Blizzard Sues Creator of WoW Bot 701
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by
Zonk
from the kind-of-defeating-the-point-of-an-mmo dept.
from the kind-of-defeating-the-point-of-an-mmo dept.
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Blizzard, the makers of World of Warcraft, are suing Michael Donnelly, the creator of the MMO Glider program, which performs key tasks in the game automatically. Blizzard says the software bot infringes the company's copyright and potentially damages the game. 'Blizzard's designs expectations are frustrated, and resources are allocated unevenly, when bots are introduced into the WoW universe, because bots spend far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time,' Blizzard wrote in its legal submission to the court. More than 100,000 copies of the tool have been sold while more than 10 million people around the world play Warcraft. Donnelly says his tool does not infringe Blizzard's copyright because no 'copy' of the Warcraft game client software is ever made. The two parties are now awaiting a summary judgment in the case."
Sweet (Score:5, Funny)
Different dimension (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Sweet (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sweet (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sweet (Score:4, Funny)
Can he come up with a program that does the boring parts of my life while I'm out having fun?
... you mean, hire a Maid?
Wrong target (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Copyright? Maybe not, but maybe trademark? (Score:5, Funny)
I don't think that's so abnormal..
Re:Thank God (Score:3, Funny)
You can, but why would you? (Score:5, Funny)
Of course we can, but wouldn't it be more efficient to have a computer entertain itself, on our behalf? Your recreation could be taken care of, for you by proxy, freeing you to pursue other more fulfilling endeavors, such as laboring.
This is just a step toward the ideals mankind has dreamt of for ages. Someday, computers will be able to drink beer for us, have sex for us, and enjoy books,music, and movies for us. Perhaps they could even sleep for us. This would make us free to perform menial tasks.
Re:Copyright infringement? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Copyright infringement? (Score:4, Funny)
It should be illegal for computers to be able do that.
Re:neither copyright nor trademark (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Copyright? Maybe not, but maybe trademark? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Copyright? Maybe not, but maybe trademark? (Score:4, Funny)
Nullav was pointing out that bots consume resources on Blizzard's machines and are indicative of asshattery.
Not that I'm exactly sure that those are necessarily going to be actionable in court.. especially the asshattery bit.
Re:Copyright? Maybe not, but maybe trademark? (Score:4, Funny)
Only, to get to that interesting content, you have to wade through a lot of boring crap like, "collect 10 livers from undead dire boars" And when you get there, you discover that they drop livers 2.5% of the time (so you need to kill 400 boars), and at least one of the following is true:
1) the boars are too powerful for you to take on easily, so you have to wait between them while you restore health and mana and/or burn through potions at a rate that the quest reward + the loot will not support (and therefore necessitating further farming...)
2) The boars are powerful, but you find other player(s) to help you, but you have to split the loot up, so factoring in the extra boars you need to kill, it takes just as long as if you solo'd.
3) there aren't enough boars, so there are a dozen people just standing around waiting for one to spawn, hoping to get the first shot in to claim the loot.
And you need those livers to make the soup to give to the informant to get the trinket to give to the other informant to get the key to enter the dungeon where the monster lives that drops half of the amulet that you need to be holding when you kill the elementals that drop the ingredient that you need ten of to bribe the wizard to give you the cure for the children of the village's mysterious plague.
Re:Copyright? Maybe not, but maybe trademark? (Score:3, Funny)