EULA Confusion w/ Used Copies of WoW?

egburr asks: "I just purchased a used retail box of World of Warcraft. After reading the EULA in the manual and the Terms of Use, I expected to be up and playing quickly. I soon ran into a problem. I haven't even installed the software yet, since the first thing I have to do is go online and create a user account and then subscribe to play. Simple enough? I thought so too, until I tried entering the Authentication Key found on the CD case. This produced an error that my key had already been used. Note that it says 'already been used,' not 'currently in use.'" Note that section 3B in the EULA explicitly grants its users the ability to transfer the physical property and "all of your rights and obligations under the License Agreement", presumably including the Authentication Key which is needed when creating a new account. What Blizzard expressly disallows is the transfer of accounts, according to Section 1E of their Terms of Use, which is not at issue here. Apparently, Blizzard is allowing each Authentication Key to be used only once, preventing anyone with a used copy of the game from creating a new account. Is Blizzard violating the terms of their own EULA? "I have contacted Blizzard about this and have had a very interesting conversation with the Billing department, first by phone and then by email.

They keep telling me they will not transfer an account. I keep telling them I do not want an account transferred, but want to create my own account. What appears to be the final answer is that 'an authentication key can only be used once, regardless of the number of owners.'

This is not stated anywhere in the EULA or Terms of Use. If it is, I have been unable to find it, and *Blizzard has repeatedly ignored my request that they identify where in the EULA or Terms of Use this is stated.*

I have the complete retail package, including the CD case with the Authentication Key. So what if it is has been used in the past? Whatever happened to the first-sale doctrine?

At one point, the Blizzard representative likened my request to buying an empty milk jug and returning to the store to demand more milk for free so I can use the jug. This is an incredibly inept analogy. What Blizzard is doing is allowing only the original purchaser of the jug to buy a refill; anyone else who happens to buy or be given the jug is prohibited from buying more milk to put in it.

Another item of interest is that the representative told me that they can not, for any reason, delete an account, not even at the account owner's request. The most they can do is to suspend the account. Unfortunately, that keeps a record of the Authentication Key in their system, preventing that key from ever being used again.

While the EULA expressly permits permanent transfer of ownership of the game to another person, nowhere does either the EULA or the Terms of Use mention that such a transfer makes the game completely useless because Blizzard will not allow the new owner to use the game; the game cannot be played without an online account and a subscription to the service, and Blizzard will not even allow the account to be created.

You might say the "easy" answer is to get the seller to give me the account info for the account he created. However, according to Blizzard's representative, not all of the original account information can be modified. In fact, enough would be unchangable that the original owner of the account would be able to regain control of the account at any time, should he desire to do so.

I had no expectation that a used copy of the game would be such a problem. After all, even all of Blizzard's previous games (Warcraft 2, Starcraft, BroodWar) had keys that could be used and passed on while maintaining the reasonable restriction that only one instance of the key could be used at any one time. (I have never bought or played Warcraft 3, so I do not know about it.) In fact, I bought my copy of Starcraft used and never had any trouble with it.

I am not trying to cheat Blizzard out of anything. I *want* to pay them for a monthly subscription so I can play the game, but they will not allow it solely because at some point in the past someone else has used what is now my copy of the game.

So here's a warning to everyone out there; be very careful if you are thinking about buying a used copy of World of Warcraft. You may have a complete and legitimate set of all the game materials, but you will not be able to play it.

For all the lawyers, and the many IANALs, out there, what do you think of the chances of a lawsuit succeeding to change Blizzard's stance on this? Would anyone else be interested in taking this on with me?"

A question that comes to mind is whether the seller fulfilled all three parts of the Termination clause, section 5 of the EULA. If the seller failed to notify Blizzard of intention to terminate, it could be argued that the seller's licenses remain in effect and thus new license could not be given to the buyer of the used game. But one would hope Blizzard's customer service would at least make this clear to the buyer.

Comments

EULAs are out of hand

[windowpain]

Can legislation be far behind?

Re:EULAs are out of hand

[eno2001]

Slightly off topic, but... Actually, I'm hoping there will be legislation of EULAs with severe penalties. I'm sick of seeing jackasses with unopened copies of Windows XP that were sold with a system installing them on another system. The license for Windows explicitly locks the OS and the hardware it was sold with together permanently. This is a GOOD thing because it prevents assholes from installing the same copy of windows on every machine they own and giving it to their friends and family as well. That's theft and it is inexcusable.

The same goes for applications. If you buy a copy of Office (any version) you should only be allowed to install it on one machine period. The new licensing that Microsoft came up with to register software was another good move. But it doesn't go far enough. I am hoping they'll solve that problem when every PC is addressable by the software publishers. Then, and only then will piracy be stopped.

In the mean time, if you don't want to have to deal with all of that bullshit, then just do what I did and make the move to free software. It's not that hard and it beats the hell out of piracy.

fp

[lord_rob the only on]

fuck you

Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

WoW sucks ass and the people that play it are even more vile than the people that play Everquest. How do I know? I quit both games because of shitty management and asshole players.

Simple answer:

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't buy from them.

No

[Anonymous Coward]

And Firefox is completely retarded.

Flat Screen Scam Spam?

[Anonymous Coward]

I find your sig puzzling. It seems to take me to a web site that promotes spam. Around here, spam is considered evil, and close behind are fradulent web sites. Is there a bit of humor here I am missing?

Re:Why not just buy a new copy instead of old?

[king-manic]

I stopped buying Blizzard games for this reason. I still like StarCraft though - but after they shutdown FreeCraft and/or the Battlenet server project, I made myself a promise to never give them another cent.

Slashdot is certainly a place to be heard - but sometimes you have to make a statement with your wallet.

I would FU*(#@$_ING love to see a boycott of Blizzard -

This woudl be a okay reason to boycott blizzard. It's unethical and they lied out right. Your two examples are dumb reasons to boycott blizzard. It's like boycotting Oracle because they shut down a few firms tryign to reverse engineer their product, or boy cotting apple because they object to companies making a clone of their product or making a x86 version of their OS. This protecting their interests in a legal way just liek blizzard. This particular case seems to be a little fuck up on blizzards part that may or may not get rememdies but applies to so few that it is in general beneath consideration. But it's soemthign to gribe about that I can understand and support.... your two are just fucktard reasons to bitch.

Re:Why not just buy a new copy instead of old?

[king-manic]

Besides, I can choose not to buy something, for any reason I choose. I can choose not to buy a Honda because I like the shape of the Toyota bumpers better. You might think that's a dumbass reason, but it's me that's buying the item. Of course, if you like Hondas, you're still free to get one of those.


Thats ture, so you can feel free to boycott blizzard/honda and I'm free to call you a fucktard.