Slashdot Mirror
Blizzard Issues DMCA Notice to a Fan-Run 'WoW' Legacy Server (torrentfreak.com)
An anonymous reader calls it "the never-ending stupidity of copyright wars." TorrentFreak reports:
Blizzard Entertainment is taking a stand against a popular World of Warcraft legacy server. The fan-operated project allows gamers to experience how the game was played over a decade ago and to revive old battles... In recent years the project has captured the hearts of tens of thousands of die-hard WoW fans. At the time of writing, the most popular realm has more than 6,000 people playing from all over the world... Blizzard, however, sees this as copyright infringement and has asked GitHub to pull the site's code offline.
The article notes the DMCA notice came "just weeks after several organizations and gaming fans asked the US Copyright Office to make a DMCA circumvention exemption for 'abandoned' games."
The article notes the DMCA notice came "just weeks after several organizations and gaming fans asked the US Copyright Office to make a DMCA circumvention exemption for 'abandoned' games."
Q: Are they actually infringing copyright?
If they are, then a DMCA is to be expected.
If they are breaching trademarks then they should also expect a trademark related cease and desist.
WoW in its "classic", level 50 (or was it 60?) cap form, IS abandoned. Blizzard does not offer the option to play on a server where the old dungeons are the endgame and expansion creep isn't forcing people to play the game in a way they never wanted to.
If Blizzard offered no-expansion servers, we can talk.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
WoW ( as it stands may not be abandoned ), but as stated the version / release and content that excited people in droves back then most certainly has been.
Perhaps software companies would do well to embrace communities like these to enhance player experience vrs kill them off cause they seem to do things better than they currently do. Lets face it the gaming industry is super stagnant right now, almost as bad as Hollywood and movies, any help to a company or genre of game should be welcomed not shutdown using DMCA which really is total B$ of the dubya era.
Just sayin
How much Blizzard code exactly, has been copied, to produce the non-Blizzard server?
All these people, here and elsewhere that are claiming they should be able to play the game as released by Blizzard. Sure, go on then ! Having played since the early Betas, i remember what the game was like when it was first released and my account history shows how much free time there was when it was _released_. Oh and of course, next you'll have people claiming "oh no, we didn't mean when it was released, we mean when it was stable", or "oh no, we didn't mean when it was released we meant at the end of the expansion". Copyright is copyright. Like it or not, dislike the period or not , get over it.
So what version are we talking about when they say its been "abandoned", as someone else pointed out that means they should be keeping servers running for every patch "I want to play the second Burning Crusade patch please - you've abandoned that Blizzard, I'm not entitling myself to create my own server and copy all your material". Reductio ad absurdum - I want to have my own server running the patch the day before yesterday, 'cause you've abandoned that version Blizzard.
Either way just move the server/code to Canada.
We already have "interoperability" exemptions to copyright. This is an ideal example of why they were put in. User demand for a specific version of the product which the original maker refuses to support.
Lest you forget, Kim Dotcom's case should remind you that the US has jurisdiction wherever it wants.
They don't offer it because basically *nobody* (i'm sure you'll find a few exceptions here to try and prove me wrong) running a game of any real size offers it. That's not how MMO's work
They're not going to run separate servers for every patch level, just to accommodate folks that forgot they signed up for a game that was going to be constantly updated.
Even still, not offering that specific service, however interesting it may be to some, is still their call. I can imagine it may disappoint some people but thus calling it abandoned is pretty silly.
No. 2.4.3 vs, 3.3.5...etc.
Private servers run different EXPANSIONS. Because Bliz took that feeling away from TBC and WOTLK. CATA garbage, MOP garbage.... and everything else pretty much after.
Even if Bliz starts to do classic mode (which they are) that still can't change the facts.
Bliz is wrong; they changed MAJOR aspects of the game to the extent that each expansion is like a GAME in and of itself, and not a VERSION of a GAME.
That is the final crux; Warcraft is many different games each time there is an expansion and the company DENIES PLAYERS the right of playing previous GAMES.
ie: TBC is warcraft but it is the game TBC. WOTLK is warcraft but it is the GAME WOTLK. When they bring out this next patch, LEGION will be ABANDONWARE.
I just hate how nobody UNDERSTANDS THIS. Dammit.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Companies only started releasing those games in response to the public constantly pirating them. It seems like we need pirates to help the copyright holders find valid business models.
Lets see what do I remember about EQ (got to level 20): /con to determine approximately what level an NPC was relative to your own.
1. The game was full screen. Any attempt to switch to another app would close EQ
2. Having to type
3. Solo play outside of a couple of classes was impossible due to anything granting XP being able to kill you
4. Having to sit down to slowly regain mana, Also move, sit, wait for mana regen tick, move, repeat.
5. Unlike WoW multiple characters couldn't occupy the same place.
6. Massive XP penalization for dying. Clerics could resurrect you to restore some XP, but their 100% XP restore had a 1 day cool down.
7. Players who volunteered to be in game customer support (they got free subscription).
8. A high level quest which involved sitting under water for 3 hours +/- 15 minutes for an NPC to show up.
9. Having to compete with other players on an NPC that spawns once per week for its loot/quest requirement.
10. No private party only dungeons.
11. Daylight savings screwed up the servers
12. If you died you had to get your gear back from your body.
13. I played after they removed the part where you had to stare at a book in the UI to recover mana
14. If you got blind, the UI, including chat with other players was black. Although you could hit just fine.
15. A hack called "Show EQ" pissed off devs and was pretty much undetectable, as you ran it on a proxy server running Linux.
16 If you carry too much you can go to 0 movement speed. If you got a buff to walk, then even the smallest fall was fatal.
17, An invisible NPC called "Pain and suffering" which would attack any player lower than 0 hp, but not yet dead (very unlikey at high levels).
So, No thanks to that. I'm not touching EQ again.
I understand the legal issues just fine.
However, my mindset was best expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas:
There are obvious examples: Slavery was legal; and in no case was it reasonable to follow the law. Forbidding women's right to vote was legal, and in no case was it reasonable to follow the law. And so on.
The law, unfortunately, is not a golden chalice of right and reason, and there are definitely times when extremely bad law should be ignored until/unless it can be repaired. In my personal estimation, this is one of those areas.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Basically, you're confirming that EQ was hardcore. Sadly that's no longer commercially viable as MMOs rely on network effects, and the networks build around the less punitive games - as you indicate you'd prefer yourself.
It's a shame though, as EQ did have a tremendous amount of content and did help define a genre. I'm not sure I'd want to play it myself if it was released today (with shiny new graphics, etc) but EQ does have its place in gaming history.
Incidentally, points 2, 5, 7 and 16 aren't necessarily bad at all. Shit, you could /con something, find that it's pathetic and still get utterly hammered for attacking it. My first death happened that way..
Copyright needs a total revamp after the tampering by the music and movie industry in the 1976 for their exclusive benefit that completely destroyed the original intent of copyright laws in the first palce. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Copyright term for movies and TV shows should be limited to 14 years on the original work.
Copyright on software and games should be limited to 7 years with a 7 year purchasable extension requiring that the software/game still be in use and for sale to the general public at market price in good faith.
All software should be covered exclusively by copyright and all software patents summarily invalidated.
Notwithstanding the above, all commercial copyright material (TV, Movies, corporate developed software and games) automatically enters public domain if unavailable for good faith purchase or un-aired for a period of 1 year in the US after initially released anywhere in the world.
Books should be covered for 25 years with an automatic extension of 15 years if they are still in print.
Music should be covered for 14 years with a 7 year purchasable extension.
All books and music (and other small/single author content that requires a publisher) should be limited to a maximum of 3 year contract, after which the rights are reverted to the author(s) to be re-negotiated in a new contract of their choosing.
Once an item leaves "commercial" copyright, a second stage should engage (call it distribution copyright), where only the rights holder can sell the copyrighted material, but it is free for anyone to share/distribute in a nonprofit maner. This period lasts an additional 20 years, at which point the work enters the public domain.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like