Blizzard Entertainment and World of Warcraft Win a Treasure from Infringers
How are your “l33t skillz?” If they are anything like mine, the idea of playing video games online is a recipe for disaster. I get stressed playing games on “easy” mode and being soundly beaten online by a 12-year old is not my definition of a good time. That being said, I love video games. While I have never actually played World of Warcraft, I can understand the appeal. The ability to be someone entirely different, living in a world of impossibility and fantasy, making friends with people around the world, and all the while paying $15 a month to do so. Fifteen dollars a month per user has a created a $1.5 billion-a-year franchise for Blizzard Entertainment. When you are making that much money a year, you would protect your baby with the entire force of the judiciary branch if necessary. That is just what Blizzard did.
A federal court just awarded Blizzard Entertainment the staggering amount of $89 million in damages. Who could cause that much damage? A company called Scapegaming and the company’s creator, Alyson Reeves. Apparently Scapegaming earned about $3 million in profits by collecting “micropayments” from World of Warcraft users on an unauthorized network. The private network allowed users to have god-like powers throughout the game and allowed users to cheat in various other ways. Blizzard sued Scapegaming for violating end-user agreements by attempting to profit from the users cheating. The court decided that violations of these end-user licensing agreements constituted infringement. Then the court brought the full force of the law.
The judge awarded Blizzard $3 million in lost profits, $63,600 in attorneys’ fees and $85.5 million in statutory damages for willful infringement. An appeal is expected, but this does not look good for Scapegaming. This case could set the precedent Blizzard needs to go after numerous other third party servers that exist around the Internet. So those of you with “mad skillz” should stick to the legitimate servers and take it easy on me when I venture into Azeroth as a Night Elf Mohawk.
[...] Blizzard Entertainment and World of Warcraft Win a Treasure from InfringersAmerican University Intellectual Property BriefWhile I have never actually played World of Warcraft, I can understand the appeal. The ability to be someone entirely different, living in a world of … [...]
[...] Blizzard Entertainment and World of Warcraft Win a Treasure from InfringersAmerican University Intellectual Property BriefWhile I have never actually played World of Warcraft, I can understand the appeal. The ability to be someone entirely different, living in a world of … [...]
[...] Blizzard Entertainment and World of Warcraft Win a Treasure from InfringersAmerican University Intellectual Property BriefWhile I have never actually played World of Warcraft, I can understand the appeal. The ability to be someone entirely different, living in a world of … [...]
Ha! Loved the post. I too love video games but was never into World of Warcraft or similar games. I wonder what kind of precedent this sets for these company’s that sell in-game currency for real money? Is that a form of cheating within the game?
Actually, Professor Rosser at WCL has entire class devoted to such a topic. He lectures about the development of “online property” and how it is traded in the real world. His lecture focuses on the game Everquest, but the same principles apply to World of Warcraft. Currently, there is no law saying that one person cannot sell an item in a game for real money. The problem you run into, at least I suspect, is how do you enforce such a transaction? Is that just state contract law or are we dealing with larger property issues here?