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Blizzard, Vivendi File Suit Against WoW Bot Creator
by Brandon Boyer
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February 22, 2007
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Answering a suit filed by the creator of World of Warcraft bot program WoWGlider, Blizzard and Vivendi have filed a countersuit asking for "injunctive relief and compensatory damages" against the program's creator.
The original suit (pdf), filed in November of 2006, filed by WoWGlider creator Michael Donnelly after being visited at his home by a 'high ranking officer of Vivendi' and a lawyer for both Vivendi and Blizzard, sought a trial by jury if the companies thought that his creation had, as they had accused, violated both World of Warcraft copyrights and the DMCA.
WoWGlider is a third-party program created by Donnelly to circumvent the need for a player to be present during WoW sessions by setting elaborate scripts to automatically perform quests and hunts. Donnelly charged $25 for a key to unlock the program.
In response, Vivendi and Blizzard filed a countersuit on February 16th seeking "monetary relief including damages sustained by Blizzard in an amount not yet determined."
The seven-count countersuit (available in pdf form via WoWGlider's site) claims that "Blizzard has suffered damage in an amount to be proven at trial, including but not limited to loss of goodwill among WoW users, diversion of Blizzard resources to prevent access by WoWGlider users, loss of revenue from terminated users, and decreased subscription revenue from undetected WoWGlider users."
Blizzard claims that WoW's EULA and TOU prohibit "WoW players from using third-party add-on programs, and specifically cheat programs, in conjunction with WoW," and that, by nature of Donnelly's own WoW account, he was aware of the restrictions and prohibitions.
Blizzard also specifically notes that WoWGlider works by launching an unauthorized copy of the WoW executable to circumvent Blizzard's Warden anti-cheating system.
Furthermore, Blizzard and Vivendi point to the WoWGlider faq from Donnelly's site which specifically notes that the program is "against the Terms of Service," though it adds that while the program "does not violate any of the terms listed under Blizzard's "Client/Server Manipulation Policy," interested purchasers should use the program at their own risk.
In addition to monetary relief and legal fees, Blizzard and Vivendi have asked the court to require that the WoWGlider website be shut down and all rights and titles to be transferred to Blizzard, that Donnelly be restrained from continuing to sell the program, that he deliver the source code to the program, and that he provide the developer with all accounting related to the sale of WoWGlider.
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