Blizzard sues emu wow server and wins 88million dollars

[Tiggles]

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/08/15/046250/Blizzard-Sues-Private-Server-Company-Awarded-88M?from=twitter

Looks like the guy charged people to play there and made 3 million in the process. Serves him right then.

[vincin]

omg. will this happen to project 99? or is it because he he charged them? Please dont happen to p99,...its better than the current eq

[jyaku]

yea it's because he charged, if you use something thats copywritten without making money on it your fine, but the minute you start making money from it you have to pay to use it

[guineapig]

Also p99 isn't distributing the source material. We have to obtain a copy of Titanium ourselves.

[Tiggles]

Yeah blizzard has even admitted it wont go after the pirate starcraft servers because they don't charge for anything. They only go after people trying to get rich off others work.

[Itchybottom]

yea it's because he charged, if you use something thats copywritten without making money on it your fine, but the minute you start making money from it you have to pay to use it

I keep seeing this, but it's quite false. I'm not a lawyer, but I've read a few cases where the plaintiff has been successful at shutting down a resource, or suing the person for copyright violation.

Intellectual property such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft emulated servers fall under derivative work clauses in copyright law. You can borrow quite a few things (ideas) from something like EverQuest or WoW lore, but there isn't really a clean cut and dry definition of law on fictional characters, lore, worlds, and names that have clear copyrights in such an environment. This grey area is a real bear to tackle and will get you screwed if anything ever gets as far as a court date. When it comes to infringing on a copyright, the plaintiff just needs to prove that the work in question has been based upon the original copyrighted work. The rulings of note usually stipulate "Translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form which a work may be recast, transformed or adapted." Clearly, Project 1999 falls into this category.

Like the actual lawyer that posted on this forum though, I'm not worried.

[Reiker]

SoE shut down Winter's Roar (came back as Shards of Dalaya) for about a year. That was a long time ago and hasn't happened since.

[jeffd]

they were sued for damages because the emu server was charging people.

as long as freeshards aren't actively making profit, gaming companies generally turn a blind eye, since going after them all would be way more trouble than it's worth.

[Reiker]

Winter's Roar? They weren't charging anyone. SOE hit them with a C&D and Wiz didn't have the money to spend on lawyers and stuff. They waited about a year, changed the name, and haven't been bothered since.

[jeffd]

i was talking about the skapegaming server.

an $88m lawsuit against a server like p99 would just get tossed out, though SOE could certainly serve them with a C&D if they really cared enough. but doing that would really just waste a little of SOE's time and money without much benefit, so they'll never bother.

[girth]

Scapegaming was operating unauthorized World of Warcraft servers and using a micropayment system to collect money from the servers' user base, which according to the lawsuit amounted to just over $3 million.

What the fuck is wrong with people? $3 million dollars in sales from a micro system on a damn EMU server??!?!

[corradojeff]

I keep seeing this, but it's quite false. I'm not a lawyer, but I've read a few cases where the plaintiff has been successful at shutting down a resource, or suing the person for copyright violation.

Intellectual property such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft emulated servers fall under derivative work clauses in copyright law. You can borrow quite a few things (ideas) from something like EverQuest or WoW lore, but there isn't really a clean cut and dry definition of law on fictional characters, lore, worlds, and names that have clear copyrights in such an environment. This grey area is a real bear to tackle and will get you screwed if anything ever gets as far as a court date. When it comes to infringing on a copyright, the plaintiff just needs to prove that the work in question has been based upon the original copyrighted work. The rulings of note usually stipulate "Translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form which a work may be recast, transformed or adapted." Clearly, Project 1999 falls into this category.

Like the actual lawyer that posted on this forum though, I'm not worried.

Rogean has already replied to a post similar to one with these same points:

Yes it is legal, because A) We do not distribute copyrighted files, B) We do not charge people to play, therefor we are not making any sort of money or profit off of the intellectual property of SOE, and C) SOE Grants, in their user agreement, a license to utilize Everquest names and art, to all accounts in good standing:



Some say that it is not legal due to the following clause in the user agreement:



However, statements like these in a user agreement do not constitute legality, they merely serve as a guideline that if broken can terminate your usage of their services.

[Itchybottom]

Rogean has already replied to a post similar to one with these same points:

I'm not talking about EULA violation, I'm talking about regular copyright law.

[Aum]

Theres a quote somewhere of Rogean(I believe) saying he spoke to Smed at the fanfaire, that SoE knows about p99, and that it's not at risk of being shut down.

edit:


I was in vegas for 7 days overlapping fanfaire and poked in there a few times. Through some connections I got to meet smedley face to face. Hes not interested in trying to do anything to us, as long as we don't charge / profit.

Notice I said trying.. because even if they did decide to, we really don't do anything illegal to begin with (Intellectual Property is only illegal to profit from).

[Elissa]

Theres a quote somewhere of Rogean(I believe) saying he spoke to Smed at the fanfaire, that SoE knows about p99, and that it's not at risk of being shut down.

edit: Originally Posted by Rogean
I was in vegas for 7 days overlapping fanfaire and poked in there a few times. Through some connections I got to meet smedley face to face. Hes not interested in trying to do anything to us, as long as we don't charge / profit.

Notice I said trying.. because even if they did decide to, we really don't do anything illegal to begin with (Intellectual Property is only illegal to profit from).



As some of you may have seen me post before, the cases and intellectual law are not quite so cut and dry as to allow use of another's intellectual property so long as you do not profit from it (in some cases you CAN profit, actually, but that doesn't mean nonprofitable uses are always okay). There are many nuances to consider and if SOE wanted p99 gone, it more than likely would be without substantial funds to fund a defense. Even with a funded defense, the legal ground is certainly not clear in this case.

Nonetheless, aside from Smed and Rog themselves saying there's nothing to worry about, given everything else, some brief research and my own personal experience, I would tend to agree we're really not in any danger.

Woooo! (oh yeah, i'm a lawyer)

[Overcast]

In the cases where there's a 'charge' for an EMU server it's pretty crystal clear that the company incurred 'damages'.

With a free server, 'damages' get a bit more dicey, which puts the plaintiff in a position of loose/loose most likely. Even if they win the case, and the defendant has to pay fines, the 'damages' side will be non-existent. And in the case of someone not making cash, if the plaintiff ends up getting the judgment the defendant can end up filing bankruptcy, leaving the plaintiff with only legal fees and wasted time.

[Rogean]

SoE shut down Winter's Roar (came back as Shards of Dalaya) for about a year. That was a long time ago and hasn't happened since.

Winter's Roar? They weren't charging anyone. SOE hit them with a C&D and Wiz didn't have the money to spend on lawyers and stuff. They waited about a year, changed the name, and haven't been bothered since.

I wouldn't say SOE "Shut them Down". Yes, they did send a C&D. Do you know how many C&D's EQEmu has gotten over the years? Winter's Roar CHOSE to shut down after they got a C&D because they were afraid of continueing. EQEmu chose to remain open after several C&D's and was never touched.

Sending a C&D is one thing, thats simply sending a big important looking letter to the owner of something saying "Hey stop this or we're gonna come after you", then following up with that is a completely different thing. I'd say more than 90% of C&D's aren't followed up.

[Eternal-Elf]

I would think they have better things to do then come after an Emu server for a game that is losing fan-base as it is.
Who knows though, one of these days someone may skip their coffee and just be pissed lol

[eqdruid76]

The judgement was a default ruling, because it went uncontested. It may go to trial again, and there's every possibility that Blizzard will lose. Or the defendent will declare bankruptcy. In any case, Blizzard probably won't see any money from the suit....except for the hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) in live subscriptions garnered from interest generated by the emulated server. Ungrateful jerks, imo :P