? Because customers want it. Any service that people are willing to pay for is, by definition, valuable. In creating value, Blizzard has created jobs. This is the equation of capitalism: Value begets value. Creation begets creation. A free capitalist system rewards those who create value.

BNETD belongs to a competing model, the parasite system (called by some a "gift economy", meaning that creative members of society are coerced into providing the fruits of their labor as a "gift" to those unable or unwilling to create value). Their aim is to siphon off the value created by Blizzard, thereby, in effect, punishing Blizzard for creating value.

You can make any excuses you like, but that's what they're doing. I understand that people don't like to pay for things. Who does? Everybody likes to get something for nothing. If somebody wants to give away a service for free, that's just fine, too: It's their service. In a free society they may do as they please with it. However: Doing as you please with somebody else's service is a different matter.

It is perfectly appropriate for Blizzard to see legal redress when they are victimized by criminals.

Re:"Freedom" of thievery? Indeed.

[erasmus_]

Do you people NOT understand that reverse engineering is legal, and completely allowed

Were you asleep when DMCA got passed somehow? As pointed out in the argument summary and many posts on here, this law made reverse engineering very illegal in most cases, and this law has been tested in courts. Please don't talk down to "us people" when you don't understand the legal grounds on which Blizzard is making their argument.

How the heck can it be bad to offer people MORE ways to play a game you're selling?!?

Yes, Blizzard is very stupid. When 10 of my buddies and I use our warez'ed ISO copies to setup our own Battle.Net implementation with our keygen'ed keys, I definitely see how Blizzard makes MORE money.

Linkified for the Lazy

[EricKrout.com]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-03 -04&res=l

monolinux.com :: Beware the Penguins (doobie doobie do...)

Getting there

[quantaman]

As reported three previous times,
Well at least they're taking a proactive approach to repeat stories now! (and Yes I know that this article with the EFF thing is new but c'mon, can't you just pretend:)