Blizzard Sued Over Battle.net Authentication 217
An anonymous reader writes "A man has initiated a class-action suit against Blizzard over a product used to shore up Battle.net security. Benjamin Bell alleges that Blizzard's sale of Authenticators — devices that enable basic two-tier authentication — represents deceptive and unfair additional costs to their basic games. (Blizzard sells the key fob versions for $6.50, and provides a free mobile app as an alternative. Neither are mandatory.) The complaint accuses Blizzard of making $26 million in Authenticator sales. In response, Blizzard made a statement refuting some of the complaint's claims and voicing their intention to 'vigorously defend' themselves."
Re:This is ridiculous (Score:4, Interesting)
Theyre optional, and completely unnecessary if you use a good password. That they offer an ADDITIONAL paid service that competitors do not does not in any way obligate gamers to use the authenticators.
If they want to sell guides for creating strong passwords at $10 a pop, and they end up making $500 mil on it, who cares? Its a service that apparently people want. The man doesnt even seem to allege that the device was ineffective-- simply that it was unnecessary and he for some inexplicable reason bought it anyways.
Sometimes free (Score:5, Interesting)
A friend of mine got hacked three times. Blizzard sent him an authenticator for free. It costs them less to send the free authenticator that keep fixing his account.
This is just someone trying to make money on a frivolous law suit.