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Blizzard Folds on WoW Guide Suit

Posted by Zonk on Fri Jun 09, 2006 03:23 PM
from the easy-way-out dept.
The Courts Role Playing (Games)
Agent writes "You may remember the suit that Brian Kopp brought against Blizzard, Vivendi and the ESA in March of this year. He sued due to wrongful takedowns under the DMCA of his ebay auctions. The case was settled today, allowing him to resell his guide on eBay and his personal site. The settlement helps more than just Kopp, as it sets a precedent for future interactions of this nature with game companies."

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[+] Games: Blizzard Sued By Game Guide Creator 285 comments
Gamespot reports on a suit brought by a game guide creator against Warcraft-maker Blizzard Entertainment. The two parties will be going to court because of an attempt by Blizzard to quash a guide the plaintiff created for the World of Warcraft MMORPG. Offered electronically through eBay, the company claims that the guide creator is infringing on their IP. From the article: "Kopp's complaint argues that his book does not infringe on any of the companies' copyrights for several reasons: The book presents a disclaimer on its first page about its 'unauthorized' nature, contains no copyrighted text or storylines from the game, and makes "fair use" of selected screenshots under copyright law, the complaint said."
[+] More Unintended Consequences of the DMCA 205 comments
BrianWCarver writes "In the seven years since Congress enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), examples of the law's impact on legitimate consumers, scientists, and competitors continue to mount. A new report released today from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), 'Unintended Consequences: Seven Years Under the DMCA,' (pdf) collects reports of the misuses of the DMCA -- chilling free expression and scientific research, jeopardizing fair use, impeding competition and innovation, and interfering with other laws on the books. The report updates a previous version issued by EFF in 2003, which Slashdot also covered."
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Blizzard Folds on WoW Guide Suit 46 Comments More | Login /

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      • Actually, I think its something to do with the new CSS.
        You cannot tell if an abbreviated article is in the mysterious future or not (normal articles have a red tint, and the abbreviated ones used to as well).

        Either that or its just a crappy article ;)
  • I'm glad they settled, but it doesn't make up for all the shit they put the bnetd guys through, or the fact that they constantly ignore what their user community wants, or the whole silly 'gay marriage' thing in WoW.

    I'm afraid they're all just corporate as

    • welcome to 2002 (Score:5, Informative)

      by BitterAndDrunk (799378) on Friday June 09 2006, @03:44PM (#15505365) Homepage
      It's sad, but I'd love to see a mass exodus of the creative people who brought us StarCraft to somewhere else, so that we could get some games that are worth playing.

      I'm pretty certain all of the lead designers moved on a while ago.

      Guild Wars is an ex-Blizzard thing, as is Hellgate: London.

      [ Parent ]

    • Re:Too little, too late (Score:3, Informative)

      by Surt (22457)
      There was already such a mass exodus. Over the last couple of years they've lost over 50% of the Starcraft guys, 90% of the Diablo I/II guys, I'm not sure on Warcraft ... over 50% from WarII are gone, WOW has probably not lost quite as many because it is
  • I thought settlements avoided the issue of precedent?

    • Can't spell precedent without PR (Score:4, Insightful)

      by tepples (727027) <slash2006@pineight.com> on Friday June 09 2006, @03:40PM (#15505333) Homepage Journal

      True, a settlement does not create a binding judicial precedent in the way that a judgment does. But if a firm offers a settlement to one party, then other parties are likely to demand the same settlement, and it would be a PR nightmare for the firm not to extend the offer to them.

      [ Parent ]
    • You are exactly right and if they choose to sue somebody else nobody can go back to this settlement and say you did this so you can't sue us. They probably figure they have more people they can go after they just need a more sympathetic judge.
  • Blizzard settled out of court. So there is no legal president set.

    You can't goto a judge and say well in Blizzard vs. Knopp they settled so it's an open and shut case your honor.
    • Blizzard settled out of court. So there is no legal president set.

      There's still a precedent here, even if it isn't a legal one. It shows users that it is possible for them to successfully fight the game companies on this kind of issue, though it may be

    • Power of the fourth estate (Score:4, Insightful)

      by tepples (727027) <slash2006@pineight.com> on Friday June 09 2006, @03:45PM (#15505377) Homepage Journal
      Blizzard settled out of court. So there is no legal president set.

      A Freudian slip about President Bush's legitimacy? ;-) But seriously, assuming you meant "precedent", you're right in a strict sense, but here's why it doesn't matter as much as some may think:

      You can't goto a judge

      But you can go to a journalist, who may be able to spin up the discrimination. Settling in the same way may be easier for a firm than denying a settlement and facing a PR nightmare.

      [ Parent ]
      • The difference is that as long as your case has merit a judge must hear you while a journalist can tell you "sorry, not interested" and your story won't reach anything larger than some niche gaming website.

        • The difference is that as long as your case has merit a judge must hear you while a journalist can tell you "sorry, not interested"

          The other difference is that forum shopping is a lot easier because while judges are limited to a territorial jurisdictio

  • Wrong - A settlement doesn't set a precedent (Score:5, Informative)

    by Manip (656104) on Friday June 09 2006, @03:34PM (#15505263)
    Wrong! Only a court can set a legal precedent... Out of court settlements are just that, out of court agreements to "Not sue, if X, Y and Z terms are met." Common Law allows a judge / court to make decisions that have to be examined when the same (or similar) cases come before it or a lower court again, and thus how a precedent is formed.

    You can't use this case to even defend against Blizzard themselves suing you unfortunately, let alone anyone else... If Blizzard had gone to court and lost then it would have set a new precedent for unofficial gaming guides, but you can't use an out-of-court settlement because for one thing the court often isn't even aware of the terms of that settlement.

    • Court != court (Score:3, Interesting)

      by tepples (727027)

      Only a court can set a legal precedent

      And only a journalist can set a precedent in the court of public opinion.

      You can't use this case to even defend against Blizzard themselves suing you unfortunately, let alone anyone else

      Think outside the box.

    • Wrong! Only a court can set a legal precedent... Out of court settlements are just that, out of court agreements to "Not sue, if X, Y and Z terms are met."

      And just because a court decides in a certain way doesn't mean the precedent is legally binding.

      It ju

  • no precedent (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Goldsmith (561202)
    Actually, this does not set precedent. There's no court ruling for other courts to reference, a private settlement is not a valid law.

    This actually keeps other companies from having to allow this.
  • What I'd like to know, is this guide any good?
    • If it's the guide I'm thinking of (Joana's) then yeah, it's pretty OK. There are lots of free guides out there that will give as much or more info, but that one is freakishly fast. I've a friend who's run alts through it 2x on new servers, and he's been ab

      • Re:But is it any good? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by garylian (870843)
        What's the point of getting alts to lvl 60 in 5 days? Besides not sleeping and having zero social life, you haven't really enjoyed a single moment of the game.

        I don't play MMOs to hit max level uber-fast. I play them to enjoy them. I liked the fact that
        • > I liked the fact that it took me about 6 months to hit 60, because WoW was exceedingly boring for a lvl 60 toon.

          It may come as a surprise to you, but for some people *it is fun* to see 20 or 40 people working together, play their classes well, and kil
  • Blizzard got away without paying any damages to Kopp. I would say they owed tens of thousands of dollars to him minimum. I don't call that much of a victory for Kopp.

    If I was the Evil Overlord, Blizzard would be roasting over an open fire right about n

    • Precisely, this was not a win for Kopp in any sense of the word. This is bullshit, not a settlement.
    • Well, to get something positive out of this, at least you can say he got the sort of advertising that money just can't buy!

  • Guess I'm the minority (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Avatar8 (748465) on Friday June 09 2006, @05:35PM (#15506224)
    I saw nothing wrong with Blizzard protecting their content AND all opportunities (read marketing) that stem from that content.

    What I see is this guy capitalizing off Blizzard's work. I dislike that, but it is the way of the capitalist world in which we live.

    It also sickens me that the guide is geared towards making money in WoW, supports (ads on the website) buying gold for real money and in general demeans the essence of the game. All of this leads to imbalances that once done cannot be undone. In short, this is all leading towards ruining the game.

    I personally wish Blizzard would strongly enforce their Terms of Service agreement that states that all virtual property in World of Warcraft belongs to Blizzard and therefore cannot be sold.

    • Unfortunately, there's ways around their ToS (I don't know it verbatim, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt). I know someone who just put his account up for sale on eBay and it was closed by eBay, which is expected. He reposted and got a s
      • Blizzard's Terms of Use (at least last time I checked) allows reselling an account, *provided* that you sell the entire game, CD, documentation, original box, etc... along with it. That sticks to first sale doctrine, so hats off to them for that.
        • It does, but it also prohibits you from transferring any "virtual" assets (characters, gold) for real money. Without exception.

          It's very contradictory.
          • exactly. So if I'm tired of the game, I could sell my copy of the game to my neighbor so he doesn't have to buy a new copy from the store - I'd just have to delete my characters first.

            I don't see what's contradictory about that.

          • What you state doesn't sound that contradictory to me. Selling the entire shebang isn't transferring virtual assets (as in, it's staying with the original account), whereas selling gold is counted as transferrance, as it is going from your account to someo

    • Re:Guess I'm the minority (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Jamesday (794888) on Friday June 09 2006, @06:34PM (#15506596)
      It's already well established that you can produce things like a collector's guide without any authoization from the maker of what you're describing. One leading case involved Beanie Babies [ivanhoffman.com] and included photographs of them all. It was fair use even though it included photographs of them all because a collectors guide has to include all of the items. To quote from the decision:

      "we may say that copying that is complementary to the copyrighted work ... is fair use, but copying that is a substitute for the copyrighted work ... is not fair use. ... A photograph of a Beanie Baby is not a substitute for a Beanie Baby."

      It's clearly impossible for any book to replace the WoW gameplay experience. Hence, Blizzard had ample reason to know that their takedown notices were completely invalid and subjected them to the penalties under section 512(f) of the DMCA for sending false notices.

      [ Parent ]
    • in general demeans the essence of the game


      What does this even mean?

      • It means to me that when you're in a fantasy RPG, you want to experience the fantasy and leave the real world behind for a little while. THAT world has its own politics, economics and other dynamics that make it unique.

        When something like a strategy guide

    • Re:Guess I'm the minority (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Pofy (471469)
      >I personally wish Blizzard would strongly enforce their Terms of Service
      >agreement that states that all virtual property in
      >World of Warcraft belongs to Blizzard and therefore cannot be sold.

      Which is completely irellevant since you don't sell any
  • my wife and I each have 3 lvl 60's and we have never paid real money for gold or items. all but one of our toons has an epic mount and I will be getting his soon.
    • From what I've gathered, this guide was about how to farm in the game for yourself, not so much about buying gold with real money.
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