Blizzard Wins Glider Lawsuit

Blizzard has won their lawsuit against the manufacturer of the Glider bot.

The Court ultimately held that:

Blizzard owns a valid copyright in the game client software, Blizzard has granted a limited license for WoW players to use the software, 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. MDY does not dispute that the other requirements for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement are met, nor has MDY established a misuse defense. The Court accordingly will grant summary judgment in favor of Blizzard with respect to liability on the contributory and vicarious copyright infringement claims in Counts II and III.

Good news in the war against bots, but remember that the copyright claims attached to this case might come back to bite gamers in the rear later. Blizzard granted “limited license” for WoW, but according to most UELAs that’s exactly what all publishers do for all games.