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The latest patch 5.4 newsThe Lawbringer: Glider's story ends
by Mathew McCurley 
Oct 7th 2011 at 4:00PM
Deathwing isn't the only great beast to be impaled to death in an End Time this year, it seems. The tale of Glider, one of the biggest and most famous automation bot software packages for World of Warcraft, is effectively over. Based on reading various blog links (sent by a reader, thank you much) and a hefty amount of Internet Wayback Machine research, it appears that the lawsuit was settled and Glider is no more. What were the terms of the settlement, and why did Glider settle after the news back in 2010?
When I last updated you all about the Glider case back in December 2010, the courts reversed much of the decision in regards to the EULA copyright infringement claims but not with respect to violations of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, as Glider circumvented the Warden software to essentially hack Blizzard's software. MDY Glider was not victorious per se, but it was definitely in a better position than it would have been had the copyright infringement stuff stood.
It wasn't enough to get Glideroff the hook. The settlement finally went through, and Blizzard now owns all of the trademarks associated with the Glider name and its logo. Check out these links to the Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval website, as part of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office:
Each of these links has an automatic update of assignment of ownership entry in the prosecution history for Sept. 21, 2011, that changed the ownership of these specific trademarks to Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., and its associated corporate address. Blizzard now owns all of Glider's trademarks and name, putting Glider out of business for good. Sure, Glider was off the market for years while the court case was going on, but this is really the legal stamp of approval for Glider's End Time.
One of the developers of Glider who goes by the internet handle Mercury and was the interviewee in one of the most interesting articles about Glider from 2005 posted this final message to all Glider customers and fans a few months back:
We've settled the lawsuit with Blizzard, so things are going to happen fairly quickly around here. I can't go into a ton of detail, but I can say I'm glad to be able to close the book on that particular ugliness and move on with a relatively regular life, even if it means no Glider. I can also divulge that my proposed title for the next WoW expansion, "WoW: Mercury Is A Cool Guy And Needs A Nice Girl Who Also Doesn't Mind Cooking" didn't make it very far.The Glider fight was long and drawn out, as most court cases are. In the end, Blizzard walked away with a few losses in terms of copyright infringement claims and the strength of its EULA but with the court's assurance that the DMCA applies to the Warden (Blizzard's own software that monitors programs running alongside World of Warcraft to prevent hacking, memory snooping, and unauthorized communication with the Blizzard servers). Circumventing digital protection is one of those areas of computer and tech law that is still very murky, as the DMCA is litigated over and over, and will be forever.
For Glider customers, this means not much change from where we are now. There was simply no way we could get by Judge Campbell to get Glider back on the market, although we came pretty close. Regardless, there is no point in running forums with no future for Glider.
On Monday, August 22nd, we will be taking down the site and forums. I imagine I'll be around here quite a bit more until then, at least once I get back to Phoenix later today.
Most of the people who have helped out through the years will not see this, but I imagine some folks will cross-post this message on other forums. You have my most sincere appreciation; everyone from OMW to Ocktra and all the others. The community is what made Glider into a true force and I never would have made it this far without you. Losing that through the injunction has been the worst part for me.
I'm not sure what I'll be doing next, but I'm quite certain it won't involve anything to do with Blizzard. Maybe some kind of regular job that doesn't involve a constant barrage of legal and technical attacks. Imagine that.
And, no, I'm not interested in automating Rift unless your job offer includes a hefty starting bonus. Think Ferrari 458-sized.
So long, and thanks for all the cookies.
So why settle?
Here's the super-secret fact about court cases -- most of them settle. What's settling? Everyone goes to court to get the decision they want, obviously, but during the proceedings, the two parties are perfectly welcome to come to terms at any point. Usually this happens with the assistance of a judge who wants to help in the settling procedure, but lawyers for both sides can just get in a room together and hash out a deal. Settling also occurs when one side hits somewhat of a financial wall and cannot continue to pay for the ongoing litigation, and ongoing litigation is not a cheap affair.
What most likely happened with Glider was the money ran out. The goal was to get Glider back on the market and have the court case win to back that up. Glider was never going to get back into the public sphere, and after awhile, the money spent to get Glider back and the impending damages that were going to have to be paid out to Blizzard potentially over the DMCA violation would have not been enough to offset the cost. The lawsuit eventually because too costly, and Glider settled.
Terms of the settlement
We do not know the terms of the settlement between Blizzard and MDY. We probably never will. However, we do know that part of the settlement included the transferring of all Glider trademarks to Blizzard so that it has total control over the Glider product, for what it's worth. Blizzard now gets to control the message that years of Glider use have built up. Now that Blizzard owns it, its legal team can, essentially, tear it all down.
I know that we sometimes forget that there are people behind these stories and that people deserve more of the benefit of the doubt with regards to what they do to make money. The Glider case had people behind it, real people, who had jobs and lives. I am not saying that what MDY did was acceptable, by any means, but there is a bit of compassion when I realize that this stage of their lives, whatever stage that consists of in terms of success or failure, has some finality. No more Glider. No more court documents. No more shallow hopes that the software will make it back to the market. Everyone involved gets to move on. And that, my dear friends and readers, is invaluable to both sides.
As for the WoW players bemoaning the loss of Glider, I don't have that much sympathy for you. I guess I'm sorry you lost your cheating program? Play the game like the rest of us.
This column is for entertainment only; if you need legal advice, contact a lawyer. For comments or general questions about law or for The Lawbringer, contact Mat at mat@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
furrama Oct 7th 2011 8:20PM
And that should go to trial. If someone sues you, you should get a day in court. You're legally locked into it, it's not magically going away, and you might have done nothing wrong in the end. And it's very sad that they never do get to court simply because they can't afford it. Big guys and little guys should be on even ground, and the current system doesn't allow that.
gamingforumpost Oct 7th 2011 9:48PM
This case did go to court, multiple times, multiple courts. It was already of a lot of interest to the Supreme Court and highly likely it was going to be appealed to that court if they hadn't settled. "Mercury" (the programmer behind glider) claimed in the forums before they were taken down by the settlement that the US Supreme Court was returning his calls promptly before the 9th even ruled. That's a credible statement not due how gamers look at it (bots, copyright, etc) but due to the spit between the court circuit rulings on similar EULA and DMCA issues.
It's the Lawbringer's guess that glider ran out of money to finance the case. It's certainly possible. I'm of a different opinion...
I think they settled because it was a good idea for both of them to settle. It had the potential to go horribly wrong for either side if they lost. There was just too much risk not to settle for Blizzard because there was a very real chance that the Supreme Court could have struck down the DMCA entirely as being unconstitutional when the 9th District court's ruled that "Congress created a distinct anti-circumvention right under section 1201(a) without an infringement nexus requirement." IE you can DMCA something that's got nothing to do with copyright.
Strange as it sounds, that ruling puts the DMCA itself onto shaky ground. Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution states that exclusive rights to "Writings and Discoveries" be limited in time. It's a much broader concept than just copyrights. Copyrights are limited in time and don't run up against the "limited time" aspect. Protections using cryptology lasts forever so... pow... constitutional issue in front of the Supreme Court.
Blizzard settled because of how bad it could go for all of Activision. MDY settled because all the other obvious reasons of 1 guy vs a big corp.
icepyro Oct 7th 2011 10:33PM
I'm mostly with gamingforumpost. I think they all settled because this gives a quiet funeral to something already dead. If it went to the Supreme Court, all hell could potentially break loose. It's the piratebay case, Stateside. Regardless of the outcome, something was going to happen and both companies and those involved will be hurt more than it already is. I still think money was involved, but I think it's more like both sides looked at scale and outcome and realized it's not worth it.
While I wish the DMCA dead, this is not the case for it. We don't need a piratebay trial in the States. We need something more legit or all hell will break lose. Something that shady will only strengthen the DMCA or encourage that level of shadiness and that's not the best way to do this.
Sintraedrien Oct 7th 2011 4:53PM
Wait: people deserve more of a benefit of a doubt with what they do to make money.
So a criminal deserves the right to get money from enabling others to purchase stuff made from the results of his crime, but those purchasers are loathsome and abominable?
I disagree. Neither the criminal nor the receiver should in any way benefit.
Sintra E'Drien of the Ebon Blade (on my stupid-phone )
Healem Oct 7th 2011 4:53PM
i sent you the link and youre welcome. i stumbled upon it on mmo-c and found it interesting.
that blog also has an interesting timeline for Titan which is interesting. The crew working on it seems to have been kept to a very small number of ppl till August 2010.....so safe to assume (not really but still) that Titan is at a minimum 4+ years out.
cas2599 Oct 7th 2011 5:13PM
Anyone else imagine Blizz moving Glider to a thumb drive and going Office Space on it out back?
The Dewd Oct 7th 2011 5:22PM
No, they'll put it in the drawer next to the thumbdrive with the Sword of a Thousand Truths.
Apple Oct 7th 2011 8:49PM
Bashing a thumb drive sounds difficult and unsatisfying. An old school hard drive, perhaps. Or a crate of floppy disks.
Sniperess Oct 7th 2011 5:33PM
Wait...does that mean that there wont be any more bots in my Battlegrounds!?!?!?
SWEET!
Schadenfreude Oct 7th 2011 5:52PM
Unfortunately no. Glider was simply the largest head on an enormous hydra.
Possum Oct 7th 2011 6:12PM
I feel the battleground bots are either getting more common or I'm just getting better at recognising them.
jealouspirate Oct 7th 2011 6:34PM
Relevant Penny Arcade comic here:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/12/17
They're being funny, but I think it's a good point. Honestly, I have sympathy for these poor guys. All they wanted to do was raid back in the day without having to do the boring grinding and farming in between. Maybe their methodology was wrong, but I find it hard to disagree with wanting the forced time-sinks of the game gone.
Broken-toes Oct 7th 2011 7:01PM
Kind of blows, I liked gettin the easy honour from gankin bots. I'd gank them for a good long minute and fill out the GM ticket when the respawn got too long.
"We try to add little mannerisms here and there..."(linked article) made me LoL, noticed a few bots /wave when I got close- for a wee mintie I thought they might just be 'special'
Good riddance to the useless bastards- sod your "But I work and have a social life" rubbish!
Matthew Oct 7th 2011 7:43PM
I feel the same way about tobacco farmers. I feel for them, and understand they are working hard, but I also feel that they shouldn't be growing a product that eventually kills people.
Yeah, I went there.
paulmewis Oct 7th 2011 9:13PM
There's an anecdote I heard around this kind of thing.
Two factory workers are sitting in a pub and eventually the topic arrives at what they each do for a living.
The first announces he works at an armaments factory that makes tank cannons, the other works for Imperial Tobacco. And each finds the others line of work abhorrent.
'How can you create a product that kills so many?' the armament worker asks.
'At least the people who die to my products had the choice' retorted the other.
Sally Bowls Oct 7th 2011 8:56PM
I certainly not in favor of Glider.
OTOH, I am not pleased to see an expansion of DMCA.
raplover_1 Oct 7th 2011 9:38PM
Honor Buddy?
simrock Oct 7th 2011 10:18PM
As you already mentioned it, i might add some more insight ;)
There actually is a similiar case in german court, where activision blizzard is acting against another big botting company. The company does not wish to release the original file against them, because of possible copyright violation (kinda funny i guess). But they have released their answer to the original claim (it's written in german and nobody cared enough to translate it yet).
The answer contains some interesting material about EULA and ToS in the form used by gaming companies in general and depending on the outcome might actually render them worthless in germany. Otherwise they want some clarification about how Blizzard differs between Macro(/Automation) capable Hard-/Software Solutions like Logitech G15 keyboards or mice capable of binding series of key presses to buttons.
The trial might be interesting and the document is worth reading (assuming you can read german).
Your can find their website through google, they have a section in their forum (just like glider did).
radicaster Oct 9th 2011 12:56PM
An EULA is not normally legally binding in most countries, or rather you can't implement rules in an EULA that waives and/or modifies the laws of the country where you live (at least usually you can't there are possibly countries where that's allowed). So if an EULA has a clause about punishment, other than losing the service of course, which the can do anyway, for an example a fine (doesn't exist i think, just pulled an example from where the sun doesn't shine), isn't enforceable.
So all lawsuits that refer to breaches of blizzards ToS or EULA can only be about the laws of the country where the defendant is based.
Of course laws differ, and there are always exceptions to pretty much everything. But that at least is my (limited) understanding of law, of course shaped by where i live.
raplover_1 Oct 8th 2011 12:51AM
Its just you will never stop people and their intellect and all their vision so they create/invent a new code or a bot that lets you do something (farm/grind). Its like going against human nature, people and exploiters will keep doing this no matter what blizzard does. Im not on Blizzard´s side , neither on the developers of BOT´S. They provide us with a game , but they also put us on that line that we can only play the game with their rules and it seems like a parenthood, dont do this u get banned dont do that u get banned. Ive been hacked several times (maybe because of my stupidity of loggin in to a fake email from blizzard) , the hackers stole all my gold from my accounts. Of course blizzard knows where that gold goes to and who´s the gold seller in every server. Utopy