Blizzard Gets DMCA Smackdown From Sony

tdye writes: "Blizzard has apparently released an internal memo banning P2P software inside the company. They've been served by Sony with a DMCA note, based on rampant music sharing inside Blizzard. I guess what goes around, comes around! You can see it on Declan McCullagh's PoliTech website."

Comments

What goes around comes around....

[mestreBimba]

But really how many of us have mp3s on work computers? Quite a few I would imagine. Just think of the liabilty you are posing to your work.

How many have work sponsered mp3 servers? TIme to reconsider that move.

Re:What goes around comes around....

[BlueUnderwear]

That sounds more like an afternoon's work to me.

But that's not what you tell your boss. You do need some time to read Slashdot too, after all...

Re:What goes around comes around....

[DrSkwid]

I suggest you read up on copyright law.
It's a breach of copyright to let anyone but the people who live in your house to hear any music you have purchased. "No public performance" means just that. Playing a CD at work so your colleagues can hear it is an infringement of your license.

So is having people round to watch a video.

All sounds crazy but the letter of the law if restrictive to enable infringments to be easily identified and then the discretion of the judge deals with the rest.

Re:What goes around comes around....

[tdye]

This is not correct. First, in order for you to be liable for damages, you must have made some money from the work you're performing. Second, playing a CD isn't a 'public performance', regardless of where you are. You aren't performing... the artist is. Third, the 'fair use' clause of the copyright law allows you to use, share, quote from, borrow exerpts from, record, and edit copyrighted works as long as you a:don't make any money (or cost the artist any money) and b:give the copyright holder credit for the piece of the work you used.

Re:What goes around comes around....

[DrSkwid]

playing a CD isn't a 'public performance', regardless of where you are. You aren't performing... the artist is.

Sorry but that is exactly wrong.

"Public performance" is playing the CD so that non-license holders of the recorded works can hear it. That means in shops, in pubs and bars and at home.

Third, the 'fair use' clause of the copyright law
Sorry this is England. Fair Use is not defined

Re:What goes around comes around....

[tdye]

I guess that explains it. In the US, playing a recorded song in public isn't a 'performance', it's 'Fair Use'. It's the same as giving a reading of a poet or an author in public. Of course, claiming that you wrote the work is illegal, but reading it aloud (even with an audience) isn't. Charging to listen to a recorded song, though, is illegal. I can play it, but I can't make you pay me to listen.

The Email Itself

[Bouncings]

It seems to me that the email itself, which bans P2P networks, could be damaging. The lawyers could argue that it is kind of an admission of guilt. Ala Microsoft case.

I just love living in a Lawsuit Economy. It's much better than that silly free market.

Okay..

[Sc00ter]

Should Blizzard have tried to kill off bnetd? No.

Should Sony have sent a C&D to Blizzard? Perhaps.

It is okay to share music with your friends? Sure.

Is a P2P network a group of your "friends"? Probably not.

Is bringing MP3s to work okay? Sure, why not.

Is using company time and bandwidth to download and search for MP3s on a P2P network a good idea? uhh, NO, you're at work!

Re:Okay..

[Saeger]

Two points:

1. People spend a lot of time at work "looking busy" - its an artform which is necessary to master if you want to keep your sanity(!)
2. Control-freak managers (like you) who enjoy strangling any personal freedom or 'fun' in the workplace, are ultimately counter-productive. If you want to ban P2P, or music, or personal email, or smoke breaks, etc., by reasoning that it's "your stuff and your time", fine, but don't expect productivity (and your profits) to soar as a result of treating employees like robotic shit.

Years ago I used to work at Microsoft, and was free to do whatever the fuck I wanted as long as I got my work done by the (intentionally short) deadlines set. Microsoft may suck, but their workplace definately does not.
--

Re:Okay..

[Anonymous Coward]

I dont care where you work, you are not free to break the law by pirating other peoples content on p2p networks. You are also not free to waste company bandwidth, or breach security, or install unauthorized software on companyowned computers.

You exist to benefit the company, not indulge yourself at its expense. when you dillydally around you arent helping the bottomline, and a manager has every right to push you to work harder and harder and to take things away from you that dont serve a valid busness function.

You selfish brats need discipline.

Re:Okay..

[Dr Caleb]

Two points right back at you:

1) Look busy if you want to. Just get your work done on time. Doesn't matter to me.

2) Control freak manglers like me have other reasons to ban such things other than "Lets screw the peons because we are evil and we can [insert evil laugh here]". Security, and legal come to mind.

Search KaAzA or Limewire for "resume.doc" or "budget.xls" or "SuicideNote.doc" and see what you get. Most users are dumb and don't know how configure such things. Most VP's are so stunned they can't find their serial port with a map and 3 Sherpa guides, so I don't want them sharing the company's Next-Big-Thing(TM)secrets to the world. So I treat them as such and say a blanket *NO* p2p. Period. They want music, bring CD's or turn on a radio.

As for the legal issues...let's not get into that here. Been done to death.

Big deal.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

This isn't hurting the assholes/lawyers that are trying to squash bnetd though. It's hurting the programmers that wrote great games like war2 and diablo.

Double whammy for us, I would think. You people cuoldn't be more confused about what this really means. What's next, celebrating the death of one of the corporate attourneys, the only one who had the dissenting opinion to just leave bnetd alone(not that there is such a lost soul at Vivendi)?

Policy isnt worded well. (What about samba?)

[Anonymous Coward]

Its funny to watch these sorts of things.. They happen in my company too.. I understand what they are trying to stop, but the policy forbids samba. Its another case of making knives illegal instead of murder. The policy should state:
"DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN TRANSFERRING COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, EXCEPT MATERIAL WHICH IS OWNED BY THE COMPANY".

Dont ban the tool, ban the mis-use of the tool.

But instead the policy bans peer-to-peer file sharing unless those two guys (Mike Morhaime or Paul Sams) are specifically asked...

Check the policy:

POLICY. Peer-to-peer file-sharing programs may not be used on any computers
connected to Blizzard or Blizzard North's networks without the express
written approval of Mike Morhaime or Paul Sams.

For all who are glad

[antistuff]

It seems many of you think this is a good thing because of thier atacking the bnetd project. You all really couldnt be more hypocritical. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Blizzards actions may have been wrong, but so are sonys (arguably). If you are going to condem one instance of it, you should condenm every single action taken by a corporation that tries to limit the freedom of others to protect thier profits. To do otherwise makes you look very dumb.

Your enemy's enemny is not your friend if both are your enemy.

Re:I wonder

[Anonymous Coward]

Your sig is one of the lamest i've ever seen. Really.

MP3s are perfectly legal

[coyote-san]

Quit feeding the trolls. MP3 files are perfectly legal - the MP3 I rip for my personal use to avoid scratching the original disc are no more illegal than the tapes I dub so I can listen to the same songs in my car. The RIAA lawyers may play dumb, but this is clearly covered as fair use.

What's illegal, maybe, is sharing those MP3 with others in your office. Or it may be legal as well - fundamentally no different than people playing their own personal CDs in a community player. This wouldn't be legal in a "commercial establishment," but the latter refers to businesses open the public such as bars and restaurants, not offices.

Sony could be right.....

[Slurpee]

I find it hard to argue that Sony is wrong in this instance.

They own those songs. People are illegally distributing them over the internet. They shouldn't be.

This isn't an internal MP3 server at Blizzard that employees can backup/store their songs on and play. This is people in Blizzard who are publically sharing songs over the internet.

Sony is sending Blizzard a warning message IE "just in case you didn't know, people on your network (details provided) are engaged in illegal activities".

Re:Sony et.al are winning

[dmomo]

Well, this seems reasonable. More so because of upload speeds. If a DSL user has ADSL, chances are, their upload speed is cruddy. While, I can download a good-quality DIVX in about two or three hours at 80bs or 90kbs, it the host is fast enough, it will take a long time for someone to download it from me at 8kbs-20kbs.

Enter a P2P such as Grokster that lets you download from multiple users simutaneously. Now my bandwidth is only a piece of someones download speed. Still, without these fast hosts, slower users will have to become more saturated. Things will be slower overall.