MDY Industries v. Blizzard Entertinament
Not on Westlaw (http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/12/14/09-15932.pdf)
Facts: World of Warcraft is the most popular MMORPG currently. It involves characters doing quests, earning money to level up. Wow Gilder is made by MDY industries which allow bots to earn money and level up instead of user. World of Warcraft purposely have a program called the warden which track down bots and stop users from using it. Wow Gilder finds ways to go around the warden so the bots can continue to grind and level up. Blizzard who made world of warcraft allege that it is copyright infringement for selling wow glider. It also contravene the Digital millienium copyright act which prohibits people from using circumvent protection measure which softwares put in place to protect their software.
Holding: Blizzard lost the copy right infringement but won the DMCA argument.
Important Dicta: It is not copyright infringement but the court have ruled that it is a breach of contract. Blizzard asks people to agree to terms and conditions before playign the game. Wow gilder breaches that contract. The court uphold the DMCA act because the wow gilder circumvent the Warden.
Analysis: Copyright infringement aren't that easy to show if someone makes a bot in your game. On the other hand breach of contract is a lot easier. Still breach of contract will probably have less damages then copyright infringement. Last is that softwares should put programs in there to stop people from circumventing it because then it can use the DMCA act to sue people for going through their protective measures.
Not on Westlaw (http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/12/14/09-15932.pdf)
Facts: World of Warcraft is the most popular MMORPG currently. It involves characters doing quests, earning money to level up. Wow Gilder is made by MDY industries which allow bots to earn money and level up instead of user. World of Warcraft purposely have a program called the warden which track down bots and stop users from using it. Wow Gilder finds ways to go around the warden so the bots can continue to grind and level up. Blizzard who made world of warcraft allege that it is copyright infringement for selling wow glider. It also contravene the Digital millienium copyright act which prohibits people from using circumvent protection measure which softwares put in place to protect their software.
Holding: Blizzard lost the copy right infringement but won the DMCA argument.
Important Dicta: It is not copyright infringement but the court have ruled that it is a breach of contract. Blizzard asks people to agree to terms and conditions before playign the game. Wow gilder breaches that contract. The court uphold the DMCA act because the wow gilder circumvent the Warden.
Analysis: Copyright infringement aren't that easy to show if someone makes a bot in your game. On the other hand breach of contract is a lot easier. Still breach of contract will probably have less damages then copyright infringement. Last is that softwares should put programs in there to stop people from circumventing it because then it can use the DMCA act to sue people for going through their protective measures.