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Uncategorized Sunday, August 15th 2010 at 2:31 pm

Blizzard Wins $88 Million in Private Server Lawsuit

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Back in October, Blizzard Entertainment filed a lawsuit against Alyson Reeves and her company Scapegaming, for violating the end user license agreement of World of Warcraft by setting up a private server for her own profit.  On Thursday, the California Central District Court ruled in favor of the game maker and ordered Scapegaming to pay back “$3,053,339 of inappropriate profits, $63,600 of attorney’s fees, and $85,478,600 of statutory damages.”

What, you ask, is a private server, how do you make a profit off of it, and why is it against the EULA?  Allow me to explain.

What is a private server?

A private server replicates Blizzard’s own server environment… but without using Blizzard’s servers.  It can be set up using the files that you get when you install World of Warcraft.  You set up your server, and other people can connect to it and play WoW, just like they were playing on official servers, albeit with certain utilities that depend on Blizzard’s server network unavailable. (Like anything related to Battle.net, the Armory, and the Dungeon Finder and Battleground Queues.)

World of Warcraft is not the only game you can do this with.  Pretty much any game where all users connect to a game maker owned server, like MMORPGS, and some strategy games and first person shooters.

How do you make a profit off of it?

In the case of Alyson Reeves, who was doing her business under the name of Scapegaming, she included microtransactions in the game.  For a “donation” people who played on her server could receive an item immediately, bypassing whatever grind was originally associated with obtaining it.

Why is it against the EULA?

You mean, aside from being a way to make profit with someone else’s IP and hard work?  To quote WoW.com:

They’re shady as get out — some make you pay (and these are not people you’d ever want to give any credit card information to), some will delete or change characters on a regular basis, and many times they’re created just so whoever’s running them can mess around with [having omnipotent game master] powers, and cheat with any items they want.

The End User License Agreement, players should remember, is not like the Terms Of Service.  The TOS simply governs how you are expected to behave in game, so that you do not get kicked out of game; to put it another way: the terms (behavioral rules) by which Blizzard agrees to give you a service (allowing you to partake of their regularly maintained gameworld).  There’s nothing illegal about violating the TOS, but it will probably get you censured, or temporarily or permanently banned.

The EULA, however, is about how you are allowed to use the software that Blizzard licenses to you.  To quote Wikipedia directly:

A software license agreement is a contract between the “licensor” and purchaser of the right to use software. The licence may define ways under which the copy can be used.

The TOS is specifically concerned with receiving service from Blizzard, while the EULA governs your right to use the software in the first place, for any purpose.  Copyright, as Alyson Reeves has found out, is serious business.

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  • Bob

    I was so sick of those assholes at Scapegaming. Good job, that bitch deserved it.

  • Mattizh

    all i can say is FU blizz u dunno how much u destroy for peeps who really cant afford to play in retail . and if its matters if money then its really sad to see blizz doing such things . u have enough anyway . this is just retarded

  • Mattizh

    Back in October, Blizzard Entertainment filed a lawsuit against Alyson Reeves and her company Scapegaming, for violating the end user license agreement of World of Warcraft by setting up a private server for her own profit ( like Blizz dont ? )

  • Sina

    Well yeah. this kind of made me hate Wow cause of the selfish owners. Goodbye wow theres always another way to have fun :) and be sure many other people do that too when they see iniscent people getting sued for such..

  • Daniel

    Except blizzard made the game you idiot…of course they use it to make money. Let me take something you have spent YEARS branding and developing and then make my own profit from it. God people are so ignorant…

  • FreeInformationAct

    How is that fair? This is like saying, the first cave man to ever build a house, deserved
    to forcibly gain revenue off of any other cave man who tried to build a
    house, even if it was on their property, just because it was his idea
    first.

    Fuck the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Free ideas, free information. The internet should be the revolution for free-thinkers, not another way to provide limitations. Many people develop private servers in order to develop the actual source code and make real changes to the game, not just for profit. Some have to use donations to continue to pay a host, not for personal gain. They do it because they are fans. The main people doing this for financial gain are the original game creators, who only sue private servers out of jealousy or fear of losing their player base, or because they know they can make bank on it.

  • IblameObama

    I figured it this way, They make their money off of selling wow in stores off shelves and after that should be up to the people what they do with that product… if its majority of the people who dont know how to get on other servers or make their own.. then that should be fine.. But like i said its Majority of the people who buy their product who still pay the money each month to blizz to play wow… I would say let who ever know how to do it, do it and who dont know/dont want to then pay Blizz to rape them in their @55!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1752205766 Andrew Colsch

    Actually there are several good reasons for this lawsuit to have taken place. While I agree with you that the DMCA and DRM are a horribly implemented system, a line has to be drawn somewhere. Blizzard as a company and as a group of people spent their time, money, and manpower creating a product people are willing to buy. Blizzard then sold that product under terms and conditions. The idea is that when you click that “I Agree” button, you are telling Blizzard “I will give you this much money and agree to NOT DO (insert stuff here) if you will give me your product.” That’s called an End-User License Agreement. It is just as much a crime to do (insert stuff here) which you agreed not to do, as it is to not pay for the product. Furthermore, to take their product unlawfully (without following their terms under which you agreed to purchase their product) and then distribute it to other people for a profit yourself, is most certainly immoral, criminal, and as we have seen from this example, HEAVILY punishable by law.

    It’s the same concept kids use all the time. Bobby says to Mike, “I’ll let you borrow my bike if you ride it on the sidewalk,” Mike agrees and rides off, decides to ride in the middle of the road. Bobby gets mad, beats Mike up, and doesn’t let him ride his bike anymore :)  The DMCA, as inefficient and ineffective as it may be, is the exact same concept being extrapolated to digital property.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_32MBPTDZNWJJ75AWTZFBT44IPM T Dunlap

    That has nothing to do with anything, that’s an opinion not how law works. Go back to school! She did wrong. She was caught for it. Simple as that. Use your head people!

  • T. Anderson

    To show a bit of contrast between ppl who are profiteering from private servers and people who aren’t, I’m going to bring up another game, Oblivion. Oblivion allows individual players to modify the game in any way they see fit, share content they make with other people, and just generally promotes creativity and modification of their game. Essentially when you’re paying for WoW, you’re paying for access to their servers, not for the game itself, which you “should” have already bought. So then, why exactly is it illegal for you to play on servers that Blizzard isn’t running? Simple, Blizzard wants you to play on their servers so they can get your money. So they accuse people who run private servers and take donations for server upkeep, which is what most of them do, not micro-transactions for items, of profiteering so they can legitimize suing them. Occasionally Blizzard has legit claims, but usually they are only doing it to pad their wallet. Imo running a server, off the money from your own pocket, using a game you bought, should not be illegal. It’s ridiculous that you have to pay to play games without having the option of playing for free. You already paid good money for the game and it’s content, but you’re not allowed to play it unless you pay $10-$15 each month for access to servers. It’s ridiculous. Private servers shouldn’t be illegal, a lot of them make their own content and put a lot of their own money and work into it and get absolutely nothing in return for it but the pleasure of providing free server access for people who can’t afford to pay for access to Blizzard’s servers. They’re not profiteering.

  • Rulasuckshard

    she made a lot of money, back then she was making 570k $ per month without paying any taxes, i used to be a dev in ascent emu and thats how i know it:)

  • fu

    lol, i am amused to see how many idiots actually have an opinion and are convinced others would be interested in their inane imbecility.

  • Zìon

     If you cant afford it then make a plan or go play something you can afford. Its an entertainment service and no ones life depends on it. They offer a service in return for money. A service they have worked on for years now and are still working on. It is in essence a product and service they provide to people as entertainment.

    Lets see you create something that took years and then have people steal it and profit from it..