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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlizzard files lawsuit against private server
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 29th 2009 at 4:00PM
So you can see why Blizzard would want them shut down, and that's exactly what they're trying to do with this lawsuit filed in the California Central District Court against a company called "Scapegaming" that runs at least one private WoW server (and they've apparently been running microtransactions in-game -- selling in-game items for "donations" of money). The law firm working for Blizzard, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, also worked on the "Bnetd" case, which was another piece of unofficial server software that allowed players to play off of Blizzard's Battle.net setup.
The complaint lists copyright infringement as the cause, which means they're probably using the same argument targeted at other private servers in the past. We'll keep an eye on this, but it's very likely Blizzard will win this one unopposed, and Scapegaming (or at least just their WoW server) will get shut down for good.
Thanks, Phenom!
Filed under: Realm Status, Blizzard, News items, Hardware
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
slyman.is.god Oct 29th 2009 5:41PM
I know of some private servers in my country. Is there some sort of blizzard mail were I can send the info to get this bastards sued?
Lissanna Oct 29th 2009 7:35PM
You can forward suspicious behavior to hacks@blizzard.com
This is where I send things like account phishing scams & such.
slyman.is.god Oct 29th 2009 10:29PM
=O! ok :D thx
Trendecide Oct 29th 2009 5:50PM
I just want to point out that that bnetd didn't lose their case because of emulating/reverse engineering software, they lost the case in the end because of copyright infringement of the NAME bnetd which the judge found to too closely resemble battle.net.
I haven't read the litigation, but if this case is once again based off of reverse engineering or software emulation Blizzard will lose. Reverse engineering and software emulation is indeed legal and why with very little effort you can find plenty of emulated wow realms, regardless of Blizzard's terms. However, making a profit from the emulated software without permission is not legal. So this case really depends on the angles Blizzard decides to approach it.
I'm not saying I agree with one party or the other, but Blizzard's "Terms of Use" are merely a gimmick scare tactic that unfortunately work very effectively. Simply read the so-called terms of use and you'll quickly find that much of what's there is overridden by your rights as a consumer and US Citizen.
Neirin Oct 29th 2009 9:20PM
EULA and TOS are actually quite well established legal ideas. Accepting the TOS that says it's illegal to reverse engineer the software (yes, it is in there) is still legally binding. The way these servers go about things is a little like plagiarizing your homework, then asking people to pay you to read it.
aqgamer7643 Oct 29th 2009 6:07PM
If blizzard goes after them in reference to them making money off the private server they will undoubtedly win. Peyton, the actual owner of wowscape/scapegaming, was found to be making around $500k a month after one of their admins was hacked and a group of people from a rival server made their earnings public.
Candina@WH Oct 29th 2009 6:13PM
For those of you wondering how Custom Server software written or reverse engineered to simiulate Blizzard servers is copy-right infringement, look at it from this perspective.
Blizzard wrote a powerful client software to make money with. How does repurposing that client to YOUR server not infringe?
The argument might be made that it is the USERS who are infringing, but I am betting there is some custom code that has to be inserted into the client to make your server 'visible'.
That being the case, you are modifying a code base you don't own or license -- and profiting by it. Therefore you are infringing a on Blizzards rights.
So, criminal hacks 0, blizzard 1.
Thyrial Oct 29th 2009 7:13PM
That's completely wrong actually... All they have to do is insert the address into the client in the correct place. The people running the servers are not liable for their users actions even if those actions are obviously intended. The change comes though when they start making money off of it because it crosses into other copyright laws at that point.
Personally I don't see why Blizz cares about them really... I've seen far more people come FROM p servers to the official servers then the other way around due to the fact that even the best run p servers have more problems then you can count lol. The people who are playing free WoW servers are not going to come to the officials even if all the p servers were stopped. (yes there is probably a small fraction that would but that's easily offset by the people that actually come to the real servers BECAUSE of p servers) so really Blizz is just wasting people's time lol
Bruescrues Oct 29th 2009 6:35PM
Just to let you know....Private Servers do NOT use Blizzard code. They do not hack Blizzard code either. They started completely from scratch way back when WoW was in Alpha. They did not have packets to sniff. All they had was the client and a want to actually be able to play on it.
This subject is actually funny to watch. Private server users and developers are so demonized and made to look like they are just the scum of the earth. When they are, in fact, just like you. Normal people who live normal lives.
I'm not saying that that what they are doing is completely right. I'm just saying you should probably get your facts completely straight before you talk about a subject like this.
Shima Oct 29th 2009 6:45PM
I kind of disagree...its cuz private servers that a % of players became blizzplayers...
its a kind of "propaganda"; private servers doesnt work even at 30% of what blizz is, so many players, like myself, go for more and one wya or another came to blizz.
ussually the pirvate server is owned by a bunch of guys who just want to play, where I used to play, (like 400 ppl, 1000 rare, no more, cuz the emulator doesnt allow that ) were all (or many of them) friends
so I think many are just paranoid about this.
Akuma Oct 29th 2009 6:51PM
I've played on Scape... It sucks.
But I was without money and needed my fix. It only took about a month for me to realize how much it sucked there, and that I'd be better off waiting to play the real thing.
My rogue was level 70, but because of a server mistake, was rolled back to level 40ish stats. I waited for a response from a "GM" but never received one... This is a pretty good reason not to play on a private server. :P
Anyway, losing Scape would be no huge loss. It's a waste of net space...
Jack Miles Oct 29th 2009 7:56PM
They really aren't shady. Alot, if not most, are servers that just want to add some kind of extra functionality to Warcraft, like world events every weekend, massive world PVP battles, instant 80, GM god powers ect... This article seems to act as though they're shadier than gold farmers.
"These are not people you'd ever want to give any credit card information to..."
The only ones I've ever seen charging for anything merely asked for donations (admittedly alot of them were 'donations' with rewards) all of which were done through pay pal.
I'll admit that blizzard does have the right to close them down, and should definitely do so for the micro-transaction ones, since they're updating with blizzards content, and thus cutting into their earned profits, but none are (or at least very few) shady virus-distributing scam-artists. Plus, if blizzard ever pulls the plug on WoW, it'll be kept alive entirely by private servers.
Neirin Oct 29th 2009 9:29PM
I think the point made in the article was more along the lines of "well, they're already doing something clearly illegal, why not get serious?" These guys are already swimming in the same waters as gold spammers (multiple violations of EULA and TOS, etc.) - once they start trying to make money off it, the fastest way to do that is also the same as gold sellers - credit card fraud.
Radiophonic Oct 29th 2009 8:22PM
Scape had it coming.
nismotr Oct 29th 2009 8:39PM
Wow, whats so criminal about private servers, they start from no coding to a complete working server with generally one developer writing all the code, perhaps blizzard is jealous of their talent? regardless, scape has been dead for well over 2 months now, Alyson or "Peyton" did not pay server or webhost bills, the site shut down along with the servers. while all this stuff may seem "shady" to people who pay the $15 a month blindly to blizzard for play time, there are folks who enjoy playing WoW, and cannot afford payment, or prefer a less time-guzzling experience. You can hate private servers all you want, but they serve their purposes. I used to play "retail" and scape at the same time, but Alyson and Blizzard got progressively greedier so neither are getting any of my money. About donations, they are usually used for server upkeep and to pay for a developer. Alyson got greedy and "took the money and run", started managing bands and so she and her husband could sit on their lazy duffs. so there is so back-story for all of you anti-private server posters who seem to think they are knowledgeable on this subject. trust me, I played on scape for a year at least and know many people playing for upwards of 3 years.
BWJ Oct 29th 2009 9:55PM
You can justify private servers all you want, but Blizzard has other cases to support their claims, and beyond copyright, they can charge Scape with bypassing Blizzard's authentication, which is a violation of the DCMA. Blizzard does not allow their client to be used with anything except their servers, and bypassing that to allow someone to use their client to access a private server is a violation of the law. You have zero standing under the law to use Blizzard's code to access any server but theirs, and anyone helping that is in direct violation - as is every user of the private server, but we'll see if Blizzard starts naming John Doe's in the suit to include those they can prove were doing it.
They can also demand (and get) IP logs and user lists, and use that to show loss of service. They would be stupid not to try and get that, and their lawyers are not stupid. They're also international, so even if the servers are moved, they can still serve them.
All of you who played on Scape's servers, congrats, your usernames - and possibly your ip's and any info you gave them (like using Paypal or a credit card for "donations") - are now potentially part of a Federal lawsuit, and may be turned over to Blizzard's lawyers as part of discovery or a settlement. What Blizzard could do with that information? Who knows, but don't be surprised if they look for the same account names and info on the real servers.
It's not guaranteed, but from what I've read of the woman who runs Scape, she's the type who would turn over everything, and throw all of her users under the bus, to make a bargain with Blizzard.
Amonra Oct 29th 2009 10:00PM
although mostly Private severs are barely functional, I might be playing devil's advocate, but i used to be on a private server, the reason? it was an entirely RP server. it was a great comunity and we RPyed the Wow story server wide. You could open your own shop, buy a house, run for mayor or join the military and all that jazz. All your actions had repercutions, if you harrased a guard player for example, you could end up in jail. Myself ended up as a temporary Master apothecary in undecity with my undead elf darkranger.
we had high elves, undead elves, maghar, fel orcs, goblins and ogres... the good ol' days. To sumarize things up we used the wow engine as a tabletop game. you had to send your story and wait for aproval from the GMs, you had to have a required minimal knowledage of your race. The downsides were the bugs and the inhability to raid instances on-rol (ya know, server wide repercutions).
Well, that sever died cause it runned only by the dedication and free time of the GMs. *sigh*
Matt Jan 21st 2010 8:51PM
i used to play on scapegaming and to be honest i'm happy to see it go. however i don't see why Blizzard still has such a problem with it. they make hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars a year (possibly in a month with the thousands or millions of players that pay) plus anyways there's an easy solution. just ask for a certain percentage of donation money as "tribute". And i know for a fact that Blizzard had at least one contract with Allyson Reeves and/or Scapegaming. I have read the document and it states that Allyson has broken TWO contracts. one of those being a contract between Allyson/Scapegaming and Blizzard. the only reason Blizzard is crying and throwing a tantrum is because Allyson tried to make off with a little money. I have a feeling that if Allyson would've just walked away with out taking money none of this would've happened. plus how did Blizzard even know about the money since it was donor money for Scapegaming not Blizzard.