Category — Cheating

Case Management Summary (March 27, 2007)
Text of Blizzard’s/Vivendi’s Answer & Counterclaim (Feb 16, 2007)
Text of MDY’s (Donnelly’s) Complaint (Oct 25, 2006)

Michael Donnelly created a ‘bot’ program called WowGlider (since renamed to simply “Glider” in response to Blizzard’s trademark complaints) that allows players of the wildly popular World of Warcraft (”WOW”) MMORPG to automate their game play and keep their character “playing” 24/7.

Using this bot the player can continue to level up and harvest gold 24/7 without actually having to play the game - an activity widely considered to be cheating. The use of such “bots” circumvent Blizzard’s security/anti-cheating measures and are prohibited by WOW’s EULA and terms of use.

In the fall of 2006 Blizzard (and its parent Vivendi) demanded Donnelly cease selling the bot. In response, On October 25, 2006 Donnelly’s company MDY filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court of Arizona seeking a Declaratory Judgment that it is not infringing any rights, copyright or otherwise owned by Blizzard and Vivendi.

CONTINUE READING →

Categories: Antitrust/Competition Cases, Bots, Cheating, Copyright Cases, DMCA-TPM Cases, Gold Farming, Hacking, Tortious Interference, Trademark Cases, Unfair Business Practice Casses

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Text of Bragg v. Linden Labs Complaint (Oct 4, 2006)[.zip format]
Jurisdiction and other Interim Court Filings
While I was converting this blog to WordPress over the last 8 weeks, Mark Bragg sent me his updated complaint against Linden Research Inc. ("Linden") that was filed on October 4 in the Chester County (Pennsylvania) Court of Common Pleas.  Mr. Bragg is seeking a jury trial. On November 7, Linden petitioned the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to take jurisdiction of the case. 

I'm just now getting the time to review the claim and post this blog entry about it. 

The complaint contains a terrific history (frankly, the best I've read) of Linden, its MMORPG Second Life and describes how Linden differentiated Second Life from its competitors by granting "ownership rights" to in-game property (most MMORPG publishers claim/retain ownership in all related virtual property). It also contains a history/description of virtual property generally in the context of the growing MMORPG phenomena.

The 239 paragraph complaint alleges violation of Californian and Pennsylvanian unfair practices and consumer protection laws, fraud, violation of California's Civil Code concerning auctions, conversion (theft), interference with contractual relations, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and tortuous breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. He discounts many of the provisions of the Linden Labs Terms of Service ("TOS") as being unenforceable due to unconscionably. Suffice it to say, when this case is over, I suspect Linden will be updating its TOS!

This Law.com article provides a good summary of the facts. The complaint, itself, is worth reading if only for its best-in-class description of the MMORPG industry and related virtual property issues. Excellent job Mark!

Dale's Comment: Given that many courts in many countries have upheld the validity of extremely one-sided Internet-service click-wrap/shrink-wrap agreements, I think Mark will have a tough time overcoming the clear provisions contained in the TOS. But he makes many compelling arguments pertaining to the contradicting public statements of Linden representatives, rights in and to virtual property purchased from other Second Life users, and the right to recoup the real $U.S. dollars he paid into the Second Life economy and not returned when Linden booted him from the game.

Bragg is claiming ownership to his in-game property. I am quite sympathetic to his arguments and have advocated, here, for the the recognition, at law, of rights in and to virtual property. But, if analogies to real-world and intangible property are taken to their logical extreme, Second Life players could argue that Linden would never have the right to shutdown their MMORPG and deny virtual property owners of their "right" to access, use, sell and other wise deal with their virtual property when, as will inevitably be the case one day, Second Life ceases to be a profitable game for Linden. 

This could be a very important, precedent setting case if it goes to trial. It could set the ground rules for the application of laws to virtual property going forward. Needless to say, I'll be following this one closely.

[Dec 13, 2006 Update: Mark has sent me this link where the most recent court filings in the case can be found. At the moment the parties are fighting over the most appropriate jurisdiction for further proceedings.] 

Sources: *Law.com | Blogger News Network | MMORPG BLog | Pilly.com

Related Posts:

• Mark Bragg File's Virtual Property Complaint Against Linden Labs (November 16, 2006)
• Linden Lab Sued for Alleged Breach of Virtual Land Contract (May 18, 2006)

Categories: Cheating, Hacking, Misc. Contract Cases, Modding Cases, Player Bans, Unfair Business Practice Casses, Virtual Property Cases

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A former deputy manager of Shanghai-based Shanda Network Development, Wang Yihui, and two accomplices are being prosecuted in China for illegal virtual weapons trade. Mr. Yihui changed the underlying game database of the popular Legend of Mir video game to produce, and replicate, two high powered weapons and provide them to two registered gamer accomplices. They, in turn, sold multiple copies of these weapons for profit. The group was able to make around $250,000 between September 2004 to August 2005 by such sales. Users of these weapons have an unfair advantage that allows them to advance through the game at a much quicker pace. The group are being prosecuted for copyright infringement.

Sources: Bit-tech.net | ars technica | Live Science | Spong | Taipei Times | 7 Days | IEET | War Cry | China Post

Categories: Cheating, Hacking, Virtual Crime Cases, Virtual Property Cases

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Chapter 2 is a little easier to understand than Chapter 1.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2:

Sources:
Joystiq | YouTube (Chapter 1) | YouTube (Chapter 2)

Categories: Cheating

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In a seemingly never ending cycle of user bans, Blizzard banned a whopping 59,000 MORE World of Warcraft users, and 22 million in gold, in the month of June for various cheating/EULA violations.
 
Sources: GameSpot  |  Eurogamer  |  Hexus  |  Warcry Network  |  Gamasutra  |  joystiq  |  GameDaily.biz
 
Other Player Ban Posts

Categories: Cheating, Player Bans

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In another of a seemingly never ending series of online gaming bans, Square Enix once again banned more than 2,000 Final Fantasy XI accounts for using unauthorized third-party software tools to cheat.

Sources: Gamespot | joystiq | GameDaily.biz

Categories: Cheating, Player Bans

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Square Enix permanently suspended 250 Final Fantasy XI accounts involved in large-scale RMT operations. The users were caught using unauthorized third-party software tools, in violation of the end user agreement, to ‘farm’ for “Gil”, (FFXI’s in-game currency) and selling it for real-world money - a practice known as real money trading (RMT).

Sources: GameSpot | Square Enix’ Press Release | EuroGamer | Galbadia X

Categories: Cheating, Gold Farming, Player Bans

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In what is becoming a regular quarterly (if not monthly) purging exercise, Blizzard has banned another 30,000 accounts for cheating, gold-farming, using automated programs and otherwise breaching its Terms of Use. This is becoming so common the leading gaming news sites seemingly no longer cover it.

Sources: ars technica | EuroGamer

Categories: Cheating, Gold Farming, Player Bans

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In what is becoming a regular purging exercise, Blizzard has banned another 5,400+ accounts and suspended another 10,700 for cheating, gold-farming, using automated programs and otherwise breaching its Terms of Use.

Sources: Joystiq | Video Game Generation | WarCry Network | 1Up.com

Categories: Cheating, Player Bans

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A Colorado man who is an expert video-game cheater is accusing another video-game expert of — what else? — cheating. Ultimately, it’s a straightforward copyright-infringement action that raises the interesting question of whether copyright can subsist in cheat codes submitted by a website’s user base.

Sources: Casper Star Tribune | Davis and Co. LLP | Net Boulevards | Jackson Holes Star Tribune
Related Posts:

• Cheatcc.com and Crave Online Media Settle Cheat Codes Dispute (April 12, 2006)
• Cheatcc.com and Crave Online Media in Cheat Codes Dispute (December 1, 2005)

Categories: Cheating, Copyright Cases

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Chris Bennett, of Davis & Company, LLP describes numerous possible new legal liabilities flowing from video game play. He discusses online theft, online assault, offlline assaults and cheating.

Source: Lawyers Weekly

Categories: Cheating, Featured Articles, Product Liability Cases, Startup Game Developer Issues, Virtual Crime Cases, Virtual Property Cases, Virtual Property Taxation

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A man has been arrested in Japan on suspicion of carrying out a virtual mugging spree by using software “bots” (a form of cheating) to beat up and rob characters in the online computer game Lineage II. The stolen virtual possessions were then exchanged for real cash.

Sources: New Scientist | Gamespot | The Enquirer | BBC | CNet | GamePolitics | Ferrago

Related Posts:

• The Virtual Crimewave (September 10, 2005)
• Man Arrested for Virtual Mugging in Lineage II (August 18, 2005)
• Spurned Woman Charged after Deleting Ex’s Lineage II Gaming Data (January 20, 2005)

Categories: Cheating, Police Actions, Virtual Crime Cases, Virtual Property Cases

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A number of World of Warcraft players are up in arms over software being used by the game’s publisher to scan users’ computers for hacks prohibited under its terms of service.

Sources: CNet | ZDNet | P2PNet | Blizzard’s Response

Related Posts:

• EFF Label’s Blizzard’s Anti-cheat Warden Program - “Spyware” (October 20, 2005)
• Player’s Say Blizzard’s Anti-cheat Warden Program Invades Privacy (August 12, 2005)

Categories: Cheating, Privacy Cases

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A group of cheaters accounts were shut down after using a “duping-bug” to make a huge large amount of “Everquest II” currency, and says the players caused the game’s economy to suffer 20 percent inflation in just 24 hours before being caught.

Sources: CNet | GameSpot | About.com

Categories: Cheating, Player Bans

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Square Enix, maker of the PS2 and PC MMORPG Final Fantasy XI game banned players for who have violated the PlayOnline Member Agreement for, among other things, “monopolizing monsters” - ie: the practice of large, high-level parties camping at points where particular rare items appear, blocking others’ attempts to obtain such items and thereby controlling prices for such items within ingame auction houses.

Sources: GamaSutra  |  RPGamer

Categories: Cheating, Player Bans

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