'Warcraft' maker sued for blocking sales of unofficial guide

http://news.com.com/Warcraft+maker+sued+for+blocking+sales+of+unofficial+guide/2100-1043_3-6053716.html?tag=nefd.top

I am a real sucker for David and Goliath stories... I greatly suspect that David will win this round.

A.K.A. Big Company Not Getting a Cut of the Profits

Blimey. And people complain about LL....

Companies need to be taught that "intellectual property rights" don't mean you own everything even remotely connected to or about something that you've trademarked. This becomes particularly true for MMORPGs, where customers contribute hugely to the overall game.

A big company not seeing the power of third party support.


Rox

I hope WoW wins.


They are agressive in protecting their brand and product. It is worth billions, and they should be. Also, they are trying to get a grip on the economy, people using exploits and farming are ruining the economy. I hope they are all banned. Go Blizz!

Maybe I'm missing something. What do things like exploits and economic issues have to do with a player-created strategy guide? Does the book in question actually contain information about how to use exploits, or offer financial advice that is at odds with whatever Blizzard's grand plan for economic reform might be? I haven't read it, but it sounded to me like it contained nothing more than strategy about how to play the game well, as defined by a player who's apparently done pretty well in the game himself.

(As for farming, by the way, as long as it's done legitimately (without bots or other exploits), there hasn't been a game in Blizzard's history that hasn't encouraged it, and there's nothing wrong with it.)

I was very suprised to read this article, by the way. Traditionally, Blizzard has been very supportive of third party info sources for their games, as long as it's clear it's unofficial. Diabloii.net and worldofwar.net are two very popular unofficial sites among many for Blizzard games. Both of them are chock full of strategy guides, fanart, fan fiction, utilities, skill calculators, etc. Blizzard's never had a problem with any of them.

They have traditionally had problems with eBay though, so I suspect this has more to do with Blizzard vs. eBay than Blizzard vs. that author. I remember when people began selling DiabloII items on eBay, Blizzard freaked out and tried to put a stop to it, claiming they own the items so no one else can sell them, which is true. Ebayers responded simply by changing the wording from "sell" to "finder's fee" and there was nothing Blizzard could do about it. I'm sure that didn't sit well with them.

I haven't paid much close attention to Blizzard the last couple years since all their good people left (the company is just an empty shell of what it used to be, really), so I don't know how they've been addressing things like WoW gold and items being sold on eBay, but I can't imagine they're happy about it. It sounds to me like they saw an opportunity to shut down an eBayer and they took it. All the IP stuff has to be BS or they'd also be calling for the shutdown of every fansite in the world.

Maybe they should fix the exploits instead.

After all, people don't say "LL, stop people publicising exploits for SL" - they say "LL, stop people exploiting SL".