Activision Blizzard has been awarded $6 million in damages from MDY Industries, maker of the popular MMOGlider auto-grind software used by World of WarCraft players. BBC News reports:
Although sizeable the damages award could have been bigger, say experts, if MDY had not won some of its arguments about damages in court.
It was also helped by an admission in court that it would be reasonable to pay some form of damages.
The damages award could be delayed if Blizzard appeals against the judgement which threw out its claim to double or triple the cash settlement.
The case is due to go to court again in January 2009 when the remaining issues in the legal conflict look likely to be settled.
Like my colleague Jesse, I feel that the idea of paying money to avoid playing a game is ludicrous, but how far does a company need to pound cheaters for them to get the message? Considering sales of MDY's $25 program have been estimated at around 100,000 copies, even $6 million in damages will exceed the company's profits by a huge margin. But to hear that they were originally asking for $12 or 18 million...
You might be aware that this isn't Activision Blizzard's only contentious lawsuit in recent memory. Is the company's reputation with liberal gamers worth these many millions?
Image credit: J0nB0n (under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic)
October 1st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
What makes WowGlider illegal except violating Blizzards TOS? Is it costing them money somehow?
I also agree, paying to not play a game is a little weird - although SOMEWHAT understandable if you've already leveled up several characters in an MMO.