Blizzard responds to amicus brief in MDY bot suit
Last month, digital rights advocacy group Public Knowledge filed an amicus curaie -- "friend of the court" -- brief regarding Blizzard's argument that a user making a memory copy of the World of Warcraft software for purposed of using MDY's Glider program to bot violated their terms of use and their copyright. Public Knowledge noted that loading legally obtained software into the memory for purposes of running it is explicitly allowed by copyright law. The judge required Blizzard to respond to the argument last Friday, and Virtually Blind has Blizzard's response.
The basic argument that Blizzard makes is that the software is only rented and that they control and license every allowable use, and every non-allowed use (by their license) is copyright infringement. (Public Knowledge points out that this would mean using non-allowed names, or communicating in game with a member of the opposing alignment, is also copyright infringement).
Do you feel when you buy a game or other software that you are buying the software -- and can therefore do what you like with it, regardless what some EULA allows -- or do you feel the publisher of the software retains all rights to that box and the particular copy of the software you have licensed? This goes beyond WoW and beyond video games entirely.
