Topic: Blizzard lawsuit on ZDNET

[bdpf]

This is copied from zdnet about blizzards lawsuit agaianst non Blizzarrd servers.

    Sorry if this of topic

bdpf

Blizzard wins lawsuit on video game hacking
By Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com
Published on ZDNet News: September 2, 2005, 4:47 AM PT

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    * Vivendi Universal-sp Adr

A federal appeals court has ruled that computer programmers do not have the right to reverse-engineer Blizzard Entertainment's video games to improve their playability.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled Thursday that federal law--specifically, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act--disallows players from altering Blizzard games to link with servers other than the company's official Battle.net site.

Affected games published by Blizzard, a division of Vivendi Universal, include titles in its "Diablo," "Starcraft" and "Warcraft" lines.

In a 3-0 decision, the court upheld a trial judge's ruling from October, concluding the programmers' "circumvention in this case constitutes infringement."

The DMCA broadly restricts circumventing, or bypassing, antipiracy measures. Blizzard had included such measures to tie its games to the Battle.net site and detect pirated copies.

The defendants in the case, Ross Combs and Rob Crittenden, reverse-engineered the Blizzard protocol using tools like "tcpdump" to listen to the software's communications with a game server. Eventually, their "bnetd" project let Blizzard games connect with unofficial servers, yielding benefits like faster response times.

The 8th Circuit also cited a contractual agreement that Combs and Crittenden OK'd when installing Blizzard software. That agreement prohibits reverse-engineering.

[godemperor]

Very Interesting.

It's a good thing the U.S. Federal Couts' Jurisdiction does not include the International Jurisdication.

[ChaosEmpire]

yepp, and this is the only reason why we can still play ce...

[bdpf]

Yep, But where does it leave thos in the GOOD OLD USA???

Is it legal for use to play on-line CE???

Here is some more on the bro-haw....

Court KOs Online Game Bypass Program

By JIM SUHR
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Three men illegally bypassed anti-piracy controls when they developed free technology to let computer users play some games against each other online without using the gamemaker's own system, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Attorneys for Tim Jung, Ross Combs and Rob Crittenden had argued that the trio engaged in allowable ``fair use'' because they had legally bought the games and were not profiting from the bypass technology, called BnetD.

Although the trio could have used Blizzard Entertainment Inc.'s Battle.net game service for free, they found it frustrating and preferred the dozens of additional features available through the BnetD technology they had developed, their lawyers said.

Blizzard claimed that BnetD, which the trio also distributed to others over the Internet, disabled controls meant to ensure that players used a non-pirated copy of the game.

Thursday's ruling by a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals here upholds a lower court's finding that the trio violated the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act as well as software license agreements by helping people bypass Blizzard's system for playing multiplayer games like Diablo and StarCraft online.

The defendants were barred from further distributing the technology.

Combs and Crittenden are identified in the ruling as computer programmers, and Jung was listed as a systems administrator who also heads Internet Gateway, an Internet service provider based in the suburb of St. Peters.

According to the ruling, the Battle.net service has nearly 12 million active users who spend more than 2.1 million hours online per day.

Blizzard, which did not return messages Friday seeking comment, had lauded the earlier ruling last October by U.S. District Judge Charles Shaw for ``sending a clear message that creating unauthorized servers which emulate Blizzard's Battle.net servers is without question illegal.''

``We have worked hard to provide gamers with a free, safe, secure, reliable environment on Battle.net, and this ruling is a strong validation that we are justified in protecting and ensuring the integrity of our game service,'' said Mike Morhaime, Blizzard's president and co-founder.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based civil liberties group that helped represent the trio, said the ruling could dampen the market for performance-enhancing innovations called ``add-ons'' and limit the consumer to whatever the manufacturer of the purchased item decides to provide.

``This ruling threatens competition to offer new services, new features,'' said Jason Schultz, an attorney for EFF.

Schultz said the foundation would talk to his clients before deciding whether to appeal.


09/02/05 21:25

© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Will Grumpy Blizzard come after the users of CE now??

bdpf   

[Shinlos]

Yes it's legal 4 u cuz u dont host the server.

[Jaws]

maybe a little translation in german,the 1 posting..some special words in it so i don´t understand it complete:)

[countdracula]

This was in EFF Newsletter. I'm not sure if blizzard can also threaten players.


* Federal Court Slams Door on Add-On Innovation

Shuts Down Open Source Videogame Server Project

St. Louis, MO - In a decision with dangerous implications
for competition, consumer choice, reverse engineering,
and innovation, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals this
week ruled against three software programmers who
created a free, open-source program to allow gamers to
play games they purchased with others on the platform
of their choice.  The court held that the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) prohibited the reverse
engineering needed to create the program and that
"click-wrap" and "browse-wrap" licenses are
enforceable to prevent reverse engineering.

The software program, called BnetD, allowed legitimate
Blizzard videogame owners to set up their own
multiplayer games on the Internet and enjoy dozens
of additional features instead of being locked into
Blizzard's proprietary Battle.net game service.  EFF,
co-counsel for the programmers, took the case to
defend the fair-use right to reverse-engineer
software and create new programs that interoperate
with older ones.

"This ruling is bad for gamers, but it could also be
terrible for the software industry," said EFF Staff
Attorney Jason Schultz.  "It essentially shuts down
any competitor's add-on innovation that customers
could enjoy with their legitimately purchased
products.  Add-on innovation is one of the hottest
areas of creativity and economic growth right now
in software, and this decision will slow investment
and development in that field."

The court ruled that Congress' explicit protections
for reverse engineering and add-on innovation in the
highly controversial DMCA are too narrow and weak to
protect innovators from lawsuits when the software
they create is used for illegal copying, even if the
copying occurs without the knowledge or participation
of the program's creators.  The court also ruled that
clicking on a EULA's "I Agree" button, common when
installing almost any software product purchased
today, can be used to force both consumers and
competitors out of the marketplace for add-on
innovation.

"Those who have been claiming that the DMCA does not
threaten reverse engineering are plainly wrong,"
added Schultz. "The DMCA has become a powerful
anticompetitive tool, and that means consumers will
see fewer innovative products in the marketplace."

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_09.php#003949

For the ruling:
http://www.eff.org/IP/Emulation/Blizzard_v_bnetd/20050901_decision.pdf

maybe a little translation in german,the 1 posting..some special words in it so i don´t understand it complete:)

Ich weiß net ob ichs genau hinkrieg:
Ein Bundes(revisions)gericht hat entschieden, dass Programmierer nicht das Recht haben, die Spiele von Blizzard zu dekompilieren um deren Spielbarkeit zu verbessern.

Das 8. irgendwas Gericht in St. Louis hat am Donnerstag entschieden, dass was bundesrecht angeht, der Digital Millenium Copyright Act den spielern verbietet die Spiele von Blizzard zu verändern, um sich auf anderen servern als den offiziellen einzuloggen

Unter den Betroffen Spielen von Blizzard, einer Abteilung von Vivendi Universal, sind die Diablo, Starcraft und Warcraft Reihen

In einer 3 zu 0 Entscheidung hat das Gericht eine Entscheidung eines Gerichts erster Instanz im Oktober gestützt, welches bechloss, dass die Umgehung (der Blizzard server ?) in diesem Fall einen Rechtsbruch darstelt.

Der DMCA schränkt das Umgehen von Kopierschützen weitgehend ein. Blizzard hat solche eingebaut, um die Spiele an die Battle.net Seite zu binden und Raubkopien zu entdecken.

Die Verteidiger in diesem Fall, Ross combs und Rob Crittenden, haben das Blizzard (Übertragungs)Protokoll dekompiliert/aufgeschlüsselt indem sie Programme wie tcpdump verwendeten um die Kommunikation der Software mit dem Server abzuhören. Schließlich konnte ihr bnetd Blizzard Spiele mit inoffiziellen Servern verbinden, was vorteile wie besseren Ping usw. bringt.

Das 8. blabalb Gericht itierte auch einen Vertrag den Combs und Crittenden abzeichneten als sie die Software installierten. Der Vertrag verbietet reverse-engineering.

Ich habs versucht, man sollte es verstehen.

[Jaws]

thx @countdracula

[satye]

yepp Chaos and Shinlos are absolutely correct. This stupid court ruling does Not affect the folks in the U.S. playing ANY game on-line!! Only thing it does is prohibit any marketing of alternate games based on their product. You can bet that this will change in the future. When their (blizzard) sales start going down because of the lawsuit and the fact that the basic Diablo ( original version ) has long been boring and losing players for a while. They will realize then that the ruling is going to Bite in the rear.
 Â              So Play On !! They have NO say on the CE game, cause it is a product of a german mind and german creation. We play over the internet, which no one owns.
 Â              One day we will have a US server, things always change with time.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Celial]

luckily, such decisions could never be done in europe, because we didn't have the right to put a patent on software, so that in a special way every thing is allowed, that doesnt affect the original code of programs. that means that, if blizzard says that MODs are not allowed, we would have a problem, but it doesnt touch our servers! btw blizzard doesnt forbid mods

[War]

I dont understand what the problem is w/ playing d2 multiplayer w/ a purchased copy.  i mean, the ruling was just that ppl cant make any online-capable mods so that ppl cant pirate copies... but u can still play SP with a pirated copy so it isnt gunna stop.  and w/ how many ppl have quit diablo u can find a valid un-used CD Key on ebay for $3.  this isnt going to stop piracy at all, its only going to stop decent mods from being made.

[Celial]

as far as i remember, it was the problem, that on bnetd servers you could play with illegal copys, hacks and so on. blizzard tried therefore to stop those players by shutting down the illegal realms by  law, to prevent the engineering of hacks and so on, which would work on bnet.

our servers are running pvpgn btw, and chaos included many features that prevent the use of hacks

[War]

its not about hacks, its about ppl goin over to their friends house and installing d2 and them playing on the BnetD server so they dont have to buy copies of the game

[ChaosEmpire]

this is one of the reason why we block d2loader, which can be used to play with hacked keys.
i also scan regulary the database, and if i find users, with calculated keys, i lock them forever

we have many positive examples, where players bought a new cd (also after a legal one gots broken) only to be able to play fair CE...

and fair means...here and against blizzard.
thats the reason why i own so many d2/lod combos...each server needs a license

and after 5 years you will really get a cheap d2/lod combo at ebay

[bdpf]

The whole set cost $30.00 at Wallmart yuck

To some ppl "WALLMART" bad word here USA

bdpf