Blizzard Sues Creator of WoW Bot

Ponca City, We Love You writes "Blizzard, the makers of World of Warcraft, are suing Michael Donnelly, the creator of the MMO Glider program, which performs key tasks in the game automatically. Blizzard says the software bot infringes the company's copyright and potentially damages the game. 'Blizzard's designs expectations are frustrated, and resources are allocated unevenly, when bots are introduced into the WoW universe, because bots spend far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time,' Blizzard wrote in its legal submission to the court. More than 100,000 copies of the tool have been sold while more than 10 million people around the world play Warcraft. Donnelly says his tool does not infringe Blizzard's copyright because no 'copy' of the Warcraft game client software is ever made. The two parties are now awaiting a summary judgment in the case."

Comments

Sweet

[InlawBiker]

A program that plays the boring parts of the game. Can he come up with a program that does the boring parts of my life while I'm out having fun?

Re:Sweet

[kcbanner]

World of Chorecraft!

Re:Sweet

[Chyeld]

You laugh but....

Re:Copyright? Maybe not, but maybe trademark?

[qoncept]

what if I were an abnormal player who is on nearly 24/7;

I don't think that's so abnormal..

You can, but why would you?

[Cajun Hell]

It turns out that computers are better than humans at just about any game. Does this mean that we can no longer entertain ourselves?

Of course we can, but wouldn't it be more efficient to have a computer entertain itself, on our behalf? Your recreation could be taken care of, for you by proxy, freeing you to pursue other more fulfilling endeavors, such as laboring.

This is just a step toward the ideals mankind has dreamt of for ages. Someday, computers will be able to drink beer for us, have sex for us, and enjoy books,music, and movies for us. Perhaps they could even sleep for us. This would make us free to perform menial tasks.