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Blizzard Sues Private Server Company, Awarded $88M
Cali Thalen writes "A private server company, Scapegaming (aka Alyson Reeves), was ordered to pay Blizzard Entertainment over $88 million in damages after losing a lawsuit that was concluded last week. Scapegaming was operating unauthorized World of Warcraft servers and using a micropayment system to collect money from the servers' user base, which according to the lawsuit amounted to just over $3 million. $85 million of that settlement was for statutory damages, and surprisingly only $63,000 in attorney's fees."
and the rich get richer
God knows Blizzard did not mind private servers before this (because they sucked).
What? Remember Blizzard v. bnetd?
Oh they cared before. Remember BnetD?
That was WAY before Activision. They report their income on different balance sheets; the only effective change in Blizzard mindset was the part where they went public.
Activision has nothing to do with anything they've done recently, and anyone who says otherwise is blaming something they don't like on a company of convinence.
Oh they did indeed mind them. There were the guys who got shut down for cloning Battle.net (for either Starcraft or Diablo II purposes iirc) and they made sure to shut down the server being run by my brother and his friends. Vivendi Universal isn't a nicer company than Activision.
Somewhere along the chain, you have to pay for the hosting. Plus if you're getting money, there's another paper trail.
I thought that sum was rather modest. Remember all the RIAA cases? THOSE were excessive.
WOW! I know it's an open and shut case from the get go but with a company that big, usually $60,000 will barely get you a random word generator with text to speech representing you. For a quarter mil, you might even be able to get the disembodied voice that lives in my GPS to represent you. Somehow it always costs about a million for a supposedly "respectable" lawyer to even show up in court. What a joke. Oh well, at least they got around that this time somehow.
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"Since then, all of us left. Scapegaming brought Blizzard a lot of business, but The Wrath of the Lich King ran them off. Only way I can tolerate WoW anymore is if I find an old TBC server now. Lasted till just before ICC was released on retail, but I just can't stand it anymore, it just isn't fun. Was fun back in the day raiding Kara, SSC, and the Eye just playing around, talking shit in Vent and having fun while half of them were wasted and still able to hold their own. Then 3.0 had to come and ruin it."
All my friends are leaving WoW. Cataclysm is running them off. Only way I can tolerate WoW anymore is if I don't pay attention to the Cataclysm stuff. It just isn't fun anymore. Was fun back in the day raiding Naxx, Ulduar, and ToC just playing around, talking shit in Vent and having fun while half of them were wasted still able to hold their own. Now this Cataclysm is gonna come along and ruin it.
Or maybe I'm just tired of playing WoW, yeah that could be it...
.WTF !?
You just edit this text file and it points WoW at a different server.
Just happens that WoW net traffic isn't encrypted and therefore people have reverse engineered the protocol and created their own servers.
Not really any different than any other reverse engineering I've heard of.
Is it copyright infringing if they made their own server software that mimics the client / server protocol?
Is it legal to ask for payment to connect to my web server?
Is it still legal if my server can speak the reverse engineered WoW protocol?
Is it common knowledge that Judges are ignorant of the technology they are asked to provide judgment over?
If you answered "no" to one of these questions you have been qualified as next in line for judicial appointment.
with frivolous lawsuits of course :)
Interesting viewpoint. It appears as though you may not be happy with most things, and I would suggest you disconnect your computer from the rest of the world immediately. At the very least, hire a psychiatrist.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
process servers are a dime a dozen.. they are known to frequently use the throw in the gutter in the front of the house and check the box that the person was served method.. A judge will generally side with the person who did not get to have there case heard if they dispute it and say they do not live at the address an had moved..and the process server "served" the wrong person...or some other lame excuse default judgments are pretty easy to get vacated,
but you already bought WoW, you just aren't choosing to keep a subscription to blizzards servers going.
i see where it monkey wrenches their very profitable business model but a business model is not a civil right and expecting the US government to enforce your business model at gunpoint is unethical and downright evil.
fuck blizzard
Maybe if you used your brain and read the rest of the comment, you could piece an answer together.
Nothing wrong with that, I've gotten tired of it several times. Just stop playing it. If you feel like playing again later, come back. It doesn't have to be some epic decision or involve drama, just shut down your account, and if you want turn it back on later. Interest in games can wax and wane, in particular if you've played for a long time.
Generally the people I see who complain about a new expansion just need a break. Things are going to change and many people don't like change. So they get angry about it, rather than considering if actually it might be fun. Just take a break. Also one problem Blizzard does have for sure given their long expansion cycles and ridiculous gear scaling rates is that there isn't a tons to do before a new expansion comes out. No problem, just stop playing then. Cancel your account and wait until the expansion hits and then reactive. Or don't, if you've found another game you like better.
It needn't be a big deal.