Judge Rules WoW Bot Violates DMCA

An anonymous reader writes to tell us that Blizzard has added another victory in their campaign against World of Warcraft bots. A federal judge has ruled that not only did the Glider bot break the EULA, it can be classified as a circumvention device under the DMCA. "As we've noted before, Blizzard's legal arguments, which Judge David G. Campbell largely accepted, could have far-reaching and troubling implications for the software industry. Donnelly is not the most sympathetic defendant, and some users may cheer the demise of a software vendor that helps users break the rules of Blizzard's wildly popular role playing game. But the sweeping language of Judge Campbell's decision, combined with his equally troubling decision last summer, creates a lot of new uncertainty for software vendors seeking to enter software markets dominated by entrenched incumbents and achieve interoperability with legacy platforms."

Comments

Hopefully there's a silver lining

[DurendalMac]

That will allow them to use the same thing to prosecute gold spammers and the like who keep bugging the shit out of WoW players.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[kcbanner]

They paid for their accounts.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[jerep]

I think he meant the in-game spamming more than the gold sellers themselves.

It's getting as bad as the spam folder in my gmail, with one small difference: there's no spam folder in WoW, only an easily bypassed filter.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[thetoadwarrior]

I pay for my movie tickets but that doesn't give me the right to harass others.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[j00r0m4nc3r]

You are absolutely free to harass others in the theater. The movie theater can ask you to leave, and you have to do it or else get arrested for trespassing, but you are free to exercise free speech in the theater. As long as you're not endangering people (yelling "fire" for instance)... So you have the right to harass people, but the theater also has the right to ask you to leave.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[kcbanner]

Exactly my point good sir.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Zironic]

Because they want to keep the other 70%?

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[causality]

I pay for my movie tickets but that doesn't give me the right to harass others.

I wish more people felt that way.

I have multiple reasons why I have rarely or never been inside of a movie theater for the last five years or so, but the inconsiderate actions of the other customers is one of the biggest. I should preface this by saying that I am talking about R-rated movies that do not permit children, so the people I am describing are supposedly adults. From the "restless leg syndrome" individual who won't stop tapping the back of your seat, to the cellphone users who refuse to go outside if they absolutely must take a call, to the fact that I've never seen an establishment that had the balls to eject the small minority who have no respect for everyone else, I feel like they should pay me for the experience, not the other way around. Considering how many other methods there are to enjoy whatever movies I want in an environment that I can control, movie theaters have completely lost their appeal for me.

It's not really the movie theater and I realize that. It's just that theaters are enclosed environments which demand that you pay attention, and the immature, inconsiderate, ADD, "I'm the only person who exists" chronological adults who are really just overgrown children aren't terribly compatible with that atmosphere. I think these are the same folks who would only care about the immediate convenience of having more gold in WoW and would not care about the principle of never buying anything from a spammer for any reason.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Main Gauche]

You are absolutely free to harass others in the theater.

Good thing there's no law against harassment. If there were, I wonder what they'd call it.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[JTorres176]

Glider was a bot that would farm for you. It would move to areas, kill things, collect things off the body for you, even fish.

It's not just a spam bot, it's a full script that would play the game for you. Whether it's farming something, fishing to get your levels up, or mining, it was able to do it without your interaction.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Anpheus]

Get up, walk out of the theatre, tell the manager, tell an usher, tell someone who looks important.

At the theatre I work at, we love to kick out the unruly lot that make the movies worse for everyone. Every time we walk in, they hush down, it's hard for us to know where the problems are. It's also a multiplex, with only one usher for many theatres, doing double duty, cleaning and checking the facilities.

So, do something about it. Honestly, having the balls to fix the problem is probably not their problem, more likely, they don't have anything substantive and don't want to interrupt the movie more severely than it already has been. Nothing distracts everyone in the theatre more than an argument in the seats. Make the theatre staff know it's a problem, and it'll probably be taken care of.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Thinboy00]

Is there even any point to the game if you can't even be buggered to play it yourself?

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[nschubach]

It just tells me they might have a market to allow bot creators an interface for making mob AI! Then the players can fight against the botters according to the game rules and those that want to make game bots can improve the game by offering a challenge to players.

In order to keep unmanned botting popular, reward the bots for every player killed. If a bot manages to spawn, kill someone, collect a random item on the corpse and make it back to a "home base" then the bot can put the item on the global auction. Otherwise, another player character could kill the bot on the way back to town and claim said item(s) for themselves.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Alyred]

Yes, to farm gold and then sell it for real money (against the ToS) and to level characters and then sell them on eBay (also against the ToS).

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[causality]

Get up, walk out of the theatre, tell the manager, tell an usher, tell someone who looks important.

At the theatre I work at, we love to kick out the unruly lot that make the movies worse for everyone. Every time we walk in, they hush down, it's hard for us to know where the problems are. It's also a multiplex, with only one usher for many theatres, doing double duty, cleaning and checking the facilities.

So, do something about it. Honestly, having the balls to fix the problem is probably not their problem, more likely, they don't have anything substantive and don't want to interrupt the movie more severely than it already has been. Nothing distracts everyone in the theatre more than an argument in the seats. Make the theatre staff know it's a problem, and it'll probably be taken care of.

Why should I do their job for them? They make money by providing a place that people want to visit badly enough that they are willing to pay for doing so. I'll use one of the many other ways to see the movies of my choice and enjoy it with no such problems before I'll help the them do their jobs while paying for the privilege.

Now if you or any other staff are "doing double duty" or are otherwise overworked and cannot take care of these things, that's really between yourself and management. I am not interested in really effective people who are more than willing to take care of any problems I bring to their attention (at best that's a "close second"). I am interested in not having those problems in the first place, which is not unreasonable considering that these problems are easy to identify (if you missed the guy shouting into his brightly-lit cellphone, I assure you that no one else did). That you mention "arguing in the seats" is part of the problem too, methinks. "Leave this premises right now or we call the police and press trespassing charges" is rather difficult to argue with, it's just not done for PR reasons.

Besides, I recognize that any valid reason why theater staff would eject someone is a symptom. The fact that most chronological adults are actually overgrown children who never matured to the point of caring about how their actions affect other people is the actual underlying problem. Movie theaters just provide a confined space where it's more difficult than usual to avoid the results. My preference, the option that is most pleasing to me, is to decide that it's not worthwhile to me and to recognize that there are many other options. I prefer that to trying to fix what I can very easily live without.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Alyred]

Perhaps the game does suck, that's for the individual playing to evaluate. However, since those people who use the bot to cheat interact with (and gain advantages over) those that do not, it ruins the enjoyment of others that have purchased the product when the terms explicitly state that such cheating is not allowed.

See the Battlefield series.

If someone wants to cheat on a singleplayer game, more power to them. But doing it in an environment where others are playing reduces the value of others who abide by the terms of service.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[CaptCovert]

That you mention "arguing in the seats" is part of the problem too, methinks. "Leave this premises right now or we call the police and press trespassing charges" is rather difficult to argue with, it's just not done for PR reasons.

And yet, the same people that will laugh and joke into a cell phone during a movie still find a way to argue with that, the most prevalent being 'I paid for my movie, I'm not leaving'. Sure they eventually give up, but that's beside the point.

Admittedly, I only go to a movie theatre 2 or 3 times a year, but that is more a price point issue than anything else. $22 for my wife and I to go see a new movie once, or wait 3 months and spend the same amount to own it forever... the choice is usually pretty clear.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Sparr0]

Blame that on Blizzard. A single employee could monitor, detect, and ban thousands of gold spammers in a single day. Making a million subscribers' days less spammy is not worth $15k/yr to Blizzard.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[raitchison]

Never played WoW or any other MMORPG for that matter, but I thought the point of these kinds of bots was to grind for you, to do the tedious things that have to be done to level up (something I am familiar with as I recently started playing Oblivion) so you can spend your game time doing the more interesting things.

Obviously Blizzard doesn't like this because they want you to pay for your monthly account for several months while you grind and occasionally do interesting things, rather than level up quickly (from a real life time line perspective) and spend less time doing more fun things.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[ScrewMaster]

Get up, walk out of the theatre, tell the manager, tell an usher, tell someone who looks important.

At the theatre I work at, we love to kick out the unruly lot that make the movies worse for everyone. Every time we walk in, they hush down, it's hard for us to know where the problems are. It's also a multiplex, with only one usher for many theatres, doing double duty, cleaning and checking the facilities.

So, do something about it. Honestly, having the balls to fix the problem is probably not their problem, more likely, they don't have anything substantive and don't want to interrupt the movie more severely than it already has been. Nothing distracts everyone in the theatre more than an argument in the seats. Make the theatre staff know it's a problem, and it'll probably be taken care of.

When I get torqued off by said "unruly lot", I'll ask them myself to shut the fuck up. Heck, I had a couple of Arab characters talking in loud tones in their own language while I was trying to enjoy a good movie. I was irritated but not enough to say anything. Then, one of them sent a goddamn beer can spinning over my head. He wasn't aiming at me, true, I think he was just in high spirits ... but I stood up and told them both that "I DIDN'T APPRECIATE THE SHOWER." They got all wide-eyed and actually apologized, and wonder of wonders were quiet for the rest of the film.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[thetoadwarrior]

You're not really free to do it. Otherwise you could stay there (as you would like to) but you can't. As you said they will throw you out.

Freedom isn't about doing whatever you want with no repercussions. There are always repercussions which is the way it should be in a lot of instances.

It's all well in good to say that you're free to say nigger and people are free to react in whatever way but the fact is the way they will react makes it more or less impossible to use the word in most cases. Secondly if you are free to do something wrong and people are free to retaliate then even if you have the freedom to use a WoW bot then Blizzard should have the freedom to stop you and protect the majority of their paying customers that dislike it.

If it were a single player game where you only affected yourself then go nuts and do whatever you want but it's a multi-player game where people have to pay a monthly fee and if most people don't want it then the majority win. As I said Blizzard has the right to retain as many customers as possible.

Whether or not the DCMA route was the right way to go about it may be debatable. Part of me does say they're not circumventing copyright protection but another part of me says that bot users in any game are scum so fuck 'em.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Alyred]

The (virtual) economy may be pathetic, but it is impacted by those who continually farm an area out of all resources and then become the only source of a resource on a server through the auction house. Glider enables a character to stay online, at all times, and keep an area wiped clean of any and all monsters/nodes/etc.

Some items are only dropped in one or two areas, which are easily covered by a couple of accounts running glider.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[aliquis]

Also they have bought the game but connect to Blizzards servers, play by the rules or leave, have fun with your game outside of their servers ...

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Shadow of Eternity]

The terms of service are not laws and should not have the equivalent weight in the real world of laws.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[_Sprocket_]

Accept the other 70% aren't exactly running away now, are they?
That 70% seems pretty much willing to deal with the spam.

Have you ditched email because of spam? I haven't. But damned if I don't do everything I can to limit the spam that I ever see. And I'd be right up in line to punch the bastard(s) doing it if such a fantasy was ever made real.

I've also had to deal with spam in-game. Its an annoyance that has thankfully lessened with Blizzard's active involvement in decreasing it. Blizzard taking action increases the likelyhood that I'm going to continue paying my monthly fee(s).

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[ushering05401]

Not being a WoW player I just have to ask.. If a guild did the same thing without using a bot program would the game mods punish them?

Is the only thing defending the integrity of the WoW game-play model the fact that Blizzard don't think anyone will take the time or effort to break it in person?

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Alyred]

Actually, no. The idea is that even if a guild got together and did this, it would be difficult to maintain 24 hours a day, 7 days a week -- and since even the best players are not perfect (unlike a well-coded bot) there would be the opportunity, if small, for an "outside" player to slip in and do some as well.

However, there are regularly "Chinese gold farmers" out there doing this manually, where someone hires legions of very, very low-paid people to sit and do this all day, wherein the "pit boss" usually turns around and sells the gold via spammers. This isn't allowed as again, it upsets the economy and selling gold for real money is against the ToS. It's also led to a huge amount of account hacking and compromises, which prompted Blizzard to make mails to every in-game character and a logon notice regarding keeping your account safe and not buying gold. I'm not sure what measures Blizzard has taken against gold farmers such as this though. I have noticed, however, the amount of level 1 characters with the name "sjduerlks" (etc) running into the capital cities to shout about gold selling and power-leveling services.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Alyred]

Of course, this would remove about 75% of WoW players in general: Prt 2 Org 1g? Tbl plz. Ned 1g. Can u rn me thru RFC? 10s

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Anonymous Coward]

One, and only one, of the following is true:

1. The anti-spammer solution you describe is effective, but no MMO developer has ever thought of it despite its simplicity and obvious nature.

2. You're retarded.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[SL Baur]

Never played WoW

Oh good, an expert opinion coming up here ...

Obviously Blizzard doesn't like this because they want you to pay for your monthly account for several months while you grind and occasionally do interesting things, rather than level up quickly (from a real life time line perspective) and spend less time doing more fun things.

Considering that the number of active accounts has passed 12 million, I would say there are a fair amount of people who find the game interesting.

I mouse clicked for every point of my maxed fishing skill, I mouse clicked for every bit of stuff I've looted off corpses. Doing that sort of stuff by 'bot degrades the things I earned by playing. It's not as if it is a difficult game and it's getting easier all the time.

I'm happy that Blizzard is actively going after cheats. Not so happy with the way they went about getting this one. But certainly not unhappy enough to close my accounts.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Morlark]

Heh, I don't think WoW's gameplay is quite as precarious as your post might imply. It's pretty much not possible* for a guild to totally shut down an entire zone and farm it to death. As the mobs respawn randomly, eventually one of them is going to spawn near to a competing player, at which point they can easily tag the mob first, which means they're the only one that gains experience from it, and only they have looting rights. It's not significantly different to how any newly released zone will be immediately overwhelmed by players flocking to see it. It can be pretty hard to find enough mobs to complete your quests or whatever, but you're guaranteed to finish eventually, because it simply isn't possible to deny you your kills (except in cross-faction PvP where one side has a large advantage in numbers, which wouldn't ordinarily happen on most servers, and even then there are PvE servers for those that prefer to quest in safety).

*Ok, so maybe it might be possible if you had an extremely large guild and you actually managed to effectively coordinate them somehow, but by that stage you'll find that the bigger problem is the cripplingly low frame rate from having to draw several hundred characters at once, if you have a low-end system.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Ghworg]

We should reinstate the draft and send these people to some foreign country to get blown up. Or at the very least, basic training.

Yes because it is much better when the annoying people are trained killers. Military training doesn't necessarily stop you being an inconsiderate twat.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[SL Baur]

That 70% seems pretty much willing to deal with the spam.

I've probably seen as much gold spam *total* since they added the insta-report button than I used to see in a day.

I recall being disappointed that that was all they could come up with when it was first introduced, but it has done an amazingly good job.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Exawatt]

Prt 2 Org 1g?

Prt = Portal (A Mage-class player can create portals for other players to use)
2 = to
Org = Orgrimmar (a major city)
1g = 1 gold (currency)

In this case a player is requesting a mage to teleport them to another city, and is willing to pay 1 gold. (Since the latest patch, most portals usually go for 2-5g... sometimes I even get 10g on the Eonar server.)

Tbl plz.

tbl = Table (A Mage-class player can create refreshment tables for other players)
plz = Please

A party member is asking a mage to create a table that they can use for food that replenishes health and mana.

Ned 1g.

Ned = Need
1g = 1 gold (currency)

Someone needs money. Usually you'll see this from the lower players asking higher players for money.

Can u rn me thru RFC? 10s

rn = run (a process where a higher-level character parties with a lower level character and then proceeds to do a low-level quest or dungeon so that the low-level character can complete a quest or get an item without doing any work)
RFC = Ragefire Chasm (a dungeon for a group of low level characters)
10s = 10 silver (currency... 1g = 100s)

A low level character is asking a presumably higher level character to do the dungeon for them, and is willing to pay 10s. (10s is nowhere near the price anyone would pay for a run. Hell, you'll pick up a few gold in the dungeon...)

Now you know, and can be nerdy like us. Just like us... Just like us... Just like us...

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[JTorres176]

Well, in WoW, you need a lot of gold to buy things like very fast mounts, land and air mounts. It takes months of farming and doing quests, or you can have a bot play for you 8 hours a day while you sleep.

For the people who can only play 2 or 3 hours a day at most, having your computer play for an additional 8 hours would be a huge help. Instead of farming, I spent most of my time in auction halls trying to buy low and sell high, but that really cut into the couple hours of play time I could put in every day.

WoW isn't a friendly game to the casual player. You're either addicted and play 10 hours a day, or you don't get far very quickly.

I'll just use fishing as an example.
30 second average to catch a fish
0-50 points in fishing, you get one per fish caught.
50-125 you get one per three fish caught
125 -250 you get one per five fish caught
250 - 375 you get one per ten fish caught

50 x 30 seconds = 25 minutes
75 x 30 sec x 3 avg = 112.5
75 x 30 sec x 5 avg = 187.5
125 x 30 sec x 10 avg = 625
950 minutes / 60 = 15.8 hours of fishing to level it.

So, on top of the regular playing that you do, you'd need to fish for 16 solid hours (not counting breaks or sleeping) in order to get it to max level... or what used to be when I was playing.

So, you can spend 2 nights of letting a bot fish while you sleep, or take 8 solid days of your play time leveling (grinding) something so you can get a higher level at it.

I'm sure my math is off, but you get the point.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[SL Baur]

Does anyone else on a raid with you know whether you botted or whether you manually clicked your way to high rating for fishing or killing large numbers of low level mobs?

I used those specific examples because they were being used to justify botting.

Then why are *you* so affected by what others do that you cannot know or detect?

Because I've obtained the skills to fish (and cook the fish) under the rules and I have to compete in the AH with those who have not.

The achievement system actually works quite well for some of this. Those who have achieved their levels by powerleveling through instances are easily identified. Ebayers betray themselves.

The first time I *knew* I was confronting bots was when I was trying to obtain some Felcloth to make Mooncloth bags. The area was being farmed by two hordies. No problem, I can wait for my turn. Over the next three days I came back at as many different times of the day as I could manage with a work & family schedule and the same two characters were there killing everything. So I had to give up and move on.

Yes, it *can* be detected and it *does* affect people. Botting is griefing, not playing the game.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Sj0]

WoW is a painfully boring game.

Think about how boring this game is: It's so boring that an entire economy of real money has sprung up based on paying people or machines to do the horribly boring task of playing the game.

This is why I tried it for a weekend then quit right away: I have a job that pays me about 70k/yr to do incredibly boring things. Why would I come home and pay Blizzard $120/yr plus expansion packs for the privilege of doing incredibly boring things?

If it was because I want to keep up with my friends who are also playing, it makes sense to hire a Chinese kid to play the game for me, so I can have the L70 character so I can play with my friends without having to go through the boring, months long process of levelling up a character.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[redcaboodle]

Nope - the fish can still escape you. In the racial starter areas the fish are quite easy to find and you won't lose many there after skill 30 or so.

Also - you still need to get the books and teachers to raise your profession level.

Re:Hopefully there's a silver lining

[Sj0]

as cited in the court decision multiple times

[citation needed]

Doesn't matter.

[SuperBry]

This will just be appealed, this was just a judge not understanding the difference between breaking a contract (EULA) and breaking a copyright.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[Chabo]

That was several months ago. This is about a judge not understanding the difference between breaking a contract and breaking access-control mechanisms.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[IthnkImParanoid]

He understands the difference, and his findings don't rely on Glider breaking the EULA. Basically he said that since Warden controls access to certain parts of the game by checking for software that accesses these parts in an unapproved manner, and Glider attempts to bypass these checks, the DMCA applies.

In other words, a tool that a) accesses elements of a copyrighted work b) evades protection mechanisms to do so violates the DMCA. Maybe the issue isn't with the judge, but with the law he's interpreting.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[KDR_11k]

But Warden is an anti-cheat measure, not a copy protection measure. Does this mean that circumventing ANY measure, no matter what it's for, is illegal now? Does that include nonsense like "rightclick blocker" Javascript?

Re:Doesn't matter.

[Anonymous Coward]

DMCA, Wikipedia: "It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures (commonly known as Digital Rights Management or DRM) that control access to copyrighted works and it also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself."

Re:Doesn't matter.

[Samalie]

I'm sorry, but you have this incorrect (at least, in my opinion)

Glider does not bypass warden. Glider is stealthy and is not detected by Warden. Warden still runs. Blizzard updates Warden to detect Glider and hauls out the banstick.

But either way, Glider is not a tool that "accesses elements of a copyrighted work". It is a tool which accesses elements of a copyrighted work that you, as the user/developer, have a legal license to access until such time that Blizzard revokes said license for violation of their terms of use.

In other words, Glider does not bypass protection mechanisms granting you the ability to access copyrighted work without a license. Glider breaks a civil contract, which upon discovery will cause the licensor (Blizzard) to revoke the license of the licensee (you). After that, you can no longer access elements of the copyrighted work.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[Sloppy]

But Warden is an anti-cheat measure, not a copy protection measure.

To this judge, that line isn't so clear. The judge's radical invention (for which he deserves a patent ;-) is this: "dynamic nonliteral elements" (fancy talk for the whole experience of the game, consisting of not just Blizzard's code and Blizzard's game data, but also Blizzard's server responses, and the users' actions) has copyright protection. And since Warden limits access to Blizzard's server's responses, then Warden limits access to the "dynamic nonliteral elements" and bypassing Warden is a DMCA violation.

The WoW code is copyrighted: reasonable.

The game data (e.g. graphics and sound) is copyrighted: reasonable.

The user-generated events are copyrighted (and by Blizzard?): wacked out.

The server responses are copyrighted: iffy, as they are not creative works (and you don't even want to think about whether those responses are also shaped by the users' collective inputs -- which noncreative but copyrightable work is a derived work of which?).

The sum of all the previous things run through a function (the Wow code) to become an overall experience, is copyrighted (and by Blizzard): wow!

Re:Doesn't matter.

[Dachannien]

17 USC 1201
(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that--
(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;
(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or
(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

Warden controls access to the online portion of WoW (a copyrighted work) by checking to see if cheat programs are running and refusing access to WoW if it detects any. Glider is such a program that has, in the past, been blocked by Warden. Glider was updated to circumvent this access control.

The ruling, if you bother to take the time to read it, explains all of this stuff. Maybe you don't like the law, but it was at least properly applied here.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[Snaller]

I haven't read this new ruling, but I read the last one - and he clearly understood everything perfectly well.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[CaptCovert]

On the surface, your argument seems valid. The problem lies in the fact that the copyrighted material, that is, the code and art (what the judge called 'literal materials') are not what is protected by Warden (and the judge ruled as such earlier in the case).

What Warden does protect access to is the actual protocol commands being sent back and forth across the wire between the game client and game servers. This protocol content cannot possibly be protected by copyright, as it is a) required in the due use of the copyright work (in this case, the client) much in the same way that copying a program to your RAM is a right you have by copyright law, and b) initiated by the user, and as such is held as IP by the user if it is held by anyone at all.

By this same reasoning, Fiddler's capability to read the content of SSL-encoded HTTP messages that were initiated by the user violates copyright law; it is an exterior client that accesses communicated data that is expressly protected (in this case, in the form of encryption).

If Glider were designed to access game art (which is quite strongly copyrighted), and Warden were designed to stop it from doing so, then Glider subsequently redesigned to circumvent Warden, THEN the statue applies.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[Alyred]

The user-generated events are copyrighted (and by Blizzard?): wacked out.

I read through the legal briefing. While the line isn't clear on the "user experience" portion being copyrightable, I think that it mainly was alluding to the things that the server generates to interact with the players: Things such as gold amount given/collected, items dropped by monsters, etc. This was one of Blizzard's points in the claim (specifically); whether that will hold up in court as a "copyrightable" element remains to be seen by the 9th circuit court, apparently.

It might be along the lines of corporate logos: you can't copyright a few squares, but you CAN copyright the arrangement and colors of those squares. Blizzard wasn't contesting access to the material on a hard drive (they were at first, but then dropped that claim). The claim is that Glider circumvented Warden, which allowed or disallowed access to the copyrighted arrangements of objects in the virtual world based on data passed between warden and the servers. The briefing was pretty specific on this part.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[Alyred]

As was detailed in the case briefing, Warden was updated to detect glider specifically on two occasions, which MDY then changed so that Warden could no longer detect it.

Hard to argue that it just "remained undetected" when they actively had to change the software so that Warden could no longer detect it.

In addition, the court found that MDY had repeatedly advertised that their software circumvented protections.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[LackThereof]

Glider does not bypass protection mechanisms granting you the ability to access copyrighted work without a license.

That depends on if you are considering the World of Warcraft client installed on the user's PC as the copyrighted work in question, then you might be correct.

If you consider WoW, the online game/service as the copyrighted work, however, and the WoW client (or more specifically, Warden) as the protection mechanism, though, things turn around rather quickly.

WoW as a whole is the product that Blizzard is selling. They do NOT sell a standalone client - they license you a client when you sign up for their online service. It is this distinction that makes this case so much different from many others.

To sum up, again. Warden is designed to control access to a protected work. Specifically to limit access to the uses permitted by Blizzard's WoW ToS. Glider intentionally circumvents this. Specifically, every time WoW is patched and Glider is yet again blocked, Glider is patched to get around it. This is clearly criminal under the DMCA, no fancy lawyering needed to make it seem so.

In the old days this would have been a simple civil case, where Blizzard sued MDY for damages, and drove them into bankruptcy, while playing a never ending cat and mouse game with blocking glider. Now, thanks to the DMCA, it's a criminal matter and MDY's CEO is personally responsible.

Much more minor circumventions (i.e. using deCSS to play your lawfully purchased DVD's or stripping DRM out of songs purchased from the internet) also run afoul of this law, and are criminal acts.

This is a totally legitimate application of the law, doing what it was written to do. The only way out of this mess is to repeal or rewrite the DMCA. "Accessing copyrighted work without a licence" is not the only application of the DMCA - it is in fact written quite broadly. Bypassing anything that "controls access" is completely illegal in the USA.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[nog_lorp]

Bullshit. If Warden failed to detect ANY bots, despite being intended to do so, does that make ALL bots circumvention programs?

Circumvention is an ACTION, requiring ACTION on the part of the bot. Otherwise Blizzard could have some debug comment: "This code is intended to prevent screenshots from stealing our copyrighted artz", followed by nothing. Then the Print Screen functions would be CIRCUMVENTING the "protection" by "not being detected".

Re:Doesn't matter.

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

A substantial portion of game content in WoW is server-side. The scripts for raid encounters, NPC locations and dialogue, and other elements are arguably creative works, and they are stored on the server. The game client downloads these elements and renders them using local models and textures.

Warden prevents access to such game content by preventing users from authenticating with the WoW servers if detected cheat programs are loaded. Glider circumvents this measure by fooling Warden into allowing access to such content.

This sounds like a violation of the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA to me. Mind you, I think that those provisions are bullshit, but I'm not sure we can trash the judge for ruling the way he did.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[Tuoqui]

The server responses are copyrighted: iffy, as they are not creative works (and you don't even want to think about whether those responses are also shaped by the users' collective inputs -- which noncreative but copyrightable work is a derived work of which?).

Actually you could say that as a result of the copyrighted code that the resultant output is copyrighted as well as the output is the primary function of the code. The initial creation of the code is a creative (debatable, but we'll go with what the courts have been ruling for lately) work.

Re:Doesn't matter.

[ep32g79]

Yup,
Full court order is viewable here: http://www.mmoglider.com/Legal/trialorder_jan28.pdf

Non-Literals

[jerep]

Judge Campbell has distinguished between the actual bits stored on the World of Warcraft disk (which he called the "literal elements" of the game) and the interface elements the user encounters as he's actually playing the game (which he dubbed "non-literal elements").

It's fun how after playing that game for a while I get called a "non-literal", good thing I stopped playing last year!

Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the industry

[King_TJ]

It seems like each and every time Blizzard has filed a suit over something related to "violating the terms of their EULA", they've been handed a victory.

I've been troubled by ALL of these rulings over the years, and this just adds to the total.

As far as I'm concerned, people who pay for a copy of their game software have *every* right to opt to use said software with other, alternate servers, if they so desire. They also have every right to run any manner of automated script or "bot" in lieu of physically sitting in front of their screen and hand-manipulating the character they've paid for the subscription to use on Blizzard's servers!

It's a really BAD precedent to set, to legally enforce the idea that a software developer can FORCE a customer to use their product only in specific ways they outline. Imagine if Microsoft or Apple came along and dictated that their operating systems could no longer legally be used as a platform running any "p2p sharing software" (since as we ALL know, torrents and other types of p2p sharing are inherently bad, right?).

Or imagine if you bought the latest edition of a "Call of Duty" game, only to find out the EULA stated it was illegal to play except on weekends? Blizzard has effectively won the legal ability for developers to state and enforce anything like this they'd like to put in the agreement!

Wow, if DMCA applies here...

[RockMFR]

Maybe they can use the DMCA to outlaw abortion! And create world peace! And make me dinner!

Re:Wow, if DMCA applies here...

[KDR_11k]

More like the other way around, it's illegal to poke holes in a condom since that circumvents the copyprotection.

Just goes to show you

[geekoid]

don't install the game you're writing the bot for.

Re:Just goes to show you

[ep32g79]

Donnelly, et.al. are not being tried for their personal violation of copyright, or contract infringement.
But Donnelly is on the stand for, among other things, willfully allowing others to break their contractual agreement with Blizzard, Vivendi Games, Inc.

The courts could care less about whether or not Donnelly himself violated his contractual obligation with Blizzard/Vivendi, Nor whether Donnelly had actually installed Blizzards software at all.

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[Chris Burke]

Imagine if Microsoft or Apple came along and dictated that their operating systems could no longer legally be used as a platform running any "p2p sharing software" (since as we ALL know, torrents and other types of p2p sharing are inherently bad, right?).

If both of them did it, then I'm imagining The Year of Linux on the Desktop finally coming to pass! =D

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[OglinTatas]

if 10 million people play WoW, do you think a few of them might be judges?

Interesting tidbit

[gillbates]

...he also found that MDY's founder, Michael Donnelly, was personally liable for the actions of his firm.

Strangely, though, those who perpetrated the recent Mortgage fiasco which resulted in the current recession are not personally responsible for the actions of their firms. I find it strange that CEOs incur personal liability for their firm's actions only when the victim is another corporation.

Re:True, But They've Done Much More Harm Than That

[Chris Burke]

They've so dumbed down the MMORPG market that it is impossible for any other company to come out with any sort of game that isn't hand holding and brain dead at its core.

And adding insult to injury, Hand Holding Online and Brain Death Online did it first! But everyone thinks Blizzard is the innovator...

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why MS sells Retail licenses...

Part of the price break of the OEM license cost comes from the fact that it is non-transferable.

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[Duradin]

So Blizzard shouldn't be able to set the terms of use for a _service_ they provide?

Just think how viable xbox live would be if MS couldn't stop people from running hacks and mods.

And I'm sure everyone sitting in a queue waiting to get on their primary server will just love you and your afkave bot.

Bot if You Want

[molotovjester]

In my opinion, You can Bot if you want, but do it on a private server.

This case isn't about how someone changed the game on a personal server, but how a person's actions unfairly impacted the game play experience for thousands (or millions) others.

To that extent, enforcing a EULA in a reasonable manner is a different story than enforcing an unreasonable EULA. So those of you worrying about judgments that hinder society and technology should look instead at the recent copyright awarded to apple.

Re:Bot if You Want

[Todd Knarr]

Actually it's fairly easy for them to find the users that're using WoWGlider. But it's unattractive from a PR and subscriptions standpoint to kick their own paying users off. They'd rather kill Glider without having to target their own users, hence the convoluted arguments and tortured logic to try and find some way of doing that.

IMO they should have gone after him on other grounds. Every WoW subscriber has to agree to the EULA to access the servers. The only purpose of WoWGlider is to break that EULA, and the Glider's author knows it. I'm fairly sure Blizzard could easily come up with advertising from that author touting those violations as reasons to buy Glider. And I'm fairly sure that inducing a breach of contract is a tort with legal liability attached. That would fit the facts better than the tortured appeal to the DMCA does.

Re:Bot if You Want

[_Sprocket_]

Actually, they ARE kicking off the botting users. There are occasional massive bans that scoop up large amounts of botters. Google around a bit and you'll find out about it.

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[Kjella]

They also have every right to run any manner of automated script or "bot" in lieu of physically sitting in front of their screen and hand-manipulating the character they've paid for the subscription to use on Blizzard's servers!

Not as long as you share a game world. Though it's not physical, whenever people meet there are rules to follow. Even if you paid membership to a sports club, they could deny you access if you came there shirtless. They could throw you out if you're breaking the rules and being an ass. You can't wave your membership card in their face and say "You can't touch me, I've paid to be here!". Client software and bots are exactly the same as dress code and club rules. With single player games you can do whatever the fuck you want, just as you can in the privacy of your own home. WoW is not your home (or if it is, seek professional help).

Never about Piracy.

[SanityInAnarchy]

For anyone who was wondering whether the DMCA, or DRM, had anything to do with piracy, look here:

Glider violates the provision of the DMCA that prohibits "trafficking" in software that is "primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work" protected by copyright.

Sounds pretty open and shut for Glider...

But unless I'm missing something, that's a valid interpretation of that language -- any technological measure which controls access to a work.

Not "prevents piracy", or "prevents duplication", or even "prevents already-illegal stuff that we didn't need a new law for anyway."

No, it's all about control. It's about preventing you from using stuff you legitimately bought in new and interesting ways, so they can sell it to you again in those new and interesting ways. Or it's about preventing you from doing something that damages them in a completely unrelated way, if they can.

It's about taking control away from the consumer, and putting it back in the hands of the publisher.

If it stops piracy, great. But I don't think that they could've come up with something this devious by accident, especially when it's clear how ineffective the stuff is at its supposed purpose (preventing piracy).

I don't get Siy and Pearlman...

[Cookie3]

FTA:

Siy and Pearlman also expressed skepticism at the notion that these "dynamic, non-literal elements" constitute a distinct copyrighted work.

If I'm reading the trial order correctly (IANAL), it seems to cite the following cases in support of "non-literal elements" being copyrighted:

See Atari Games Corp. v. Oman, 888 F.2d 878, 884-85 (D.C. Cir. 1989); Midway Mfg. Co. v. Arctic Int'l, Inc., 704 F.2d 1009, 1011-12 (7th Cir. 1983); Williams Elec., Inc. v. Arctic Int'l, Inc., 685 F.2d 870, 874 (3d Cir. 1982); Stern Elecs., Inc. v. Kaufman, 669 F.2d 852, 855-56 (2d Cir. 1982)

What I'd like to see from Siy and Pearlman is a description of what these cases are, and why their citation is somehow irrelevant with regards to non-literal elements and copyright enforceability. The judge certainly seemed to think they applied. (Again, if I'm reading the order correctly. I might be wrong. Who knows.)

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[rickb928]

"Blizzard has effectively won the legal ability for developers to state and enforce anything like this they'd like to put in the agreement!"

And this is a new development? EULAs are full of insane stuff. Blizzard isn't even the worst of the bunch, they just get villified by those who want the rules to be what *THEY* want them to be.

And how does my little (49oy) brother feel when he plays WoW 'by hand', building and accumulating by the rules? He's beyond offended by those that use resources merely to profit in real $. He cranks levels and such for the sole purpose of being able to help other players accomplish what they want - usually level. Then he gives stuff away. And he gets a fair amount of wrath from the spammers and sellers who have at least twice tried to get his account deleted. Apparently not, weasels. He's not a 24x7 player. he's also a NASCAR fan. You get many weekends off from tormenting him.

I have less than no sympathy for the botters. May they lose everything in-game, and make room for players.

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[flyingsquid]

it seems like each and every time Blizzard has filed a suit over something related to "violating the terms of their EULA", they've been handed a victory.

You, know, this could just be a coincidence, but a couple of weeks ago I was in Northrend and I ran into an orc named "JudgeCampbell". He had some pretty sweet weapons and armor he was showing off, including a Judicial Robe of Invicibility and a Judge's Battle Gavel of The Dragon, which did an unreal amount of damage. Also, he had all these really powerful spells I'd never even heard of before, such as "Contempt of Court" and "Summon Bailiff". To top it all off, he had like 200,000 gold. I asked where he'd gotten all this stuff and he said he'd just "found it all in some dungeon". It sounded kind of fishy to me, but I didn't think anything much of it at the time.

Re:True, But They've Done Much More Harm Than That

[KDR_11k]

How much more hand holding can they do when the genre conventions already include having the amount of time you played the game dictate your strength? How sad is it that people call an MMO "hard" because it takes more time to get stronger? How much sadder is it that people define themselves as "hardcore" for playing games that waste more time than others?

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[centuren]

It's a really BAD precedent to set, to legally enforce the idea that a software developer can FORCE a customer to use their product only in specific ways they outline.

Yeah, about that. There are these things called license agreements, they're kind of like contracts, which are a sort of legal instrument, that is maybe, like, thousands of years old.

If you don't like the license, don't buy the software.

That makes a lot of sense. However, Blizzard can change the license agreement required to play, and you can't keep playing unless you upgrade to the latest patch and accept the new terms. Since the game is based on accumulative success, do we get reimbursed for what we paid for if the license changes to something we no longer agree with?

Or, in this hypothetical scenario, perhaps we could use the product we bought months ago on an alternate server to continue to enjoy our purchase.

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[PitaBred]

Sure. So kick off the people abusing their terms of service. Suing the company making the bot is a completely different issue, and has (rather, SHOULD have) no legal grounds.

Re:Liability for the mortgage fiasco rests solely

[rahvin112]

None of the mortgages Freddie and Fannie cut were subprime. Freddie and Fannie are suffering because of what the big banks did in destabilizing the housing market. Freddie and Fannie would in all likely hood have been OK had it not been for the Subprime lending.

Subprime was all through the major banks cutting their own mortgages and avoiding the government system and it's rules. Subprime is what destroyed the economy, the idea that you can lend that much money to someone that under no circumstance can they possibly make the payments after the ARM adjusts. The Bank's knowingly lent these huge amounts of money with knowledge that once the ARM adjusted all those subprimes would turn into foreclosures. Management acted to get their piece of the pie while they could then get out. Much of the major banks Management should be sued for what they did and bankrupted.

It's a *dumb* game, that's why this problem exists

[hdon]

Am I the only one who is pretty disgusted at the trend of games where the primary skill function is just how much time your character spends doing stuff? It might as well just be an online store where you buy virtual skills and pay with your blood over firewire. Sacrifice your lives to something worthy, chumps! Develop some actual talents while you're at it!

Trial order january 28

[janopdm]

http://www.mmoglider.com/Legal/trialorder_jan28.pdf

IT IS ORDERED:

1. MDY is liable to Blizzard for violations of 17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(2) and 1201(b)(1) with respect to the dynamic nonliteral elements of WoW.
2. Michael Donnelly is liable to Blizzard for damages arising from MDY's tortious interference with contract from November 30, 2005, to the present.
3. Michael Donnelly is liable to Blizzard for damages arising from MDY's contributory infringement, vicarious infringement, and DMCA violations.
4. Blizzard is entitled to a permanent injunction against the continued sale, distribution, and servicing of Glider.
5. On or before February 13, 2009, the parties shall submit memoranda, not to exceed seven pages in length, addressing (1) the appropriate terms of any permanent injunction, (2) whether the permanent injunction should be stayed pending appeal, and what bond or other measures (for stay of the injunction and for damages) should be imposed for Blizzards protection pending appeal.

DATED this 28th day of January, 2009.

Which means the judge awarded everything to Blizzard and asked MDY for a memo explaining why they should stay in business while they fight the case. After reading the judge order it's safe to say there is little chance that the judge allows MDY to remain on business after february 13.

The hilarious part

[thebroken]

The hilarious part is that this will do nothing for the hardcore botters and gold farming/char leveling firms. The WoW hacking community is quite large, and detailed information is available freely on the internet about many of its mechanisms. This has led to the creation of countless private bots that are not released for mass consumption like Glider, and hardcore firms usually end up using such bots (which, by the way, run below the radar of Blizz counter-measures like Warden). Go Google it yourself. Creating such a bot is not difficult for a good programmer.They are often not nearly as sophisticated as Glider, but they don't need to be since they're customized from the ground up for the firms on demands (and lack a lot of options that Glider has, but again this doesn't matter as these private bots aren't released for the masses). So a small victory for Blizzard in the end imo. This won't change any of WoW's messed up economy on some servers, nor will it even remotely make a dent in the farming/power-leveling community.

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[Artraze]

> So Blizzard shouldn't be able to set the terms of use for a _service_ they provide?

They have every right to. The problem with these cases is just how obscenely far the laws are being stretched. It's setting precedents that could potentially have devastating consequences.

If Blizzard says "thou shall now use a bot", then fine. If a person uses a bot then they have violated Blizzard's terms of service, allowing Blizzard to do what the terms allow. This usually means disconnecting them, but could, in principal, include a fine of $1 million. (Of course, if that were the case they'd almost certainly require a notarized signature, not just a "I Agree" checkbox.)

In this case, Blizzard was unable to detect Glider, and was therefore unable to take recourse against it's users. That's where the road should end. They should either update their cheat detection or give up.

HOWEVER, they went to the courts. They said that because Glider breaks their ToS, the _company_ should be held liable. And because the ToS/EULA is broken, the copying of the program into RAM to operate is a violation of copyright. AND that the people behind Glider should be held responsible for this infringement. They won. As a result, we have the precedents:
1) Copying a program into RAM is not fair use.
2) A company can be held liable if someone breaches a contract with your product.

And now, we get the following:
3) A program which reads/interoperates a with another outside the ToS/EULA is considered a DMCA circumvention device, and the author is _CRIMINALLY_ liable.

All three of these rulings are beyond ridiculous. This one, however, takes the cake as now it's a criminal offense. It's essentially saying that writing an unauthorized plugin, addon, or even operating system can get you thrown in jail.

To highlight:
    Windows Vista Home (or any that aren't Ultimate) state in their EULA that they may not be run under a VM. If I were to install it under VMWare server, by these points above, VMWare could be sued out of business and the CEO should go to jail.

Thanks, Blizzard.

Re:DMCA is essential to an orderly society.

[SanityInAnarchy]

DMCA is essential to an orderly society.

That must be why we didn't need it for hundreds of years worth of "orderly society".

Without the ability of a software producer to control how his product is used...

Without that, we might just get some real innovation. You know, people combining existing inventions in new ways. The horror!

People might actually tinker with the things they legitimately own! Think of that! The modding community must be stopped at all costs!

If you have no legal right to use your camera to take pictures of child pornography or use your mega-phone to disrupt a sleeping neighborhood.

And what do either of these have to do with the DMCA? They were illegal before the DMCA, and they'll be illegal if the DMCA is repealed.

Re:It's a *dumb* game, that's why this problem exi

[triffid_98]

Wow, this certainly takes me back to my days getting "red status" in Ultima Online ambushing PKs on Sonoma. The only way around this was for my guild to use tools to keep our characters walking around our compound until the kill timers ran out. Skill points are great, but real skills aren't something you'll see in your profile screen.

Am I the only one who is pretty disgusted at the trend of games where the primary skill function is just how much time your character spends doing stuff? It might as well just be an online store where you buy virtual skills and pay with your blood over firewire. Sacrifice your lives to something worthy, chumps! Develop some actual talents while you're at it!

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[Walkingshark]

Once there's precedent it affects everyone, not just WOW players or gold farmers.

This really depends on what court made the decision. Usually appelate decisions have more weight. If this guy appeals it up to a US district court or (shudder) the US Supreme court, it could have a wide ranging impact. Otherwise, it's just going to put Glider out of buisiness.

Update from Glider forums

[kjart]

They are private, so I can't link, but here's a copy and paste:

The judge just ruled and, unfortunately, it did not go much our way. He pretty much awarded everything to Blizzard again.

Here's a link to the order: http://www.mmoglider.com/Legal/trialorder_jan28.pdf

What this means for Glider customers The judge asked us to file a memo by February 13th on why we should be allowed to continue to sell Glider through the appeal process.

I'm not sure why he asked for that, since I don't think he's going to start listening to us now. So we'll file it and see, but it seems very likely that he will rule against us. Then we'll go up to the 9th circuit and try to get a stay, similar to how the Napster case went.

If all goes badly, Glider could be shut down as early as mid-February. So keep your fingers crossed.

That's from 01/28/2009

Re:Update from Glider forums

[duckInferno]

That seems pretty eloquent, considering he's addressing the kind of person that pays money for this shit. If you visit glider's forums you'll see such intellectual gems as "dam i got banned lol blizzard sux cock lol".

Re:It's a *dumb* game, that's why this problem exi

[_Sprocket_]

Am I the only one who is pretty disgusted at the trend of games where the primary skill function is just how much time your character spends doing stuff?

Go play a FPS and you'll find autoaim bots, wallhacks, and other assorted cheating tools. Corner a cheater and they'll complain about how they have a "real life" and can't spend all their time playing the game to get the skills to compete with other players. This is simply more of the same.

There are thousands of folks who want instant gratification. Twitch monkeys who can't stand not being at the top of whatever hill they see but don't want to invest the time it takes to get there (nevermind that being at the top of the hill doesn't HAVE to be the point of a lot of these games). So they go for the short-cut.

Yeah, treadmills and grinds aren't for everyone. But that doesn't mean you get to ditch the rules because they're inconvenient for you. Play the game... or don't play at all.

Re:Blizzard is doing a lot of damage to the indust

[SL Baur]

Isn't that kinda like suing Smith & Wesson because people get shot?

You may take my Nesingwary 4000 only from my cold dead hands.

cut to the chase

[Scrameustache]

Is there even any point to the game if you can't even be buggered to play it yourself?

Is porn worth it if you fast-forward through the story and dialogues?

Contract law isn't the problem here

[illegalcortex]

The problem with your argument is that contract law isn't what is the problem here. By breaking the terms of the ToS, under their contract with him Blizzard can only cut off his service and keep his money. They can't fine him $150,000 "per act of infringement", as is the case with the DMCA. If you read the article, they're moving beyond contract law and saying violating the terms of service makes you a copyright infringer, subject to copyright law:

Blizzard argued, and Judge Campbell agreed, that when users violated the World of Warcraft EULA, they no longer had a license to play the game and were therefore guilty of copyright infringement. As Siy noted in a blog post last year, Blizzard's theory, if taken literally, would mean that violating any of the rules in the EULA and Terms of Service, such as choosing a screen name that didn't meet Blizzard's guidelines, would be an act of copyright infringement. And distributing software that helps users infringe copyright itself constitutes secondary copyright infringement, which could expose MDY to copyright law's draconian "statutory damages" of $150,000 per act of infringement. The law gives aggrieved parties to contract disputes much less potent powers.

Re:It's a *dumb* game, that's why this problem exi

[hdon]

Am I the only one who is pretty disgusted at the trend of games where the primary skill function is just how much time your character spends doing stuff?

Go play a FPS and you'll find autoaim bots, wallhacks, and other assorted cheating tools. Corner a cheater and they'll complain about how they have a "real life" and can't spend all their time playing the game to get the skills to compete with other players. This is simply more of the same.

You seem to have mistaken my complaint to be one about cheaters. It isn't.

There are thousands of folks who want instant gratification. Twitch monkeys who can't stand not being at the top of whatever hill they see but don't want to invest the time it takes to get there (nevermind that being at the top of the hill doesn't HAVE to be the point of a lot of these games). So they go for the short-cut.

I think that's precisely what I find so wrong with games that reward sacrificed time rather than enhancing aptitudes. Because those "twitch monkeys" aren't at the top of any hill, are they? The gratification they get doesn't come from being the best, so what is it? Do they just like putting virtual bullets into virtual heads controlled by other players?

IMO this isn't healthy, and parallels games that reward time sacrifice: what exactly do these players enjoy doing? It isn't getting better at something, or being the best, because they aren't getting better or becoming the best, their characters are. I think if you set aside the morals and/or social contracts that affect how people feel about cheating, the role of cheat software to a cheater is identical to the role of the items/spells/powers your characters can accumulate: advancing your in-game advantage without advancing your own aptitudes.

It seems to me that games like World of Warcraft and Pokemon have stumbled onto something that Final Fantasy was only beginning to uncover in the 1990s. People crave foraging for items, hunting, exhausting supplies of hiding places for things to collect and hunt, and upgrading their tools. Seems to me like this taps into some very deep-seated primal instincts that are very useful if you do not live in the first world (although I'd bet plenty of the monkeys on wall street eye their investment portfolios with a similar fascination that MMORPG players consider their characters.)

Yeah, treadmills and grinds aren't for everyone. But that doesn't mean you get to ditch the rules because they're inconvenient for you. Play the game... or don't play at all.

As it seems ambiguous, I'll make it clear: I was advocating the latter option: Don't play at all. Games that make wasting your time part of the experience are ridiculous. Real life contains enough of that.