Blizzard Paid $6 Million in Damages by WoW Bot Maker

Blizzard had the inspiration of adopting a copyright violation approach in its fight against the bot-maker MDY Industries and thus managed to gain $6 million in damages.

The lawsuit Blizzard filed against bot-maker MDY Industries has been going on for about 2 years, and although according to the judge’s decision in July, MMOGlider infringed on Blizzard's copyrights, the question of whether the bot does indeed violate the DMCA remains. Despite that, however, the judge awarded $6 million in damage fees in the case.

Though it’s not yet certain how much has MDY Industries gain from its product MMOGlider, due to which users are able to automate the boring parts of World of WarCraft and basically grind forever with no user involvement, but the $25 program has been bought in 100,000 copies since last year. To cut it brief, the product was truly a hit but, at the same time, it also infringed the game's terms of service.

"Blizzard owns a valid copyright in the game client software, Blizzard has granted a limited license for WoW players to use the software," Judge Campbell wrote in the July judgment. "Use of the software with Glider falls outside the scope of the license established in section 4 of the TOU, use of Glider includes copying to RAM within the meaning of section 106 of the Copyright Act, users of WoW and Glider are not entitled to a section 117 defense, and Glider users therefore infringe Blizzard’s copyright. "