Blizzard Lawyers Visit Creator of WoW Glider

Rick Hamell writes "On October 25th, Blizzard/Vivendi payed a personal visit to Michael Donnelly, creator of WoW Glider and accused him of violating the DMCA. Their demands were unclear, but come in the wake of recent player bannings for using bots in the popular MMORPG. It looks like he's going to fight it, but I think it'll be an interesting case if it ever reaches the courts." From the post: "The visitors from Vivendi / Blizzard made demands of Michael and stated that if the demands were not met that they would file a complaint in court if he did not meet them. I asked Michael what the demands were. He was unable to comment at the time to the exact details. But I do know they handed him a copy to very briefly 'Look at'. He was not given a copy. I think I could make a good guess and say that they asked for Glider to be shut down and if they feel that they have been harmed they may have asked for a financial settlement."

Won't someone please think of the bots?

[MrFlannel]

I mean, they just want to play WoW and have a little fun. Is that too much to ask?

Or are you too afraid you'll be replaced? Too afraid you might have to try a little harder playing against someone a little bit better than you?

Fight for machine rights!

Re:Pwned

[__aaclcg7560]

I thought it was only in South Park that the Blizzard folks pays a personal visit. Nice to see outstanding customer support in real life. ;)

The bot gave itself away..

[Channard]

.. by not emoting 'HAY GUYZ I NEED A HEAL' or 'WANNA JOIN MY GUILD' every five seconds. Actually I guess Blizzard are worried not so much by the DMCA stuff as the fact this takes away human interaction from the game. Which is, after all, the only real reason to play an MMORPG and not an offline RPG.

Re:Taking the bull by the horns, so to speak-

[Sparr0]

it doesnt violate the TOS for people who never agreed to them. i amended my wow TOS before launching the game, and i guarantee the version i agreed to has no such provisions.

Re:Taking the bull by the horns, so to speak-

[dangitman]

tortious interference

If he has tortious interference, he should probably go see a Doctor ASAP, not a lawyer. That shit is itchy as hell.

Re:Taking the bull by the horns, so to speak-

[GuyverDH]

You should see the SPIA (Software Publisher's Installation Agreement) that's pasted on the front of my Computer.

It clearly states, that by allowing their software to be installed on this computer, that they agree to the following terms.

#1 All EULAs are null and void.
#2 They WILL be held accountable if their software causes a problem.
#3 I can do whatever the hell I want with their software once it's installed on MY computer.
#4 They can NOT install anything *extra* without my explicit permission.
    4a) Any attempts to do so will result in fines no less than 1 Million USD, and no more than (whatever they have in liquid assets)
#5 Any updates or changes to the software's EULA must be approved by me before they can be sent out to anyone else.

I'm currently sitting at around 4.5 billion in fines. I'm waiting until I hit the "Trillion Dollar" mark, before I move forward with my lawsuits for SPIA violations.