Blizzard strikes gold sellers with Paypal notices
by Mathew McCurley 
Jan 28th 2011 at 3:00PM
Here is Paypal's letter to the gold sellers:
What's very interesting is that Blizzard is claiming intellectual property violations in the face of the most recent decision in the Glider case. Where Blizzard lost on intellectual property concerns under the EULA, they could have a better shot over their game assets being sold, if somehow it ever went to court. Still, Paypal is the easiest route to go for Blizzard's plan of attack against gold sellers, since most of them are run outside of the country. Suffice to say, it's nice to see some action being taken against gold selling.You were reported to PayPal as an Intellectual Properties violation by Blizzard Entertainment Inc. for the sale of World of Warcraft Merchandise.
If you feel your sales do not infringe upon the intellectual property rights of the Reporting Party, please complette the attached Objection to Infringement Report by January 21, 2011.
The completed form should be faxed to the attention of the Acceptable Use Policy Department at [number removed] or emailed to [email removed].
Should you choose not to object to the report, you will be required to remove all World of Warcraft Merchandise from the website [url removed] in order to comply with the Acceptable Use Policy.
Filed under: Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Jack Spicer Jan 28th 2011 3:03PM
Did every boxed copy of Cataclysm come with an authenticator? If not, I'm wondering what in the heck Blizzard is thinking.
Metalheadz Jan 28th 2011 3:29PM
@jack
I'm not sure what you mean by your comment. I don't see how having an authenticator would make a difference in gold farming.
I am curious to know how they make most of their gold. I assume by farming raw materials and selling in the AH, playing the AH, or all the above. Stealing an account and cleaning it out seems to be more work than creating bots that farm.
Rulesthedead Jan 28th 2011 3:36PM
I totally agree. Gold Sellers get all of their gold from hacked accounts, do they not?
I don't see why Bliz can't just stop being so greedy, and allow authenticators to be totally 100% free. In my opinion, one should have been included in EVERY box.
Problem solved. Period.
Jeff Jan 28th 2011 3:42PM
@Metalheadz
Quite the opposite. Account theft is all too easy for these people, and as far as I understand it represents a pretty large majority of the gold that gets sold by these companies.
Put simply, if you buy gold, you can be assured that a large percentage of it was probably stolen from compromised accounts.
Drakkenfyre Jan 28th 2011 3:54PM
Do you understand how much Authenticators cost?
The Authenticator is a Vasco DIGIPASS GO 6. They run between $25-$50 a piece (they probably get a discount in bulk.) They already give them away, you just pay shipping.
pyratus Jan 28th 2011 3:52PM
@Rulesthedead
No, they really don't. Why, let's go ahead and make sweeping statements about things we know nothing about.
viperdt51 Jan 28th 2011 3:53PM
@rulesthedead:
Most gold farmers do exactly what there name implies, farm for mats. Yes some Do use hacked accounts to get gold but this is not a primary source of there gold. They use farm bots or run the auction house to get major supplies. As for your "greedy" argument. Blizz offers free alternatives to there keychain authenticators. Including but not limited to one for the iPhone/iPod touch. Why should Blizz have to take a loss on an item that is not manditory for accounts. It does cost money to have the
Authentication service at all as they are actually provided by a third Party source. Now if they made authenticators mandatory then you could ask for a free keychain one. But until then if you don't want to buy one then just follow Blizz's recommendations for account security. Change your password often and avoid suspicious sites. And even better is use a dedicated email address that is only for wow that no one knows about.
KvanCetre Jan 28th 2011 4:01PM
@Rulesthedead
Greedy? Blizz gives out hundreds of authenticators free on twitter. They give out free authenticators to some lucky people like me who had issues previously (ok, that part isnt so lucky). They give the authenticator free to anyone with a decent cellphone or ipod touch.
Despite this, you accuse them of greed? Shipping aint free. Authenticators arent free.
Some of you are ridiculously entitled...
Kurash Jan 28th 2011 4:04PM
@Metal
It is kind of relevant: from what I've read, gold farmers no longer rely on botting or farming for most of their gold acquisition. Instead, they hack peoples' accounts, sell all their stuff (usually just to vendors) and send all of the gold from their entire account to the gold farmer's account.
Thus, if people can't get hacked it would potentially cut down on the primary means of acquiring gold.
Kurash Jan 28th 2011 4:05PM
...of course, I'm not an expert. So if the above replies are true regarding how they get their gold, feel free to disregard mine.
Drakkenfyre Jan 28th 2011 4:06PM
You guys, gold farmers USED to farm for gold as the primary source. Now, they compromise accounts more than other methods.
It's easier to plant a keylogger on a site, get into someone's account, and empty it of gold than to farm or even bot farm the gold. It takes that Hunter running around about, what, 2 or 3 days to get some gold off NPC's in zones?
Or they could get tens and tens of thousands of gold with 5 minutes worth of work compromising an account.
The rest of them bot and get ore and other items, and sell it on the AH.
If you think that gold farmers still "farm" for the majority of their gold, in my opinion you are trying to justify your buying of gold.
Pata Jan 28th 2011 4:17PM
Authenticators are not legal in all the jurisdictions that WoW is available in. Digipasses (like the authenticator) are seen as encryption tools, which in some countries are illegal to import. Therefore they can't just put them in all the boxes or provide them to all their customers. Unless they can't blanket all of their subscribers, the current opt-in by purchase scenario we currently have offers the best ratio of security to cost for Blizzard.
Carson Jan 28th 2011 4:30PM
@Rulesthedead: a lot of people didn't get Cataclysm in a box, since the digital download was so convenient. I didn't. Having said that, I already have the authenticator app, so that's OK.
Cambro Jan 28th 2011 4:36PM
Let's not forget the power leveling services (often the same companies as gold sellers), to whom some people WILLINGLY give their account information along with real money. That is a source of income for these gold sellers as well, and honest in comparison to hacking someone's account (although still very much against the terms of use). So, one of these companies may get income through an intended transaction, as well as unintended (hacked). The short of it is, gold selling companies exist because people are willing to pay them for their "products" OR "services". An authenticator won't stop that as long as both parties are willing to coordinate themselves. Unfortunately.
Lissanna Jan 28th 2011 4:57PM
According to some reports in the WoW CSF, Blizzard has started offering FREE keyring authenticators to people whose accounts have been compromised recently.
So, Blizzard does care.
Ofeydofey Jan 28th 2011 5:21PM
I have been playing wow since vanilla and have never owned an authenticator.
I have never been hacked or had my account comprimised.
People need to just not be stupid and type their log in info into fake websites
Ez Jan 28th 2011 7:02PM
Most folks i hear about getting hacked have either A) answered in-game mail that they have won a free gift and gone to the website; or B) recieve e-mail saying they have been hacked, click on the link etc etc and foolishly clicked. So an authenticator may not be an answer for them. Good old Common Sense would have served them better. And you can get an authenticator on your cell phone for cheap, or use the dial in service as an alternative.
Kira Jan 29th 2011 5:23AM
the dial in service is only available in the US.
Trust me, I was pissed when I went to add it and it told me I couldn't because I'm across the border.
Piisuke Jan 29th 2011 11:28AM
@Rulesthedead
MY authenticator was free. Smartphones can download the app for free, install it and get the benefits for having an authenticator.
Sir Broose Jan 28th 2011 3:07PM
So, Mr. McCurley, exactly how did you get a copy of this email?
Side business?
hmmmmm?