Activison/Blizzard is using the Los Angeles US District Court to sue three coders who the company accuses of creating and selling hacks for Starcraft II.
In a turn of events that will make lawyers the world over - or certainly in the USA - salivate, Acti/Blizz is calling the game's end-user license agreement, Battle.net terms of use, and copyright law into the fray, says a Gamespot report.
The hackers or coders or programmers or killjoys or commendibly creative chaps (depending on your viewpoint, seeing as the lawyers haven't decided yet) are named as: "Permaphrost', 'Cranix',' 'Linuxawesome' with other handles also named: "Wiggley', 'Zynastor' and 'Dark Mage'.
The suit states that, "Just days after the release of Starcraft II, (the) Defendants already had developed, marketed, and distributed to the public a variety of hacks and cheats designed to modify (and in fact destroy) the Starcraft II online game experience. In fact, on the very day that Starcraft II was released, representatives of the hacks Web site advised members of the public that 'our staff is already planning new releases for this game.'"
The suit continues, stating, "The harm to Blizzard from Defendants' conduct is immediate, massive and irreparable.
By distributing the Hacks to the public, Defendants cause serious harm to the value of Starcraft II. Among other things, Defendants irreparably harm the ability of Blizzard's legitimate customers (i.e. those who purchase and use unmodified games) to enjoy and participate in the competitive online experience. That, in turn, causes users to grow dissatisfied with the game, lose interest in the game, and communicate that dissatisfaction, thereby resulting in lost sales of the game or 'add-on' packs and expansions thereto."
In a turn of events that will make lawyers the world over - or certainly in the USA - salivate, Acti/Blizz is calling the game's end-user license agreement, Battle.net terms of use, and copyright law into the fray, says a Gamespot report.
The hackers or coders or programmers or killjoys or commendibly creative chaps (depending on your viewpoint, seeing as the lawyers haven't decided yet) are named as: "Permaphrost', 'Cranix',' 'Linuxawesome' with other handles also named: "Wiggley', 'Zynastor' and 'Dark Mage'.
The suit states that, "Just days after the release of Starcraft II, (the) Defendants already had developed, marketed, and distributed to the public a variety of hacks and cheats designed to modify (and in fact destroy) the Starcraft II online game experience. In fact, on the very day that Starcraft II was released, representatives of the hacks Web site advised members of the public that 'our staff is already planning new releases for this game.'"
The suit continues, stating, "The harm to Blizzard from Defendants' conduct is immediate, massive and irreparable.
By distributing the Hacks to the public, Defendants cause serious harm to the value of Starcraft II. Among other things, Defendants irreparably harm the ability of Blizzard's legitimate customers (i.e. those who purchase and use unmodified games) to enjoy and participate in the competitive online experience. That, in turn, causes users to grow dissatisfied with the game, lose interest in the game, and communicate that dissatisfaction, thereby resulting in lost sales of the game or 'add-on' packs and expansions thereto."
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Comments
irritant 18 Oct 2010 11:33
1/3
Good luck to them. I hope they win. Don't give a toss about Starcraft, but as an admin of 12 TF2 servers, I'd be pleased to see an end to people paying to cheat in games.
gingineer 18 Oct 2010 12:54
2/3
seems very fair of activision blizzard to me. target the dealers not the users. a proactive anti copyright law suit.
MRXBOX n VAN BC 20 Oct 2010 01:18
3/3
IT IS ABOUT TIME ! I have been telling the whole industry from DAY 1 , Stop calling them in game CHEATS ! Now we have a whole new GENERATION of people ( with the attention span of a Fart ) called Digital Natives ! To bad they all learned Cheating is OKAY AND ONLY NEEDS A CREDIT CARD ! I was the #1 player in 5 Xbox games , shooters and tank games are my JOB ! So to have all my stats HACKED ( TWICE to 0 ) or stolen by BOOSTERS ! Thanx for starting to do what the TERMS and Agreement i skip over probably states what the game makers are Required to DO ! Sorry they are't cheating , i forgot the game industry want us to call it EXPLOITING !!!! Well Exploit this ! ( insert pic of my Middle Finder Here ! )