Transmog yourself into an Avenger!
6 blue posts to read before Diablo 3's launch
Cross-realm zones coming soon
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsGlider loses again, shutdown imminent
by Adam Holisky 
Jan 29th 2009 at 6:30PM
In the latest ruling in the Blizzard v. Glider case, the Honorable David G. Campbell (U.S. District Judge for the District of Arizona) ruled essentially that MDY Industries (the makers of Glider) has to present him with arguments why Glider should not be shut down during what will be a lengthy future appeals process. The arguments must be presented to the court by February 13th, 2009.The Judge will then decide if the arguments hold merit and justify the continued operation of Glider.
If MDY Industries is not successful in their persuasion of the Judge Campbell, and MDY Industries CEO Michael Donnelly believes they will not be (according to posts made on the Glider forums), then they will have to cease and desist selling Glider. The shutdown of Glider will happen quickly after the February 13th date.
Campbell's full ruling on the matter is available in PDF format for your viewing. We'll have more on this as it develops in the next couple weeks. In the mean time, check out our previous coverage of Glider and its results
Thanks to everyone who sent this in! And while I don't know what Judge David Campbell looks like, I prefer to think of him as pictured in the article.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
milk Jan 30th 2009 11:02AM
I'm going to miss glider. I used to follow those idiots around and tag the mob first while the bot finished it off. Made for great farming.
/cast Arcane Shot (Rank 1)
Let bot finish the job while you kill another mob.
Loot 2 corpses.
Repeat.
Quote the Raven Jan 30th 2009 12:44PM
It's funny to see the talk of ethics and morals from non-users of Glider aimed at people that do use it. Especially when laden with awful insults and foul language about people they've never met. Acting as if the World of Warcraft is an internet safe haven from those that would cheat, and only the few using this Glider are immoral and wicked. Have you ever Ninja looted? Steal a mining or Herb node? Grief? Or any of the other countless ways the WoW community shows itself to have the moral fortitude of life termed inmate? One of the reasons I might quit WoW isn't because of the trouble with patches, or Botters, or raid difficulty. I'm thinking about the idea of quiting because of how awful the majority of the players talk and treat each other. So next time you log on, just think about how you can make the games experiance better for ALL the players, not just yourself. Blizzard will handle those that don't.
kenney Jan 30th 2009 1:54PM
It's staggeringly apparent reading this that it's non-obvious to people that Blizzard isn't enforcing their EULA here, they were unable to enforce their EULA, and are now suing as a copyright violation. Wowglider is being punished for copyright infraction on Blizzard, not breaking their EULA.
It's like catching Al Capone on tax evasion, if we had done so by making some strange argument that established all wealthy people as businesses, and applied corporate tax law to him. Al Capone (WOWGlider) would have gone down (yay!), except that the cost of having pursued him in that manner would be that now all rich people would effectively be businesses.
I agree with both sides: Blizzard SHOULD be able to have a EULA that says "you can't use MMOGlider" (they do, in fact), and they SHOULDN'T be able to attack the makers of MMOGlider for violating copyright, because MMOGlider is NOT copying or distributing any Blizzard product. It's a definite flaw in the legal system that Blizzard has no legal avenue to prevent users from running MMOGlider on their servers. Repurposing copyright law is NOT the solution though.
Elimath Jan 30th 2009 6:43PM
It's funny reading through all these comments and seeing people with all these doomsday predictions about the precedent set. Wouldn't start worrying about it right now, there's always things like this that pop up and people freak out about restricting rights and then it doesn't turn out to be that big of a deal. Maybe it will, but I personally wouldn't count on it.
Anyway, glad to see Glider is going down. Botting should take a hit, although there will always be plenty of botters out there.
powder Jan 30th 2009 10:48PM
Probably the best coverage of this decision and its implications:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/01/judges-ruling-that-wow-bot-violates-dmca-is-troubling.ars
http://www.eff.org/cases/blizzard-v-bnetd
Given other precedents, the appeal has a fair chance of failing, though I hope it doesn't. There should be more reliable and technically correct ways of shutting down glider than to invoke the almighty DMCA.
Unfortunately, Bobby Kotick's business strategy doesn't look good for Blizzard's long-term success, despite short-term wins.
Mihn Jan 31st 2009 6:23PM
Once again, the emotional activist rallying cry of "our freedoms is being stolen" is heard, when they really arent. When you look at the details of the case through unbiased sources, it makes sense. And most of the naysayers on here seem to be using fallacious logic and hearsay to make their point, invalidating it completely.
We often cheer for the government when they use a piece of legal trickery to nail a bad guy. But when Blizzard uses those same tactics to stop the makers of this program from doing tings in their game that a majority of the user base finds unethical, we protest.
Yes, I am sure Blizz could continue to patch Glider out of the game, and, then when the patch is broken, patch again, creating a cycle. Does anyone remember a program called UOExtreme? He lost his case, too. Why? He used the term UO in the name of the program. Legal gymnastics are nothing new in these sorts of cases.
It is a fact that this program copies the client into memory for the express purpose of modifying it in a way that disagrees with the TOS. The same terms that the Glider writers agreed to when they opened the software and installed it while they reverse engineered it.
And before you claim this sets a nasty legal precedent, let me say this one fact, precedents can be overturned. That is why they are called Judges, they Judge. If a Judge thinks the other Judge was less than informed, or, made a mistake, it can be overturned. The mass hysteria that is being spewed forth by the "losing our freedoms!" crowd spews out, is often just that, Hysterics.
Botmancentral Feb 1st 2009 9:54PM
Anyone that isnt a lawyer arguing that experienced copyright lawyers opposing this decision are using "fallacious logic" because they oppose it are misguided.
The law is unclear.
It should be clear to any wow player that the rules of wow are so loosely defined as to allow Blizzard to outlaw any behaviour under them.
This decision means Blizzard can sue any player fro copyright infringement.
I have played the game since inception and I am 100% certain there isnt a player out there that hasnt fallen foul of the rules.
You have a bunch of people passionate about proteting their game, but as others have pointed out they are usually selective in their reasoning of the facts and make poor scientists when it comes to their assumptions and analysis.
Blizzard have a right to police their game I am not sure they are mmorally right to take hundreds of $ per account off a huge customerbase and afford them no ownership of the fruits of their labour, mnuch less the right to sue them for copyright infringement if they share an account, swear, talk politics, lie, etc eetc, all the while altering the game to maximise their revenue and damn a level playing field.
john wong Feb 6th 2009 4:27PM
I dunno if you all read the pdf but is there only ban on selling and distributing the glider not saying all glider users will be wiped out.
simon Mar 8th 2009 11:46AM
for you who use glider and can't level try a leveling guide haha
http://levelingguide-portal.weebly.com/
Go ahead you can pay for a glider then you can pay for a leveling guide hihi.
Then you can level like normal people
Wiideus Mar 12th 2009 2:56PM
Glider is permanently offline. A circuit court judge ordered MDY to take their server offline and they did so this afternoon. They will appeal to the CC9 in Arizona but it is not looking good.
Blizzard wins this round.
Now instead of one big target there will be dozens of little ones.