Private server company forced to pay Blizzard $88 million
by Amy Schley 
Aug 14th 2010 at 7:00PM
As we've covered here before, private servers are a violation of license limitations of the EULA. Blizzard considers any violation of those license limitations to be copyright infringement and sues people for such. Furthermore, Blizzard established in the "Bnetd" case that crafting software to set up a private server is a copyright infringement all on its own.
The total reward of $88,594,589 comes from $3,053,339 of inappropriate profits, $63,600 of attorney's fees, and $85,478,600 of statutory damages. Statutory damages are damages required by law that are increased for willful and commercially based infringement. Scapegaming may appeal the amount.
Filed under: Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
jorath Aug 14th 2010 7:06PM
Cool.
ironblade Aug 14th 2010 7:06PM
holy crap thats alot of money for a private server company to fork out, but laws law, glad iv never gone to a private server never seen the point
Hooch [Quite possibly crazy] Aug 14th 2010 7:54PM
Yeah, thing is though that it was used to make money via microtransactions, would probably be a lot smaller of a fine if they didn't do that.
paragorillabear Aug 14th 2010 11:11PM
Read carefully. Only 3 million came from the inappropriate profits. The majority is just a penalty for infringing upon the copyright.
Gankedd Aug 15th 2010 2:11AM
I kinda feel sorry for them. If it wasn't for scapegaming I wouldn't be playing wow monthly on 2 subscriptions.
theRaptor Aug 15th 2010 3:38AM
The fines for commercial copyright infringement are supposed to be a lot higher than for non-commercial infringement.
This doesn't always work out as the Movie And Film Association of America has bought a lot of legislators in a futile attempt to stamp out casual infringement. It has gotten so bad in the US that you will get less of a fine for just going into a shop and stealing a CD then you would if you downloaded it.
Zalvi24 Aug 14th 2010 7:07PM
HAHA IN YOUR FACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Crash Aug 14th 2010 7:08PM
Can i say "PWNED!" ?
Magma Aug 14th 2010 7:09PM
Ouch
Millenia Aug 14th 2010 7:12PM
Ahahaahaahaha!
Arras Aug 14th 2010 7:12PM
Awesome! Setting up a private server is one thing, but a server with a micro-transaction market? That takes some stones.
And who's stupid enough to use something like a credit card or paypal on a private server to pay for stuff anyways? Oh wait, I know the answer to that: $3 million worth of dumba**es
shadowhowl1900 Aug 14th 2010 8:13PM
same thing could be said about blizzard and whoever bought that mount and pet.
its their own money, it not forced so people paying are doing it for their own "benefit".
Noah Aug 14th 2010 8:16PM
Yeah, and that's really why Blizzard went after that server. Most of the time, Blizzard is not really known to *actively pursue* private servers. If they can shut one down, so be it, but when it's free they don't care so much — more often than not, people use private servers to try the game and then switch to retail when they decide they like it, therefore buying the game when they wouldn't have otherwise. But when the private server is making money, selling Blizzard's product in an unauthorized manner, that's when Blizzard brings out the attorneys.
Bernie Roscoe Aug 14th 2010 10:45PM
I agree, there exist some private servers that do things that Wow should do in my opinion. Battlesground exclusive worlds that let you pick a geared at capped toon of any class. I always found it was great practice and was a great idea to learn how other classes functioned too.
But, this was at a time when location made playing the actual WoW game impossible. Now I have no excuse. Haven't done a private server since. =)
Downrank away!
ben Aug 14th 2010 7:14PM
They should give a dollar and 10 gold to everyone in the game, since they can afford to now :P
Konoo Aug 15th 2010 1:18PM
They will Never collect this money, Alyson likely has less than 2Mill in assets that will be auctioned off and given to bliz.
Zanathos Aug 15th 2010 7:58PM
Even if they can afford to, it doesn't sound like a very smart business plan.
And they're not going to be collecting that judgment, they're just going to squash the private server company.
Henry Aug 17th 2010 12:36AM
@Zanathos, WoWScape AKA ScapeGaming closed in 2008. It doesn't even exist anymore. They sued her after it was already closed.
RogueJedi86 Aug 14th 2010 7:15PM
Good luck getting that much money paid. These people who run these servers aren't rich, not even with the microtransactions.
Arras Aug 14th 2010 7:20PM
Oh they'll get their money. Even if the operator's kids and grandkids are still making payments, Blizzard will get every last cent they're owed. Their lawyers and the State of California will see to it