HAYABUSA-FMW-
Aug 18, 2010, 08:01 PM
Woman Runs Pirate WoW Server;
Fined $88,594,539.00 in Court
Published on August 17th, 2010
Posted by hhopper in Business, Games, The Internet
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/world_of_warcraft.jpg[/spoiler-box]
How seriously does Blizzard take the operation of private World of Warcraft servers? On August 10th the company was awarded a stunning $88,594,539.00 judgment against a woman who operated a business running her own WoW server and selling items via Paypal. That may seem steep, but over $3 million of that amount came from "inappropriate profits" the woman made from running the server. That's right: her private server, run under the name Scapegaming, was a multimillion dollar business. It also made her a very attractive :witch: target for litigation.
Running private servers violates the EULA, DMCA
Creating a private server, and then selling access and items to players on that server, breaks the World of WarCraft End User Licensing Agreement and Terms of Use in many ways.
That's right, since the woman in question never showed up in court, she was slammed with a DMCA violation for every single one of her users. :burger: After making a few million from running a private server, you'd think it would be a good idea to save a little back just in case the company in question decides to come after you.
In fact, the statutory damages were low, according to the court. The $200 fine per circumvention is a statutory minimum, and in this case it was multiplied by 427,393 users. :drakee:"To the extent that this figure appears unreasonably large, Congress has mandated this approach and the Court is unable to deviate from it," the judgment explained.
Blizzard also argued that every Paypal transaction constituted a circumvention, but the court struck that one down. The amount Blizzard claimed it was owed looking at the Paypal transactions? An additional $20,886,200 in statutory damages. :mushboom:
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2010/08/17/woman-runs-pirate-wow-server-fined-88594539-00-in-court/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/08/the-88-million-server-private-wow-server-op-loses-big.ars
For-profit private servers are not a valid career path
It's unlikely you'll find yourself in a courtroom if you're messing around with a few friends, but Scapegaming was dealing with hundreds of thousands of members paying millions of dollars to play on what amounts to a pirate server.
World of WarCraft is Activision Blizzard's largest cash cow, and the company does not have a sense of humor about gamers finding a way to play without paying the monthly fee.
PSYOU private scurvies better watchout too. DHYLAW don't play.
[spoiler]SONIKKU MMOJRPGEEZ?! would profit any? be flooded with canon animal talk-ese people monkeying around peanut butter banana jelly time 24/7? Better to not give out any ideas. Eww, Sega Second Sonic Life!
Fined $88,594,539.00 in Court
Published on August 17th, 2010
Posted by hhopper in Business, Games, The Internet
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/world_of_warcraft.jpg[/spoiler-box]
How seriously does Blizzard take the operation of private World of Warcraft servers? On August 10th the company was awarded a stunning $88,594,539.00 judgment against a woman who operated a business running her own WoW server and selling items via Paypal. That may seem steep, but over $3 million of that amount came from "inappropriate profits" the woman made from running the server. That's right: her private server, run under the name Scapegaming, was a multimillion dollar business. It also made her a very attractive :witch: target for litigation.
Running private servers violates the EULA, DMCA
Creating a private server, and then selling access and items to players on that server, breaks the World of WarCraft End User Licensing Agreement and Terms of Use in many ways.
That's right, since the woman in question never showed up in court, she was slammed with a DMCA violation for every single one of her users. :burger: After making a few million from running a private server, you'd think it would be a good idea to save a little back just in case the company in question decides to come after you.
In fact, the statutory damages were low, according to the court. The $200 fine per circumvention is a statutory minimum, and in this case it was multiplied by 427,393 users. :drakee:"To the extent that this figure appears unreasonably large, Congress has mandated this approach and the Court is unable to deviate from it," the judgment explained.
Blizzard also argued that every Paypal transaction constituted a circumvention, but the court struck that one down. The amount Blizzard claimed it was owed looking at the Paypal transactions? An additional $20,886,200 in statutory damages. :mushboom:
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2010/08/17/woman-runs-pirate-wow-server-fined-88594539-00-in-court/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/08/the-88-million-server-private-wow-server-op-loses-big.ars
For-profit private servers are not a valid career path
It's unlikely you'll find yourself in a courtroom if you're messing around with a few friends, but Scapegaming was dealing with hundreds of thousands of members paying millions of dollars to play on what amounts to a pirate server.
World of WarCraft is Activision Blizzard's largest cash cow, and the company does not have a sense of humor about gamers finding a way to play without paying the monthly fee.
PSYOU private scurvies better watchout too. DHYLAW don't play.
[spoiler]SONIKKU MMOJRPGEEZ?! would profit any? be flooded with canon animal talk-ese people monkeying around peanut butter banana jelly time 24/7? Better to not give out any ideas. Eww, Sega Second Sonic Life!