World of Warcraft In the Axis of Evil

Kotaku is running a piece by Wagner James Au, discussing the place World of Warcraft has in 'The Axis of Evil'. From the article: "Then again, there's little reason to think the ban was enforced much at all. Veteran WoW players tell me they often raid with folks who say they are Coalition troops in Iraq who've cleverly hacked around military firewalls to log in. And while it's doubtful that anyone but Kim Jung-Il and his geek cronies could log into World of Warcraft from North Korea, there's still an embargo on Iran."

Comments

Not WW2

[Animaether]

You're thinking of the Axis Powers - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_Powers
This is about the Axis of Evil - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_of_evil

Regardless, WoW should have nothing to do with either of them apart from legislation restricting export of certain goods, such as software, to countries to which the originating country holds an embargo - such as Iran.
I had to look into that for the software developed at our country as well to see if we could sell to a potential customer in Iraq - and we could after it was 'liberated'.
Fore more information, see:

Supplement No. 2 to Part 774 - General Technology and Software Notes
( http://www.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/txt/774_sup2.txt )

Point 2:
2. General Software Note. License Exception TSU (\"mass market\" software) is available to all destinations, except countries in Country Group E:1 of Supplement No. 1 to part 740 of the EAR, for release of software that is generally available to the public by being:

Supplement No. 1 to part 740 of the EAR
( http://www.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/txt/740spir.txt )

E:1 Countries - Terrorist Supporting Countries
Cuba, Iran, \"Korea, North\", Libya, Sudan, Syria

Re:Most countries are banned from WoW, too

[Kadin2048]

Wow, if that's true, that's really a load of crap on their part.

I'll be honest, I play WoW from time to time and thus maintain my account there (so my character doesn't get dumped), but Blizzard has really begun to grate on me. They're starting to become one of those organizations that I just feel vaguely dirty for associating with, much less paying a subscription fee to.

I'd encourage anyone serving overseas at a military installation or embassy who's been given the shaft by Blizzard to publicize it as widely as you can; there's nothing that really inflames Ma and Pa Kettle like a corporation being dicks to troops overseas, and I could easily see an organization like Blizzard which is highly dependent on public opinion bowing to pressure and changing their policy in a hurry.