Blizzard Wins Major Lawsuit Against Bot Developers 838
Captain Kirk writes "World of Warcraft owners Blizzard have won their case against the programmer who wrote Glider, Michael Donnelly. (We discussed the case here when it was filed.) Blizzard won on two arguments: first, that if a game is loaded into RAM, that can be considered an unauthorized copy of the game and as such a breach of copyright; second, that selling Glider was interfering with Blizzard's contractual relationship with its customers. The net effect? If you buy a game, you transfer rights to the game developer that they can sue you for."
Re:Copyright? (Score:2, Funny)
Guess where I'll be for the next 10 years?
My wife is going to kill me...
Re:wait...RAM? (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, oh, idea! (Score:5, Funny)
New business plan:
1. Write a game that loads itself into RAM.
2. Give it away for free.
3. Sue everybody who plays it for copyright infringement.
4. Profit!
Performance of WoW is gonna suck (Score:4, Funny)
Performance of WoW is gonna suck now that everyone has to disable their cache before starting the game.
Re:Contracts now re-write law? (Score:3, Funny)
I have known many people to play WoW, I mean, it's insane.
The judge probably plays WoW.
The plaintiff's lawyers probably play WoW.
The defendant's lawyers probably play WoW.
Re:Wow... (Score:5, Funny)
Meh. No problem. Clearly my feeble attempts to play WoW are covered as parody.
Re:Performance of WoW is gonna suck (Score:2, Funny)
I'm sure people could get around the problem by just taking the RAM out of their computer.
Re:wait...RAM? (Score:5, Funny)
You sound... like an unbeliever. Like one of the washed masses. Impure infidel! We will get to you soon enough.
Re:wait...RAM? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Good News for Blizzard, bad news for copyright (Score:5, Funny)
You're screwed even with vinyl records. An unauthorized copy is stored in your brain, from which it may be illegally distributed by such devious pirating methods as humming and whistling!
Re:Mitigated opinion (Score:2, Funny)
I have some mixed filling about that.
Congratulations, you are now officially a sandwich!
Re:Good News for Blizzard, bad news for copyright (Score:5, Funny)
Derivative works; fair use. However, the copy that's being stored in the amplifier for a split-second between the needle and the speaker absolutely needs a license, as does each wall in the room unless they're certified to be 100% reflective to audio waves.
The license for your pants' copy of the song is, of course, easily avoided. Though it does drastically change the nature of public performance.
No, I'm New Here (Score:2, Funny)
No, I'm New Here
Re:But wait, there's more... (Score:2, Funny)
Wait a second!??????????1!!
Did you read TFA and understand what was going on?!!!!
SHAME ON YOU!
Don't you know this is slashdot?
Re:wait...RAM? (Score:4, Funny)
I'm entirely uncomfortable with the idea that Diablo III is the new face of Dianetics.
Re:No, I'm New Here (Score:2, Funny)
Parody (Score:5, Funny)
Derivative works; fair use. However, the copy that's being stored in the amplifier for a split-second between the needle and the speaker absolutely needs a license, as does each wall in the room unless they're certified to be 100% reflective to audio waves.
The license for your pants' copy of the song is, of course, easily avoided. Though it does drastically change the nature of public performance.
Most people suck at whistling and humming. I think they clearly qualify as parody.
Re:Good News for Blizzard, bad news for copyright (Score:5, Funny)
You know as well as I do that the RIAA is searching for God if only to send him a bill.
Re:Good News for Blizzard, bad news for copyright (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, but on the other hand, my completely non-electrical car with its flintlock sparkplugs isn't so much fun either ;).
Re: Souls!!!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wow... (Score:5, Funny)
exactly now it is possible to site this case and say anyone who runs your program by loading it into ram is violating copyright, and thus should pay you extra.
If I follow the judge's logic, then anybody looking at me on the street has created an unauthorized copy of me on their retina. They even have the gall to create additional unauthorized copies in other brain areas.
Lawsuits galore!
Re:Wow... (Score:5, Funny)
Unfucking believable.
Seriously.
I can't believe you just said that.
There's no way in hell that that could possibly be even remotely true.
No one on slashdot lost only four years to Diablo.
Re:Wow... (Score:5, Funny)
I cant even imagine any buiness.........
wait a second....
Re:Pretty much what I expected from you guys... (Score:3, Funny)
In-game cheating should be prevented by leveraging real-world laws? Not only does that not have anything to do with the issue at hand, it's fucking stupid.
btw, you just lost the game.