Blizzard awarded USD 6m in damages

By Dan Pearson Published 1 October, 2008

Glider bot's MDY given the bum rush.

The BBC are reporting that Blizzard has been awarded USD 6 million in damages in a case against bot-software developers MDY Industries.

MDY, which makes the popular yet "technically" against-the-rules MMO Glider application, was judged to have infringed the copyright of the MMO behemoth by contradicting the EULA which all users must agree to at login.

MDY's app allows players to get automate their character's progress in the game by gathering, crafting, grinding and washing up whilst they sleep/work/mate/play Warhammer Online.

It was certainly a popular download before the legal action came crashing down on the company, with figures of over 100,000 being bandied about in terms of downloads. With the knowledge that each of these cost USD 25 each, a little mathematics gives a figure of USD 2,500,000 pocketed by MDY founder Michael Donnelly. This obviously leaves quite a shortfall for the settlement figure, but it appears that Blizzard are hungry for more.

The case has yet to reach a final conclusion. "The damages award could be delayed if Blizzard appeals against the judgement which threw out its claim to double or triple the cash settlement," the BBC reports.

The legal details, being dry, disinteresting and in American, are not completely clear, but a USD 6 million price tag is a fair indication of the gist of the judgement.

The case is expected to return to the courts in 2009 to finalise the verdict, having already rumbled on for over a year.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Benno #1 3 years ago

    Well, it is against the rules. Some people have posted on the glider forums before about how their marriage or relationships were saved by using glider. Playing MMOs is all about working at mundane stuff to get e-rewards. People who bot are smart, they get the rewards without having to invest the boring time and effort. Games are for fun afterall.

  • Zamn10210 #2 3 years ago

    "Disinterested" and "uninterested" are not the same thing.

    "Disinteresting" is not a word.

    Where do they get these people?

  • mkreku #3 3 years ago

    Add another sack of money to Blizzard's money heap..

  • DFawkes #4 3 years ago

    Why use this? Taking the grind out of MMOs and you've got nothing much left. The rewards aren't any good because it'll still be the same game. It'd be cheaper for me to just imagine I'm levelling up just now. Wow, level 87! That's not even possible for people who, for some reason, decide to pay £9 a month to play then another £25 on top of that to not play it.

    The damages are a bit much though.

  • Fusey #5 3 years ago

    Consider the fact that the majority of people who bought this program were probably gold sellers I'm more than happy that this guy is now fucked for the rest of his life.

  • Jmog #6 3 years ago

    Warhammer?

    Isn't that made by another company since Warhammer technically is one of Wow's competitors?

  • Danbojones Verified Senior Staff Writer, GamesIndustry.biz #7 3 years ago

    @ Zamn10210, if indeed, that is your name. Oh isn't it?

  • rudedudejude #8 3 years ago

    Maybe with this 6 million they could make a decent Brewfest fest.

  • Optyk #9 3 years ago

    I think Blizzard need to focus on the hackers/account sellers/Gold sellers more as they cause a bigger problem.

  • -Hex- #10 3 years ago

    Blizzard don't need more money, just make them stop the production of the program, getting them to pay more than what they earned from it or at least 3.5m more seems quite unfair, its not like they had a warning.

    I hate gold sellers as much as anyone else but damn! These people aren't selling the product so people do sell gold. It's like selling someone a gun and when they shoot someone with it they sue the people who sold them the gun.

    P.S. I think that my gun analogy is correct but I don't live in the US :/
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/08 @ 18:31

  • Benno #11 3 years ago

    gold farmers dont use glider

  • oMonarca #12 3 years ago

    "MDY's app allows players to get automate their character's progress in the game by gathering, crafting, grinding and washing up whilst they sleep/work/mate/play Warhammer Online."

    World of Warcraft.

    Please revise and be accurate.

  • danteire #13 3 years ago

    I think the Warhammer Online point was a joke, could be wrong :p

  • InfiniteFury #14 3 years ago

    "its not like they had a warning."

    If memory serves me correctly they were given a cease and desist order which MDY promptly ignored, changing their name from WOW-Glider to MMO-Glider and sticking two fingers up at Blizzard.

  • InfiniteFury #15 3 years ago

    "I mean seriously, isn't it enough to put them out of business by demanding all the profits made and then some? And by some I don't mean more than 100% on top."

    Well obviously neither of us knows the ins and outs of this but let's say someone was dicking with something of yours, the law determined that the dicking around was illegal and you'd spent 3 times the amount of money that was awarded dealing with the problem. Well, wouldn't you ask for that money? I know I would.

  • TheWretched #16 3 years ago

    The problem with this case is, that the verdict is "copyright infringement". Blizzard basically single handedly outlawed debuggers, softice, trainers etc. because the do the same thing with other software.

    I hated the gold suckers too, but fining a "one man company" 6 million dollars is quite huge, compared to his profit of 2.5 million.

  • Vandrius #17 3 years ago

    Loved the Warhammer reference - and its so true. Minus the botting WoW part, my account is closed now. WAAAAAAAGH!

  • 3william56 #18 3 years ago

    "Playing MMOs is all about working at mundane stuff to get e-rewards."
    "Taking the grind out of MMOs and you've got nothing much left"

    So why do you guys play this again? O_o
    Cybertedium 2.0 - the game.

    /goes back to WipEout