Blizzard's Lawsuit Against Glider Coming To A Close
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iTZKooPA on Friday, February 6, 2009 - 25 Comments Tags: blizzard, botting, cheating, farming, glider, kill stealing, lawsuit, mdy, mdy industries, mmoglider, wowglider
iTZKooPA on Friday, February 6, 2009 - 25 Comments Tags: blizzard, botting, cheating, farming, glider, kill stealing, lawsuit, mdy, mdy industries, mmoglider, wowglider  Money, Money, Money, Money, MONEEEEY - Via GameCyte |
Last week it came out that MDY Industries would likely have to stop selling their product, known as Glider. MDY would be able to continue sales while the appeals court heard the case, if the company was able to present arguments to the judge defending their position. In a post on the Glider forums, MDY Industries CEO Michael Donnelly stated that the company did not expect to make a successful case for the botting program, essentially handing the victory to Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard, by way of blue Poster Nethaera, responded to the recent changes in Blizzard v. Glider lawsuit. In laymen's terms, MDY was charged with breaking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Let's back up a minute, though. While the case is essentially over, many players out there may not have any idea what the 2006 case is all about, or how it got to this point. For starters, MMOGlider is a botting program that was originally designed for use with World of Warcraft. Originally called WoW Glider, the name was quickly changed to avoid any possible confusion that Blizzard may endorse the program
Glider is not a teleport hack, map hack or any kind of hack. It is simply an automated farmer. It controls an in-game character given some preset instructions, and it is capable of doing all the routine grinding you normally do but at a way lower price. It is against Blizzard's Terms of Service and End User License Agreement and has often led to accounts being banned. Not to mention, most players - this one included - see it as cheating...while prospering!
Blizzard vs Glider has been going on since the early days of World of Warcraft, so there is a lot to cover. Rather than reinvent the wheel, here are links to various sites that have covered the case with a quick synopsis.
- MDY Industries sues Blizzard (November 2006) - That is correct, the case started off with MDY suing the developer for allegedly attempting to block the sale of the botting software.
- Blizzard tossed MDY a counter-suit (March 2007) - A few months later Blizzard turns around and sues MDY for damages.
- MDY receives a small victory (March 2008) - The first judgment comes out. MDY's licensing partner Lavish Software will not be forced to give up information about Lavish and MDY's dealings to Blizzard.
- Public interest group stands up for MDY (May 2008) - Public Knowledge submits a "friend of the court" brief stating that Blizzard is claiming more power than copyright protection offers them. The group, while not trying not to take sides, states that if Blizzard wins the suit, the lawsuit will become a landmark case that gives copyright holders immense power. More thoughts on the far-reaching topic by Terra Nova, Ars Technica and then Blizzard's response to Public Knowledge's filing.
- MDY is found guilty (July 2008) - Blizzard wins the case due to MDY's program copying proprietary code into the system's RAM. That is illegal under the DMCA.
- Blizzard seeks to bury MDY's program (August 2008) - Blizzard attempts to stop Glider from resurfacing by handcuffing MDY in every way possible. Company looks to stop possible open-sourcing of the code or MDY helping others develop such software.
- Blizzard gets paid (October 2008) - Judgement awards Blizzard $6 million for the hassle.
- MDY's soul is crushed - Bot maker doesn't feel they will convince the judge to allow them to keep selling MMOGlider during the appeals process with Blizzard.
As you can see, legal wranglings took awhile to come to fruition. As it stands now, the case isn't truly over, but things certainly look bad for MDY. Should the company be unable to make its case to continue selling the software, it will like go under. They have until February 13 to come up with something.
As noted by numerous software advocacy groups, gurus and copyright lawyers, the case affects far more than just WoW's millions of players. In actuality, it can have an impact on all third-party apps that run alongside software for anything, including every other MMOG and even this spiffy machinima tool.
Reader Comments (25)
foist! ha never had it before :)
good... i am glad this is happening and I hope they get shut down for good. I think that anyone who uses this software is not a gamer and not a WoW player. I will always say that powerleveling, gold selling, bots and hacks are a full on CHEAT and should not be available.
Sorry I get very wound up by this lol :-)
second >.<
I agree with stu. People that use this are not players anymore, players play the game themselves.
why does anyone give a f**k if ur second do u really spend ur time writing second on comment boards..btw ur not even second
im happy this is shut down as well now there wil be less cheaters and more people that actually put effort into it
Here's what I think Blizzard should do:
Create a server specifically for botters (people not caught botting will not be allowed on this server). If you are caught botting, all your characters are sent to this server.
After awhile, the botters will get bored. When everyone is botting, you don't have a leg up on anyone.
I'm also very happy that these types of hack / cheating programs will be gone and force players to actually play the game right.
But the damage is done already, thus probably half or better of the toons already level capped were done using these cheats.
Now if blizz would actually tackle the biggest problem with the game.
This problem being Battleground AFKers. we all know what i mean those individuals who go in and do 0 damage and 0 healing then they wait till the battle is about over then go hit an enemy player so the debuff disappears and they get their free mark and any bonus honor.
Blizz could solve this problem very easily IMO but i guess enough ranting on the subject since it's not the point of this blog post.
One of the other big problems that blizz can never seem to get right is actually equaling out the class / races at the base level. thus eliminating the problem with everyone complaining about who is OP this time. By base line equaling out the races / classes the only determining of who is better would be dependant on individual play style, gear worn, and their talent spec.
sorry I know still not on topic but it's still something that needs said since it's 1 of the biggest problems besides all the hacks and cheat out there.
/agree with everyone above
Once you stop playing WoW by yourself,you stopped being a player,hence,breaking the Blizz Terms
I say good riddance to Glider
"...probably half or better of the toons already level capped were done using these cheats."
Got to that point, spewed soda from laughing so hard, wrecked my monitor.
You owe me a monitor, pal.
(Didn't read the rest of his drivel - if he agreed to send everyone he made spew a new monitor, then sorry for the redundant post.)
Not a fan of bots and glad to see them dealt with - but the incidental problems for legitamate 3rd party application development is troubling
I agree that it is cheating and it is a risk im not willing to take if i got banned due to a botting program i wouldn't be able to stand myself. Plus i made my way to 73 on my own why start now.
So, you come home and sit down at your computer, turn on wow and then put on glider, get a pizza, chat with e-friends, its ok right? wrong. remember, dont glide.
*the more you know*
Appreciate the attempt to credit us for the photo (and the even-handed article) but the photo isn't ours.
Please see the bottom of our piece here:
http://www.gamecyte.com/blizzard-takes-illegal-wow-glider-for-6-million-ride
I never understood Glider,
it plays the game for you so afterward you can play the game.
I agree with Stu.
A real player plays for the enjoyment of the game. Not for the digital money that comes from over killing a mob to get a certain loot.
I was certainly glad when they put in the one hit mining. Constantly hearing about gold farmers coming in and taking nodes then not looting them until the person would get POed and fly off. Cut those suckers out and I've seen a few do that and they're bots! You can yell and scream at them all you want and nothing, not even bad English back.
As a copyright owner to a book I applaud Blizzard for not just letting this slide and am disappointed that MDY didn't see that their program would infringe copyright laws with the copying software. Anyone who legally registers for control of their intellectual property under the copyright laws has every right to go after those copying anything of theirs. Copying is copying, end of story.
As a gamer who spends tedious hours grinding for gold and mats I find it very unfair that such a program should exist. I mean, this is something gold farmers no doubt used in the beginning (and probably during the case proceedings) to amass those huge stockpiles to sell back. It takes away from the fun when the game is all about how much gold you have and not about the skill you amassed while grinding for said gold.
Bots of for those lazy few who want to play the game for the social aspect and not the skill required to actually play.
OMG, actually PLAY?? WTF!!
If you are gonna hack why buy the game? I have had people argue that there is nothing wrong with using bots like MMOglider or powerleveling service...honestly though why buy the game if you aren't going to play it? The point of leveling is training yourself to that character...not just training the character itself
Uhm, do none of you realize this is about more than loosers who cheat at online games. This sets precidence that I'm sure many of you will be bitching about later when you realize the broader effects this has on software that automates other software. It makes my head spin that so many are so short sighted that they don't see the potential pit falls of this development geetting caught up in the blood lust. The argument that was made could be made aainst your operating system or hard drive manufacturer if it used any sort of caching. I understand Blizzards wanting to go after these guys but the legal precidence being set by these kangaroo courts is troubling and dangerous for all software developers.
your all fagots.
what a buncha fuckas .. I mean come on.. Blizzard takes people's lives away from them and these Feds get behind them ? They support this shit? They supporting stopping something that will save people thousands of hours of time? For a mere $25 USD? Are you fucking kidding me? IS this Judge really understanding the issue here or is he just counting his share of the take? WHAT THE HELL are they thinking??? Blizzard taking this to lawsuit is clearly the wrong step and they're closer to becoming a 'Sony' than I ever thought.. Jesus.. When will it end?
Seriously, the time it takes to play WoW is ridiculous.. one player was quoted as .. 'you might as well give your soul to Blizzard and say, see you in hell'
people just want to play at max level, ie, right now, max is level 80 - when they hit 80 they come back and play for realz.. and now.. NOW Blizzard took that away from people.. they are stealing money and time now.. what will they be able to do next ? attack north korea ? fuck these guys and their motherfucking high horse..
I remember when Blizzard was like 20 people.. now theyre some faceless giant running amuck in the city square, murdering the masses .. really its been about money and time and if its not about that, what the fuck else do we have ?
P.S. - some australian stole one of my accounts.. did Blizzard give a fuck about that? No .. the thieves play the account more then I ever did.. they get paid.. so when money got involved in this.. you know Blizzard was after it.. gotta pay for those caffee mochas somehow.. cali scum
Just one moment now... If Blizzard cann sue MDY for breaking their EULA, because it is copyright infringement, then it suddenly got risky being a player. If you should get the crazy idea of running two programs with Warden-like tools, say WOW and Warhammer Online, those tools would read the info going through the RAM, something which is against the EULA of both games. this means that Blizzard and whoever makes Warhammer, could sue your ass off.
This ruling is loosely like if we had busted Jimmy Hoffa by abusing the tax law in a way that made a large fortune turn you into a business for legal cases, something which would mean that others with large fortunes were screwed
You know what everyone i really reallly really agree with dustin wow is just about the money i bot because i have things to do i dont bot 1-80 everyone plays inbetween levels if you really care about the gold farmers then ur fking retarted because half of them dont use bots and if bots where taken away there still would be gold farmers world of warcraft is treating this like a rape case half the people in here say ur not a real wow player ffs i wouldnt want that title anyways that title tells me ur just a big fagit.
And that's why you don't use Glider, kids. Drugs are bad!
Good article, thank you
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