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World of Warcraft: Blizzard Another $88.5 Million in the Green
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
A California court has awarded Blizzard Entertainment a whopping $88.5 million in a decision handed down on August 10th. According to the lawsuit, Defendant Alyson Reeves/Scapegaming, a World of Warcraft private server must pay Blizzard's court fees, damages and proceeds from server transactions. The award recognizes Reeves' violation of Blizzard's EULA and the infringement of most WoW copyrights. Scapegaming earned money through the microtransaction sales of items to players on the server.
FINAL JUDGMENT by Judge Stephen V. Wilson,Pursuant to the Courts July 22, 2010 and August 10, 2010 Orders Granting Plaintiffs Motion for Default Judgment, it is hereby ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that Plaintiff Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. shall recover $88,594,539.00, and post-judgment interest thereon at the rate provided by law until paid in full, from Defendant Alyson Reeves, d/b/aScapegaming. 24 . ( MD JS-6. Case Terminated ) (pj) (Entered: 08/11/2010)
ORDER RE DAMAGES by Judge Stephen V. Wilson,Based on Plaintiffs evidentiary submissions, the Court concludes that Plaintiff is entitled to default judgment in the amount of $3,052,339 in disgorged profits, $85,478,600 in statutory damages, and $63,600 inattorneys fees. The Court will file a separate judgment accordingly. (pj) (Entered: 08/11/2010)
Whether or not Blizzard ever sees any of the money, its is a significant victory for the company which assertively protects its IPs and copyrights.
Comments
Thats great news. Justice has been served but i highly doubt Blizzard will ever get that much money from an individual.
90% of haters are begging for love. 10% just want a little attention -- Paulo Coelho
I agree but the judgement is probably pretty sweet.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hopefully this will give other games legal stances to go after other private servers.
Nice
Normally i would feel sorry for someone like this, but he charged for stuff on his private server?? LOL how lame is that. He got owned! Well deservered. Doubt he will ever give a dime to blizzard tough, lol..
Ive had my own private server before, but just me and a few friends used it to check out bosses and GM powers etc..
Atleast blizzard goes after assholes like this and dosent go after poor alone-mothers and shit and sues them poor people for millions.
Currently Playing Path of Exile
go blizzard
I doubt the amount would have been so high if she would have fought it. But seeing as how she never replyed to the summons or anything for that matter, she got defaulted on so Blizzard was awarded the maxmium allowed by state laws in the case.
Sadly she should have taken some of that 3 million+ she made from the private server and used it to get a lawyer. Atleast in that case she would not be in a situation of losing everything like she is now. As it stands now from the date the case went to try anything and everything she owns is more or less Blizzards at this point if she doesn't attempt to pay any of it.
From what I have heard she ended up being 2-3 houses and several vehicles with the money she made. That combined with the fact that she was a business women and also had another job outside of this all. Doesn't look so great on her part.
At this point and with Bankruptecy the way it has changed in the last 5 - 10 years.. She really is screwed for better part of the word.
As far as the amount goes, I think it is a bit high but you have to understand. She did not even attempt to fight the court order. She didn't even take the time to reply to the summons letter on the case. I guess she figured if she never replyed they would just leave her alone or something.. Unfortently that is not how it works. You want to always reply to these things and atleast take it to court. That way no matter what happens you do not get defaulted on for the maxium amount allowed by law. If she would have fought it I imagine the amount would have been alot less and in most cases just the amount she made from the private server + whatever amount blizzard could prove it lost / figured was damages it occured. I imagine a settlement could have been reached at that point.
The only way I can see how Blizzard might be awarded damages is if the private server were charging people for access, and thus actually making profit from Blizzard's work.
If on the other hand, they weren't, then this just shows that something is seriously wrong with the court system, and the issue should have ended with a simple cease and desist, and a shutting down of the server.
And lets not forget the IRS. They going to be wanting taxes out of this person as well. Would not be suprised this moronic private server operator is sent to prison for a very very long time for failure to pay STATE and FEDERAL Income taxes.
This should be lesson to everyone, private servers are not legal. Blizzard should have went after the players who also played on these private servers as well.
she's not around at all, like fled, not around at all sort of thing
No you are wrong. Any private server is taking income away from Blizzard so they have every right to sue for loss of income if nothing else. And as I previous poster said, the defendent ignored the courts and never get a lawyer. It's their own fault.
No. SHE got owned. And rightfully so, as you said. And I don't know if we KNOW if she was a "poor alone mother" or not. For all I know she may have been. Still....most single mothers find ways OTHER THAN breaking the law and exploiting other people...basically stealing their money...to feed our children and pay our rent, etc. So male, female, "poor mother"....wouldn't have mattered. Anyone bright enough to come up with this idea to begin with, could have easilly used her mind doing something honest.
NOTE: Apparently some people posting in this thread (like below)...didn't read the judgment and the information. She was selling items in game. Blizzard had every right to do what they did...."big ass mean corporation" or not. She was making money off of someone else's intellectual property. Only a complete criminal or moron would wonder why that was wrong.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Hardly, like 90% of the people on private servers, will NEVER play on retail, even if the private server business is shut down. They refuse to pay, and it won't change once the free options are gone. It's like busting game piracy. More than half the people weren't going to buy those games anyways, so the game company isn't losing nearly as much as people think.
the person accused did rack up 3million + off the private server so yea.
Sorry, but that's exactly the kind of skewed judgement that lets huge corporations cry murder over minor things.
If the private server were not charging anything, then it could be argued that those playing it would not necessarily be willing to pay to play the official game. In essence, you can't take a sale away that would have never occured regardless.
To sue someone for trademark or copyright violation, one typically has to prove that some form of tangible financial loss, or damage, occurred. If there is none, it should simply end at a simple cease and desist, unless those accused ignore the court order.
But it does sound like the private server was making profit, in which case they did indeed deserve to be sued, in addition to being shut down... however the amount awarded is ridiculous, no matter if the defendent chose to fight it or not.
First off, ANY "private server" using an "emulated" version of server software developed WITHOUT any code or work from Blizzard's own code is legal. This is PROTECTED by LAW since it's someone ELSE's work and NOT the original companies. You're essentially just making your own server software to respond and talk to their client (which if you paid for, and did not torrent/pirate, makes this part legal....unless their client is free for download then it doesn't matter).
This is why they haven't, and won't, go after most private servers. Now, the part where it DOES become illegal is when they "charge" for services using a company's client materal (ie: charging for items that you can only garnish by using Blizzard's client software without their permission). This is a WELL KNOWN fact within the "private servers" world.
The only reason this moron thought she could get away with this is that she believed that they wouldn't go after someone as "Small time" as her. That is until she moronically bragged to her friends about how much money she made. From what I'm told, it was a family member of one of her friends that reported the illegal earnings to blizzard (wow player lol?), and then whom took legal action.
So let's sum this up for everyone:
-Creating an emulated "open source" server software for an MMO is NOT illegal as it's third party work and has ZERO connection to blizzard.
-As long as you paid for your copy of the game's original client (that's being talked to by the server emulation software) it's completely LEGAL.
-The part where it becomes ILLEGAL is when you attempt to charge for ANY service using Blizzard's client software as a medium (connecting to the server).
-99% of "private servers" are donation based, and this is also completely legal as long as a donation isn't "Required". ANY server that says someone will get any FORM of "benefits" for donating should be reported. They try to shimmy around the law in order to get more donations, and this IS illegal so you should report them no matter what.
Thank you for reading, you are now more informed than you were previously about private servers. Have a nice day
!
-Faded
[Mod Edit]
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
Although the number is a ridiculous 88 million, I'm sure Blizz went into this well knowing they wouldn't get the full amount, but, it is almost a scare tactic to anyone trying to mimic this chicks move. Would you open a private server and attempt to sell items on it for real money, after reading this? You'd have to be out of your mind. They pretty much just ruined this chicks life and I'm sure she's going to be regretting it for a long time.
If she/he was smart, she would have opened an LLC/Corp. Paid her self as the employee. The company was at fault in this judgement so they would have sued the company. Her as an individual/individual assests would been safe. The corp/LLC could file bankruptcy and blizzard would recieved nothing.
Her personal assests/pay from the company would be untouched if she had a lawyer to defend her rights. I'd also keep all the cash in an offshore bank, so i couldn't be out right siezed/frozen by the court. She should move her server location to a thrid world country and could continue the servers, as a US court/Copyright laws don't apply then.
I can't comment about the software for the server but what about using Blizzards art assets as well as whatever is needed to run skills and the like?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Aha so its a she ^^ didnt notice hehe.
Well she still deserved it, even if she is a "poor alone-mother" she was making money off the server, that difreent then downloading a few songs to your computer
Currently Playing Path of Exile
lol
thier are alot of server 's that sell itme for real money. not just this one.
They won which i'm glad, will they ever get paid now, that's another question. I guess this will send a clear message to idiots out there who think they can use works of others.
There's a legal loophole about that right now. So long as the client copy was obtained legally, and the private server doesn't charge, it's a bit of a grey area.
Even so, the worst that should be able to happen is again, a cease and desist.
This is disturbing news.
Whatever my attitude is towards private servers, and selling stuff on private servers, there are literally HUNDREDS OF websites selling WOW GOLD - which obviously, doesn't bother anyone nor Blizzard. But out of thin air, here comes a girl that loses a lawsuit in 6 months for 88.5$ mil,... incredible.
REALITY CHECK
If a Cease and Desist is the worst that should be able to happen, what value does it have? I was under the impression a C&D was an attempt to get someone to comply before taking further legal action which would, presumably, be worse then the C&D itself.
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
Cause selling gold and running private servers are similar..... hello ?