Everyone,We’d like to take a moment to provide a major update on the WoW/MMOGlider case. We know this is a topic that many of you have followed,whether because of being directly affected by Glider users in game orsimply because it’s been a controversial World of Warcraft-relatedissue over the past few years. On January 28, 2009, a U.S. districtcourt judge ruled in Blizzard’s
favor on several issues in the civilcase between Blizzard and MDY Industries, LLC.For those who aren’t familiar with the background of this case orthe long process that led to this decision, MDY is the creator ofGlider, a “bot” designed to play World of Warcraft automatically withlittle to no player input. We consider such automated play to becheating because it
goes against the spirit of the game and providesunfair advantages over other players, and we have expressly forbiddenthe use of bots in the World of Warcraft Terms of Use (ToU) because ofthis. We take violations of this policy very seriously and haveconsistently worked to identify the use of bots in game and suspend orclose the associated accounts.When World of
Warcraft first launched in 2004, our GM and hacksteams searched for bots manually -- a process that became increasinglyineffective as bot technology evolved. Bots continued to proliferatewithin the game, and the community let us know loud and clear that thiswas something they opposed as much as we did. In response, we developedsome security measures to protect the game and automatically detect theuse of bots and other unauthorized hacks. We also reached out to themakers or operators of these bots in an effort to stop theirdistribution, and in most cases we were able to come to an agreement.While many bots were discontinued as a result, some bot makerscontinued their operations, and we needed to take a different route toremove them from the
game -- with Glider being the biggest example.In November 2006, we contacted MDY in an effort to halt thedistribution of Glider. In response, MDY filed suit against Blizzard,asking the court to allow MDY to continue operating Glider unhindered.We then filed a countersuit alleging copyright infringement, in thatGlider made unlawful use of our intellectual property; unlawfulinterference with the ToU agreement between us and our players; andDigital Millennium Copyright Act violations, in that MDY hadcircumvented the protections we’d implemented to protect the game. Weasked the court to award money damages and to shut down MDYpermanently. Following these filings and associated court proceedings, a summaryjudgment was made in July 2008 finding in favor of Blizzard on twocounts -- copyright infringement and unlawful interference with ourbusiness -- with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act count to bedecided in a formal trial. In response to the summary judgment, MDYagreed to a stipulated judgment in the amount of 6 million dollarspending further appeal.The trial for the remaining issues took place in early January ofthis year, and the ruling we’re discussing today came as a result ofthat. In his decision, the U.S.
district court judge ruled that Gliderviolates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as the programintentionally circumvents our anti-cheat measures. In addition, thejudge ruled that Glider’s creator is personally liable for the damagescaused. Lastly, the judge ruled that we’re entitled to a permanentinjunction against the distribution of Glider, which will take effectshortly unless MDY obtains a stay of the
injunction during the appealprocess. For the sake of the game and the players, we hope we’ve seenthe last of Glider, but we’ll continue to take measures in game and outof game to protect World of Warcraft if MDY chooses to continuepursuing the matter.Ultimately, this recent ruling strongly supports our efforts. Weremain vigilant in defending our games against cheaters andunauthorized thi