Blizzard wins $88m in private server case

By Oli Welsh Published 17 August, 2010

Unauthorised WOW operator sued.

Blizzard has been awarded an $88 million judgment in a lawsuit against Scapegaming, which operates unauthorised, or "private" World of Warcraft servers, Gamasutra reports.

Blizzard accused Alyson Reeves, operator of Scapegaming, of copyright infringement, unfair competition and circumvention of copyright protection systems when it filed the suit in October last year.

Blizzard submitted "satisfactory evidence" from PayPal that Scapegaming had received $3m in revenues from its WOW servers. Although private servers allow players to avoid paying subscription fees, operators can change the rules of the game at a whim - so Scapegaming was able to charge players anything from $1 for a level-up to $300 for rare items.

However, the majority of the award was $85.4m in "statutory damages". The court decided to award Blizzard $200 "per act of circumvention" - i.e. for each of Scapegaming's 427,000 users when the community was at its peak in June 2008.

Reeves did not respond to the suit, so the judgment was made in default. It's not known if she will appeal, or can pay $88m award.

Thanks to reader Andrew Barratt for the tip.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • telboy007 #1 2 years ago

    Ouch!

  • beastmaster #2 2 years ago

    That is a hell of a chunk of dough.

  • kangarootoo #3 2 years ago

    Wow (no puntended), that is quite a large amount of dosh. I'd be amazed if she could pay it.

  • Emth #4 2 years ago

    Of course she can't. So what happens then?

  • Buztafen #5 2 years ago

    Pfft, she'll probably kill herself.

  • Goodfella #6 2 years ago

    They could force her to pay a lifetime subscription to WoW?

  • chrisjm #7 2 years ago

    'unfair competition'

    kind of, but they surely have a virtual monopoly with what they are able to charge the users.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #8 2 years ago

    Running a private server for free is one thing but making money off someone else's game is clearly theft. $200 per person might be a bit too much though, seeing as this would buy you a two year subscription. I don't know the exact numbers but having the average user stay for two years on that server sounds a bit too much - then again WoW has been available for quite some time and whether it's $150 or $200 per person makes no difference anymore, it's still a huge amount of money.

  • TeaFiend #9 2 years ago

    What happens now?

    She is declared bankrupt, loses just about everything she has, will suffer problems attempting to get a job, etc.

  • Lexx87 #10 2 years ago

    Well her own fault really isn't it.

  • ignatiusjreilly #11 2 years ago

    Running a private server for free is one thing but making money off someone else's game is clearly theft.

    It's quite clearly not theft. It sounds more like fraud, but it's not that either. It's copyright infringment, which is what Blizzard charged them with.
    Edited by 1 at 17/08/10 @ 10:00

  • peak_performance #12 2 years ago

    Ridiculous amount of money, but no real sympathy for the charged from me at least.

  • HisDudness #13 2 years ago

    Maybe she will have to move to China and farm gold to sell on eBay to lazy western gamers in order to pay off her debts. Sounds like hell to me... Come to think of it, playing WoW may be punishment enough.

  • irve77 #14 2 years ago

    I hope they have given all of the $2 m they earnt away to relative , declare themselves bankrupt so that Activision-Blizzard get nothing out of this case.

    and then restart their private servers again.

    WoW is just a licence to print money .. i still don't understand how people think they get value from their subscription.

    I haven't found an MMO yet that doesn't make a Wii game look hardcore ... let the geeks get RSI in one finger while Activision-Blizzard get rich.

  • TheApologist #15 2 years ago

    @Buztafen

    You might think she's stupid, but there is no need to say something so unbelievably callous.

  • Ryboy #16 2 years ago

    @ HisDudness - Yeah because Blizzard got rich by people thinking their game was awful, or compared to hell as you put it.

    Sorry, why are you trying to lick your elbows? Ohhhhh! You're a retard, I get it.

  • HisDudness #17 2 years ago

    Ryboy: your skin is too thin for the internet. You are not the games you play.

    I've never played WoW and probably never will. And yes you are right the evidence tells us that there are many people who get value out of it. I just think its funny that this game has created a market where gold farming, which is essentially a developing world sweat shop job, has become a lucrative business so that "players" can avoid "playing" the game. That tells me all I need to know. Well that and a brilliant South Park episode...

  • Lee_Morris #18 2 years ago

    Good. Profitting off someone elses work and talent. Stick her jail too.

  • UncleLou #19 2 years ago

    'unfair competition'

    kind of, but they surely have a virtual monopoly with what they are able to charge the users.

    They have a "monopoly" on WoW, which is their own bloody game. That's not a monopoly. Noone keeps Scapegaming from developing their own MMO and charge whatever they want for it.

  • sneetch #20 2 years ago

    @HisDudness

    It wasn't the first game with gold farmers and it sure won't be the last so it didn't "create" that market. Some people, much though they'd love to, simply can't afford to spend the time they'd like in order to level a character or get the equipment they need in order to play at the same level with their friends so they use gold farmers
    or levelling services.

    It's my favourite South Park episode though.

  • ziggy_played_guitar #21 2 years ago

    But whats also stupid is the damages, no-one is going to be able to pay that in any way shape or form, so why do it?

    It serves as an example. Why do you think companies sue ppl for ridiculous debts like 10 Eur.?
    Edited by 2 at 17/08/10 @ 10:45

  • Ryboy #22 2 years ago

    You realise the guys who make South Park are huge fans of WoW right? And if you played the game, you would understand just how long it takes to do anything in WoW. Including getting certain items. A lot of people who play the game are too busy with real life to invest the time it takes to get such things, which is why they pay someone else to do it for them. It's not something I do or agree with, but that's why there is a market for it. And that is why there is a market for servers such as these.

    To come onto a forum, slate and game you know nothing about AND THEN admit you know nothing about it just further proves what a huge fucking retard you are.

  • HisDudness #23 2 years ago

    Aye. Sorry for touching a nerve. Just trying to bring a bit of levity to a massive law suit article. As you were then!

  • chrisjm #24 2 years ago

    "They have a "monopoly" on WoW, which is their own bloody game. That's not a monopoly. Noone keeps Scapegaming from developing their own MMO and charge whatever they want for it. "

    I agree, but Windows is not the only OS yet the EU tell them what they can and cant do (while leaving apple alone). Anyone can build an OS, just like anyone can build an MMO.

  • UncleLou #25 2 years ago

    ""They have a "monopoly" on WoW, which is their own bloody game. That's not a monopoly. Noone keeps Scapegaming from developing their own MMO and charge whatever they want for it. "

    I agree, but Windows is not the only OS yet the EU tell them what they can and cant do (while leaving apple alone). Anyone can build an OS, just like anyone can build an MMO."

    That's because Microsoft has or at least had a monopoly on the OS market, and was using it to hinder competition. Arguably, neither has Blizzard a remotely comparable monopoly on the MMO market, nor (more importantly) does what they charge the users have anything to do with unfair competition. And most importantly, Apple aren't allowed to produce their own copies of MS's Windows and sell it with their Macs, not even according to the EU. :)

    Now, if Scapegaming had their own MMO, and Blizzard would pay subscribers money to cancel these subscriptions and subscribe to WoW or something similar, then we could talk about "unfair competition".
    Edited by 3 at 17/08/10 @ 11:15

  • barnettbeans #26 2 years ago

    Why was she out of the kitchen?

  • sneetch #27 2 years ago

    @chrisjm

    The Microsoft monopoly lawsuit was because they were accused of illegally hindering their competition over Internet Explorer not over the OS. The fact that you couldn't remove it (or doing so caused Windows to mess up) meant that Netscape (and other browser providers) couldn't compete.

    The EU told them they had to allow people to select a browser during installation:

    http://ww w.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews/...

  • Trikk #28 2 years ago

    Hosting your own video game server is literally worse than murdering a handful of people.

  • PaulieWaulie #29 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:23:40 06-01-2012

  • Spekingur #30 2 years ago

    Activision has offered her a job.

  • Hypercube #31 2 years ago

    She'll probably appeal, and then some bargaining with Blizzard will occur. I would think this initial punitive amount is more about "shock and awe" tactics than actually thinking that Blizzard can get $88 mill out of a person.

  • Fab4 #32 2 years ago

    Private jets all round! :-D

  • Acrid #33 2 years ago

    You better be spending that $88m on Warcraft 4 Blizzard

  • gaanbo #34 2 years ago

    More money for crappy Activision Blizzard