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Judge rules WOW bot violates copyright News
MMO PC News by Oli Welsh
A judge in the case Blizzard brought against mod developer MDY has ruled that its auto-farming "bot" for World of Warcraft, Glider, violates Blizzard's copyright.
Glider takes control of players' characters and automatically grinds through enemies, "farming" them for gold, materials and experience. It can be used as a tool to generate funds for real-money trading, or simply as a way to level up a character without putting the hours in.
Either way, using Glider distorts the game experience and constitutes a violation of the user agreement for World of Warcraft - hence Blizzard's interest in shutting it down. Judge David Campbell already passed summary judgement in favour of Blizzard last summer, and awarded it damages in the autumn.
But this latest ruling could have much wider implications for digital rights management, as argued in an interesting if rather technical Ars Technica article.
The argument put forward by Blizzard and accepted by the judge is that the "non-literal elements" of WOW - the end-user experience, in other words, rather than the data stored on the game disc - constitute intellectual property which is protected by WOW's security software, called Warden. Therefore, because it circumvents Warden, Glider contravenes a provision of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act banning software that is "primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work".
MDY argued that the game experience was not a distinct copyright work, because it did not exist in a tangible medium, and because it was effectively created by both Blizzard and the player. The judge rejected these arguments.
Although few WOW players will mourn the setback for a mod regarded as a cheat at best, legal experts contacted by Ars Technica point out that this case sets a worrying precedent. By using legislation intended to stop file-sharing in its case, Blizzard has effectively succeeded in copyrighting not just a game, but a network service, and enshrining its right to control access to that service even if no copyright theft is at work (Glider still requires a valid copy of WOW and a paid-up subscription to work). This has the potential to cause tremendous problems for the open-source software movement in particular.
The ruling is expected to go to the Court of Appeal, so we haven't heard the last of this yet.
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Comments: 1-39 of 39 in total
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Derblington
02/02/09 @ 16:40
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Yeah, because all 11,000,000+ subscribing players hate the core mechanics and want to use this single mod...
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Taken from slashdot, the relevant bit of the DMCA is:
"(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that-- (A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; (B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or (C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. Warden controls access to the online portion of WoW (a copyrighted work) by checking to see if cheat programs are running and refusing access to WoW if it detects any. Glider is such a program that has, in the past, been blocked by Warden. Glider was updated to circumvent this access control. The ruling, if you bother to take the time to read it, explains all of this stuff. Maybe you don't like the law, but it was at least properly applied here." In other words the ruling has no more detremental effect on open source software than the US government passing the DMCA already had. |
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Blizzard has effectively succeeded in copyrighting not just a game, but a network service, and enshrining its right to control access to that service even if no copyright theft is at work
No they haven't. The argument is that a bot circumvents the security features in order to play the game, which it does. The bot needs to take data from and send data to the game. It can only do this by intercepting network data. Seriously Ars need to get less sensationalist lawyers and actually talk to some guys who understand how a network actually works. |
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Tweakmonkey
02/02/09 @ 18:20
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Why did this go to court anyway? Is it because Glider was making money?
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iokthemonkey
02/02/09 @ 20:27
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And please dont list 3 prices and then call it priceless ... idiot
----- Says the guy paying to play a game then paying for a robot to play it for him... |
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@penhalion;
No they haven't. The argument is that a bot circumvents the security features in order to play the game, which it does. The bot needs to take data from and send data to the game. It can only do this by intercepting network data. Right, but the point Ars' lawyers are making is that the whole "security features" spiel in the DMCA was originally designed to refer to the security features used to protect copyright material from being copied. The creators of the bill had envisioned it being used to crack down on people who broke DRM or created/modified devices to copy physical media - the fact that it covers this case is just yet another example of how hastily and poorly drafted the DMCA itself was. The reason this is a Bad Thing, since DFawkes asked for a simple analogy, is because it now essentially sets out access to a network service or protocol as being something that's subject to copyright law. So, for example, if Microsoft wanted to chuck all of the non-MSN clients (Adium, Pidgin, GAIM etc) off their IM network - yesterday, they had to change the protocol and the open source IM guys would update their clients within days if not hours to bypass the new change. Today, they can call the change a "security feature" and bring them to court to shut down their software projects. At a slight stretch, you could also say the same about Firefox' Adblocker Plus extension. It interferes with the network communication process; if a good lawyer makes an argument that it's bypassing some server security system to do so (and bear in mind that our definition of "security" as IT-literate people isn't the same as the definition used by the courts, who still think DVD region locking is "security"), that project could theoretically be shut down overnight. It's a really, really bad precedent, and Ars' lawyer types are quite right to point that out. |
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Tetsuo_Shima
02/02/09 @ 23:49
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Bah, auto-grinding programs ... whatever went wrong with a turbo controller, elastic band and a heavy book?
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Yes, the idiot is you paying for the bot to play your fucking game, what's your fucking problem? Deal with it and stop bitching. I recently moved to US serrvers, Till lvl 50 i had 5 alts, 3 proffs at 300 and 1600Gold from mainly AH. If you are USELESS to play an MMO yet capable to use a bot accept the fact you're a dumbass and move the fuck along instead of talking back when they make fun of you. Got it or that's also too fucking hard for you to understand? Subscribe to be getting news feed from the site and read them for you through a bot from now on. At least the bot wont be this fucking stupid to post bullshit back.
Yes DUMBASS |
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shamblemonkee
03/02/09 @ 08:05
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Benno, you're admitting to having bought this Glider bot to play the game for you, a game you pay monthly subs for...I don't think you have any right to be calling other's stupid.
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AccidentProne
03/02/09 @ 08:50
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@Benno;
"I thought you played MMOs? The only people that say shit like that are people that dont understand how MMO gameplay works." That's ridiculous, seems to me you're the one that doesn't understand how these games work. Getting a bot to play these things totally destroys the point of them. If you can't be bothered to do a few dailies for cash, why bother playing at all? Absolutely nobody would have any respect for someone that uses a bot, and it's easy to spot when you find one. As to your use of pvpbot, I seriously hope leechers like you get targetted next as it ruins the game for the rest of us. This all sounds kinda like that new patent of Nintendo's which allows the game to play itself for you when it gets too hard. Fine for single player games imho but ruins the game for everyone else in anything multiplayer. I'm still not entirely convinced you're not trolliing as your responses here are pretty lame. |
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michaelius
03/02/09 @ 08:51
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American Court & patent office - the best friends of corporations in the world.
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iokthemonkey
03/02/09 @ 09:04
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I thought you played MMOs? The only people that say shit like that are people that dont understand how MMO gameplay works. You are obviously just being a bit stupid.
---- I play 'em more than you do, pal, as I don't rely on a cheat to win teh gaem!!!!11111 for me. |
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personally i think it should be the paying subscribers choice whether they use a bot or not.
They pay to use the service they should be able to interact with the game world however they see fit. If their choice is to use a bot to do the 'grinding' for them then so be it they should be allowed. The bots don't interact or spoil other peoples games so let them exist. |
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iokthemonkey
03/02/09 @ 10:56
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The bots don't interact or spoil other peoples games so let them exist.
----- Yeah, they do. Not only do they gather resources/cash that fucks the economy and gives them an unfair advantage over real players, but they also foster players who don't actually know how to play the game. I can't believe how anybody could think using a bot to play a game for you is a good thing. I'm glad I left. |
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PlugMonkey
03/02/09 @ 11:06
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You bot to whipe out the boring grindy bits in MMOs
Imagine living your life and not having to go to work, because a bot worked for you, leaving you with currency to spend on doing what you want Imagine living your life, going to work to earn money and then spending it doing something fun instead of doing something that you find so much like work you end up paying someone else to do it for you... personally i think it should be the paying subscribers choice whether they use a bot or not. They pay to use the service they should be able to interact with the game world however they see fit. If their choice is to use a bot to do the 'grinding' for them then so be it they should be allowed. The bots don't interact or spoil other peoples games so let them exist. It upsets the economy and devalues the gold other players are earning legitimately, for a start. Basically, they're closing up an exploit. All credit to them, although the precedent they have set doing it could have ramifications. Looking at the details of the case as reported, it seems that Blizzard have proven that they own the experience of playing WoW and that the bots distort that experience for everyone. People using non-MSN clients (Adium, Pidgin, GAIM etc) don't distort the experience of using MSN for people using MS software, so I'm not sure any precedent could be directly applied, but I'm far from being an expert on these matters.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 03/02/09 @ 11:07
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But they don't 'interact' with other players they just go about their duty farming gold/exp you can just ignore them and they won't bother you.
You say they mess the economy up well it means the economy is messed up to begin with. It should be player driven and go up down with market forces like EVE. Bots would have no effect on this. |
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iokthemonkey
03/02/09 @ 11:15
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And why is the economy so fucked?
Gold farmers and bot farmers. Under bot-control, they DO interact with others by stealing nodes and loot. Under player-control, they DO interact with others by having a character they didn't work for, learn how to play or invest any time in. And if you have to "grind" to play an MMO then you're playing the wrong game. |
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Silvervein
03/02/09 @ 14:05
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This thread is rather amusing read.
From where I stand, the root of the problem is wow design. Wow gameplay is based on grind up to pvp and instance raids which consist proper game (or end game if you prefer). Now, due to large audience, some people who play the game for reasons other than the game itself want to remove bits of experience it offers that they don't want. And here is where it gets amusing. According to kind posters who explained the law speak in plain words, it seems that blizzard deems people who don't enjoy their game and yet play it using third party help, criminals. To me, it's like a company producing yogurt with strawberries suing maker of spoons people who don't like strawberries use to remove strawberries from said yogurt before eating it. Doesn't that violate our consumer rights in some way, being forced to take whole thing we paid for, regardless of whether we want it or not?
Edited 3 times,
most recently on 03/02/09 @ 14:14
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iokthemonkey
03/02/09 @ 14:14
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From where I stand, the root of the problem is wow design. Wow gameplay is based on grind up to pvp and instance raids which consist proper game (or end game if you prefer).
--- That may be the way many players perceive it, but in reality it's like saying the goal of watching a movie is to fast-forward it until the last 10 minutes. And the problem with the bots is that it impacts the gaming experience of others. Blizzard need to ensure that the actions of others do not influence those of the player, as this would be considered a kind of "stealth disruption." If left unchecked, it will destroy the economy (and the Wow economy is already pretty shit anyway) and - worse - players will stop playing as it's "unfair." The solution is to ensure the levels up to "the end" are fun and instill this in the userbase. Or they could do something stupid like, I don't know, give you a pre-levelled character to play... |
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Silvervein
03/02/09 @ 14:29
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@iokthemonkey
Perhaps it is the definition of 'grind' that is the problem. By grind I mean being forced by game mechanics to kill large numbers of copies of the same npc in order to gather character experience points necessary to advance character to next level, where, again, you kill large numbers of slightly different than previously npc. This process is accompanied by minimal in game narrative, usually along the lines of 'quest' npc telling you to save their village from demons by bringing him 100 rat tails, and small material incentive, usually along the lines of small item and or gold. Such in game mechanics is artificial way of lengthening gameplay time for players before they reach maximum level, and so ensuring that they will pay multiple times game subscription before canceling. So, that said, I wouldn't call it, using your analogy, making it a goal of a movie to fast forward it to last 10 minutes. It is more like watching absolutely boring soap opera with your girlfriend who insists that you watch it together, while wishing only to see end credits so you can move on to something more interesting. I agree though that the only real solution lies in the changes to gameplay made by blizzard. If they include proper gold sinks incorporating all gameplay styles, overflow of gold won't be a problem. Decreasing repop time of npc's and resource nodes will stop problem mentioned by someone else earlier, that is of bots 'stealing' npc and nodes. And as for players who use bots to get to max level without knowledge of how to play their characters, I doubt that after one team up, anyone would invite them to their team again, so player created incentive to get basic knowledge of game inner working should be there already.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 03/02/09 @ 14:34
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iokthemonkey
03/02/09 @ 14:36
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It depends a lot - I think - if you're a book readin' type or not. When I get a quest, I don't jump to the summary (i.e. kill 10 orcs) but instead read the why of it, as I like stuff like that. When I'm then doing the quest, yes, obviously I'm aware of my target but for me the hunt/combat is entertaining in its own right, too. Maybe it's because I only play good MMOs... ;)
I don't find "grind" boring, mainly as I don't experience it. If you need to level-up, go do some quests. I did my share of mob grinding in EQ and it's not something I'll ever go back to. Mythic said something a while ago about players not "playing the game the way they should" and now I'm starting to understand some of what they meant. And the simplest way to sort out the economy is to act fast against the gold farmers and rebalance the economy without external influences. I remember when Wow's economy was pretty stable. But the last time I logged in, it was as if every price had gone-up by a factor of 1000%. My mailbox was full of gold-seller spam and Stormwind's population seemed to consist of lots of Macro-powered level 1s called jijijijijijiji shouting about gold... |
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Silvervein
03/02/09 @ 14:51
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@iokthemonkey
Don't take me wrong, I'm not supporting gold sellers or farmers. In fact, I'm quite upset every time my city of heroes mailbox get flooded with adds for some gold selling site. But it is basically down to game mechanics itself to reduce or remove gold and level farming as such. Let me stick to city of heroes and wow. In city, powerlevelling is very hard due to practical game mechanic reasons, and in all the time I played city, I never once had spam mail advertising pwerlevelling and gold selling: usually it's only the latter. Which stands in stark contrast to what was going on when I was playing wow. And about grind, well. So far, in all mmo's I played, and the ones I know of, most of the levelling was done by fighting npcs. With notable exception of star wars galaxies (before sony destroyed that game, damn you sony), where entertainers didn't have to fight anything, but gained levels at rate depending on how many people watched them perform. Damn I loved that game. Anyhow, as I was saying, the grind is not just description of mechanic of killing npc's. It's the ratio of killing npc's to in game narrative. In city, missions you do always have a lot of backstory behind them, and are never long enough to get you bored. It gives me feeling of participating in game world as opposed to being forced to click skill buttons for hours on end for no reason other than to get to next level, which I was getting in wow. That, and amazing character customization options in city (by far best of all mmo's on the market now) is the reason I'm playing city after well over 15 months, and why I quit wow after 3 months. PS. And I might be wrong here, but I think that city is the only mmo that actually has cutscenes during some of the missions. Pretty neat stuff, and a proof that a bit of storytelling in mmo is not only possible, but turns fighting npcs from chore to adventure. I guess it's all about motivation game gives you to do in game activities.
Edited 3 times,
most recently on 03/02/09 @ 15:01
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iokthemonkey
03/02/09 @ 14:59
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I'm a pretty avid CoH-er too, so you're preaching to the perverted there. :)
And yeah, SWG was awesome. I loved that game, too... But I think as I say, too many people are in a rush to "win" and that's when it becomes a "grind." If you accept your quest involves killing X and take it at a good pace, the combat is good and there's challenge, then it's not a dull grind: it's you playing your character, using your skills, planning tactically and, well, playing the game. I've noticed recently in Moria that the mob camps need to be broken in ways that involve watching and waiting. You can't just pick them off from the edges and have to clear yourself a space, move, pull, kill then wait on the optimal time to do your next pull. For all you're just "killing 10 orcs" it's engaging. That's the sort of hooky-gameplay you need to avoid grinding. But if all you're doing it pulling one of three perfectly-spaced mobs, then it gets dull. But a part of that lies with the developer, yes but I still think it's about how you approach your game. |
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Silvervein
03/02/09 @ 15:09
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I won't argue that what you want from the game will influence your experience. That's a fact, and nothing to discuss with. But the thing to consider is what the game offers. I didn't play lord of the rings mmo yet, so I can't say much about those orc hunts, but they do sound interesting. See, that's example of how to make game activity (and in 99% mmos it's fighting) interesting. Adding a lot of story is another.
Personal tastes differ, so I won't go discussing that, but for me personally wow didn't offer that much that would keep me engaged in the game. Even end game raids were pretty much automated, with roles of every player written by the devs and shared based on your class choices, and encounters tailored to be beaten only on one or two prescribed ways. I just prefer games with a bit more freedom, which is why I play city. In terms of combat it's pretty standard, but large range of powersets you can chose for your character even within the same class, and a lot of backstory behind missions keep it interesting for me. On the other end of spectrum, mmo's that actually innovate at the combat end of fun might be a welcome thing. Does lotro do free trial thing? And also, there's another mmo coming out soon, darkfall. I'm sort of looking forward to that one, it incorporates many ideas of original ultima online with combat more similar to online team shooters than standard skill button pressing fare of mmos. |
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iokthemonkey
03/02/09 @ 15:12
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LOTRO may well be your bag if you enjoyed SWG. Although it's not as freeform in its economy, world and character-progression it has a lot of the stuff Wow lacks and - most of all - player housing. Again, it's not as limitless as SWG's but it is nice to be able to have your own place for trophies, etc...
And yes, there's a free trial on LOTRO I believe - check the EG forums and you'll find some discussions there. |
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