In his summary ruling on Blizzard's case against World of Warcraft cheat-maker Michael Donnelly (released yesterday), District Court Judge David Campbell has stated that the act of using a bot in violation of a game's license or terms of use qualifies as a copyright violation. Huh?
Just to get it out of the way, I'm as much against cheats as the next guy. As a WoW player in particular, I'm glad to see Blizzard shut down the cheaters and cheat-makers. But this ruling doesn't make much sense to me; it seems like a case of the judge just trying to find a way to cover something which doesn't really cross any real existing laws. Worse, it sets some (arguably) nasty precedent, effectively making EULAs law (any violation is a violation of copyright), rather than simple contracts where the most you can lose is your right to use the software.
Strangely, the judge actually dismissed Blizzard's claims that the cheats violated the DMCA. Given the amount of use the DMCA gets in such cases, you'd think that the ruling would have been the other way around, at least. In any case, it seems the case is now going to trial to decide the DMCA portion for certain.
What do you guys think? Should this ruling stand? Personally, I think that it shouldn't--stripping cheaters of their access to the game and perhaps making a civil claim against the cheat-makers for damaging the game for everyone else is justified, but making any EULA violations illegal, as Judge Campbell (inadvertently or otherwise) has done is going too far.
Are they copying the game? If not, then it's not a copyright violation. Copyright can be traced back to two words. Right (as in entitlement), and copy (as in reproduce or reproduction) make up copyright. If it is not a copy, it's not an infringement of copyright.
Why?
Isn't a violation of an EULA a breach of contract?
Just because it has an acronym doesn't make it less enforcable.
If you agree to the terms of an EULA then that's that. You cannot selectively disregard it...
If copyright were that simple there wouldn't be room for debates of IP, etc....
Looks like the issue here would be with the taking and modifying of proprietary content for uses other than that which was intended.
If the Game designer wanted the game to be difficult and involving....any third-party attempts to circumvent that complexity would be a case to answer....
I'm not saying it's not illegal, I'm just saying that it's nto in copyright.
Ah, but breach of contract is just breach of contract; it's grounds for a civil claim of damages, but not illegal in and of itself. This ruling changes that.
The particular cheat in question, as I understand it, doesn't modify anything. It basically just plays the game for you.
How about the idea of entering a contract with the intent of breaking it? Fraudulent, maybe? ....
It's a ridiculous technicality (legally) that the judge is using here. Obviously, a program has to be loaded into memory to use, but that hardly consititutes a "copy" in any sense that actually matters.
The user already owns a legally purchased copy and is not duplicating it in any substantial or material way, though they *are* using it in contravention of the license--but that's another matter (continued breach of contract). It's just a horrible misapplication of copyright law.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html
For those looking for the EULA.
If it can be demonstrated that the use of bots disadvantages other WoW customers there will clearly be a legitimate case for compensation....and that will be for a serious amount of money.
The guy who creates/sells this bot thingie is gonna be very very deep in the poo.
I'd chalk that up to their lawyers just wanting to cover every possible base or avenue or exploitation, since yeah, some such cheats make mirror copies of the game's memory so it can't detect tampering in its own memory space.
In all actuality though, the copying of a program to memory is an integral step of using it, so it HAS to be granted or the whole thing is moot. It's actually not unlike the act of reading a book, in which the words pass through your short term memory. It would be utter nonsense to say that you're making a copy in the act of doing that. As with a game, only a tiny part is ever there at any one time, and the rest of the book (or assets) are read in and forgotten as you go. Generally, much of what's in memory at any given time is not the program itself, but runtime-generated data about the game world.
Kryo...you're totally correct there...but that's probably not the issue at all. This bloke who created/sells the bot program thingie is altering the intent of the game....to be played [online] amongst fellow [human] players. There is supposed to be an advantage to a player if he uses a bot to remain engaged with the game 24/7....specifically to the detriment/disadvantage of others who do not use it/one.
THAT is where Blizzard will be able to screw this bloke....on behalf of the players who are unfairly discriminated against.
Or...
Every WoW player on the planet NOT using this guy's bot can enter a class action suit against him for loss of fair game-play enjoyment.
Either way, think more than knee-deep in poo....
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