Kotaku: glider

Blizzard Awarded $6 Million In Glider Bot Battle

Mike Fahey — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:20:00 MDT

You may recall a story from last year regarding Blizzard and their legal case against MDY Industries, creators of the World of Warcraft Glider program that allowed players to pretty much put themselves on autopilot to help them escape the rigors of the easiest-to-level MMO in existence. Back in July, Blizzard won summary judgment against the add-on creator, and now we get a peek at just how much going up against the gaming giant has cost MDY. $6 million is the figure awarded to Blizzard, which considering how much money the company brings in on a monthly basis should be enough to buy snacks for the week. A high figure to be sure, which would have been much higher had MDY not successfully challenged some of Blizzard's claims. Blizzard still has time to appeal the judgment in order to seek the damages lost via dismissed claims, but considering the chances of MDY even having that much to pay out, it might be best to just mark it a victory and move on. The case will return to court at the beginning of the year to clear up any outstanding issues.

Blizzard wins Warcraft bot payout [BBC News]

Blizzard Versus Glider: A Pyrrhic Victory?

Maggie Greene — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:30:00 MDT

Lest anyone missed this little gem among the E3 hubbub, Blizzard has scored a victory against WoW bot maker Glider. Don't remember that whole kerfluffle? Blizzard sued Glider over EULA infringement for copying code, as well as the ancillary issue of pissing WoW users up and gobbling up resources. Glider shot back with 'But grinding your way to level 70 is boooooring.' Probably unsurprisingly, this argument did not go over very well in court and Blizzard won its summary judgment motion. All's well that end's well ... or is it? Over at PlayNoEvil, there's some interesting analysis on what this judgment could mean and why it may not be all that it's cracked up to be:

1. This ruling is very dangerous to any third party utility provider. Especially security companies like Symantec, who load programs and "check them out" to see if they are malicious. Ironically, it would seem that Blizzard's own security program, Warden, would be imperiled by this notion of copyright ....

3. What if Blizzard wins? After a long fight, Blizzard defeated the unauthorized Battle.Net server developers, BnetD, which simply drove the system outside the US where it is still available. It is actually surprising that MDY didn't move its business offshore to a country where this suit could not have been effectively tried or did not have a copyright treat with the US.

4. Legal solutions to business and technical problems are terribly inefficient an expensive. While they may be able to shut MDY down and even bankrupt the company (and perhaps its owners), how much will this have cost Blizzard and how long until another equivalent product is made available. Might MDY simply publish the source code to Glider as a "finger in the eye" gesture at Blizzard? (or "leak" it onto the Internet?)

No doubt this case hasn't been put to bed quite yet — any future developments should be pretty interesting.

Blizzard Wins Key Judgments Against WoW Bot Maker MDY on Copyright and Tortious Interference Claims [Virtually Blind] and A Pyrrhic Victory? Blizzard vs. Glider [PlayNoEvil]

Now They Want DLC Money From The NES??

Mark Wilson — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:00:00 MDT

For those who want to experience the fun of downloadable content but refuse to play on any system but their vintage NES, the impossible has happened. RetroZone has released the game Glider for the NES. For $42, you get a quirky flying game (in which you navigate a miniature glider through a house) complete with additional downloadable levels that can be added by flashing the cartridge's built-in memory. And the DLC updates are actually free.

The only catch is that to download new content, it appears you need to first mod your NES with RetroZone's $70 USB CopyNES. So what could have been a fun afternoon quickly escalates to a part-time hobby investment.

Glider [RetroZone via Joystiq]

Blizzard Versus Glider: The Motions

Maggie Greene — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:00:00 MDT

Last year, Blizzard decided to go after Glider (the botting program that lets you skip past the grind and get to the good stuff); Michael Donnelly, the guy behind Glider (who has apparently made nearly $2.8 million off of it) is fighting back, and now both sides have filed motions arguing their case. The summary judgment briefs and analysis have been making the rounds the past week or so: Blizzard claims that Glider infringes on the EULA of WoW by copying portions of code and is pissing of WoW players (as well as gobbling up resources), while Glider is saying that grinding to level 70 is boooooring and they're just helping players get to the fun bits. Both sides are seeking to be declared victorious without having to go through a protracted legal battle. We'll see what happens and who comes out on top.

Terra Nova has mirrors of the summary judgment motions, as well as a quick little wrap-up; Rock, Paper, Shotgun gets to the nitty gritty and also has a poll (question: 'Should Blizzard crush Glider?' options: 'Aye! Bots = cheating,' 'Nay! Grinding = misery,' 'Ayenay! Blizzard should provide a levelling service themselves' - thus far, 'Aye!' is winning), and PlayNoEvil has some analysis up from a security standpoint.

Blizzard v WoW Glider: Interesting, no? [Terra Nova]; Democracy Inaction: Blizzard vs Bots [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]; World of Warcraft Warden vs. Glider - Which is the Lesser Evil? Who owns my computer? {PlayNoEvil]