"Blizzard notched another victory in its legal campaign against World of Warcraft bots when a judge on Wednesday ruled that a leading bot violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. MDY Industries LLC, the firm that develops and sells the Glider bot, already suffered a major setback last summer when the judge granted Blizzard summary judgment on several key issues. This week's decision deals with the issues the judge believed could not be decided until the conclusion of this month's trial. The judge ruled that Glider violated the DMCA's ban on "circumvention devices," and he also found that MDY's founder, Michael Donnelly, was personally liable for the actions of his firm."
[Source: ArsTechnica]
I have been following the Glider bot case for quite some time now. I played WoW in the beta and have been playing off and on since then (canceled my most recent account last month).
This ruling troubles me, and I hope it gets overruled in appeals. The judge's ruling equates a private agreement EULA violations to copyright infringement, which I find ridiculous. Does EULA violation on the user's end allow Blizzard to ban an account? Yes, I wouldn't argue that. With the bulk of a MMOs information stored server side, I think Blizzard is well within their rights to ban anyone who violates the EULA.
To go after them for copyright infringement and sue them for all their assets is too far. It looks like we have a judge making rulings on technologies that move faster than he can think and comprehend.
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