C&D Letters from Blizzard

[siruxx]

i thought about release some stuff i coded for diablo 3 with source code. but as far as i know lots of programmers get sued by blizzard. someone has more information on what to take care of to avoid their lawyers?

I really appreciate your tips . if you dont want to post it here - a pm would be awesome with more information.

[1337pyro]

no problem if you dont sell anything...

[Assistend]

As long as you stop after getting a c&d letter they usually dont do anything.

[Maccer]

I'm interested in this too, and also, what if I release something on this site, but provide only download link.
And let's say Blizzard wants to sue me, will my info be delivered to Blizzard? Is OC (or Ket) obligated to deliver the info about me (IP) or not?

[ene1980]

Well only huge companies as Honorbuddy and such gets sued and aslong as you stop after c&d and you do not take money for it nothing will happend

[booba]

no problem if you dont sell anything...

That's not true, people have received even if they're not selling. I think it comes down to how much you have reverse engineered knowledge from D3 you're releasing.

[_Mike]

So what exactly are people getting sued for? The EULA says that you can't reverse engineer the game, but the EULA ain't the law.

[booba]

In my knowledge, they are not suing, but "warning" that you are under their radar, and they know who you are and what you do. From there, why would you want to take the risk of being sued by a company with massive funds when you're an individual with barely any.

[_Mike]

I guess I'll rephrase that.. Which law(s) are they claiming that people have broken?
Reverse engineering is not illegal. Not in the civilized parts of the world at least. So they can't sue for that. And they can't do that glider thing again where they claim warden is copy protection because they removed the "you can't login with hacks/bots running" part.

[Markn12]

a C&D is about trademark/copyright law. They're claiming you're infringing on their intellectual property and in the US they do not need to prove it you have to prove you're not doing it.

[siruxx]

but how do they get the addresses of the coders to send them the letters?

[_Mike]

a C&D is about trademark/copyright law. They're claiming you're infringing on their intellectual property and in the US they do not need to prove it you have to prove you're not doing it.

I see, thanks. It certainly makes a lot more sense that people are giving up without a fight if innocent until proven guilty doesn't apply in these cases.
So basically you can only win against a c&d if you have a ton of money for a legal team even if you happen to be innocent? Couldn't you just claim that all RE work is done for the purpose of interoperability with D3? Which I believe the DMCA allows for.

[Apoc]

Keep in mind, the EULA bit about RE'ing the game, is overridden by the DMCA. (It specifically includes a "you are allowed to RE anything, as long as its for non-profit, and educational, or something like that)

Blizzard will only send out C&Ds as either A) scare tactic, or B) to stop you from selling things.

I'm 99.9% sure that Ket (or Kur, or Myself) will not provide any personal information to any 3rd parties using the data from this site. (A warrant or similar is required for us to give up that sort of info.)

[siruxx]

So If i live in the EU i can give a crap on the DCMA? I just have to follow the EU laws right?

[Dark_Mage-]

I will briefly cover this:

As long as you are not selling/profiting...

Wrong. They will.

As long as you just stop...

In the past, this was somewhat correct, but sometimes - and especially more recently - it isn't the case.

How? For what?

Depending on the situation, but usually in all cases: tortious interference. e.g., Copyright Infringement -- Inducement to infringe copyrights; contributory infringement; breach of contractual relations; intentional interference with contractual relations; vicarious infringements.

They will hire a firm to represent them and deliver a formal C&D/injunction and require you to sign it and pay all litigation fees. If you cease your project and distribution, but don't sign C&D, etc. the firm will warn you they are going to advise their client (Blizzard) to push forward to court. There it will get very nasty. It is gray area in a lot of instances, yes, but then they just drag you out through tons of monetary losses regardless. Choosing to fight has never really worked out for the defendant. Lately they have been citing "$250,000" minimums for your average multihack if you break agreement, and you should hope that you don't go to court and they hit you with that multiplied for "damaging" their online services and the experience of other licensed end-users. It depends on the files being distributed, I suppose. Of course, depending on your location, the seriousness could be instantly amplified (not in Cali, but Canada or something). And if you are "out there", they will backtrace your identity through some means. Whether or not it's OwnedCore is irrelevant, but you can cause OwnedCore a load of trouble (see: GameThreat). Should you be at a point where you know they are getting subpoenas for your ID while you are still a "Doe defendant" it would probably be wise to lawyer-up at that point just in case so you can file a Motion to Quash so your real identity doesn't get revealed. I will tell you from experience that even though these kinds of cases are the ones that the EFF exists for, it will be very unlikely that you are able to get pro-bono assistance from them these days.

So If i live in the EU i can give a crap on the DCMA? I just have to follow the EU laws right?

Tell that to the many people they just filed injunctions against in EU/Germany these past couple of months.

If you are worried about releasing something, I guess the best you can do is make a fresh account to do it from and use VPN/I2P/TOR as a means of releasing. Again, from experience, it is nice to have a "chain" of "nodes" they have to go down to get to the site it's being published on, hopefully a front page before that, the server it's being distributed from, and whatever else you can throw in there. It gives you a lot of advance notice and fodder to throw into the crosshairs. On that note, another thing they will sometimes do (at least back in 2010) for large, widely-distributed public hacks is hire a company like BayTSP to uncover mirrors and issue takedowns. BayTSP will crawl the web for digital signatures and fingerprints of the "infringing files" and pop a C&D at all targets. They issue several million notices a year. This became pretty common after the Activision acquisition. Here are some samples I have from before...

It recently has come to our attention that, via the website {SITE_NAME} , you are
engaged in the commercial, for-profit, development and distribution of Starcraft® hacks and/or
cheats, including the hack referred to as "{HACK_NAME}," that are used to modify and alter the gameplay and performance of our client's videogames, including "Starcraft II: Wings of
Liberty."


Your creation and distribution of the {HACK_NAME} (and/or any other Starcraft hacks or
cheats) is in blatant violation of Blizzard's rights under federal and state law, and constitutes
copyright infringement (including direct infringement, secondary infringement, and inducement
to commit copyright infringement) and commercial misappropriation. See, e.g., Midway
Manufacturing Co. v. Artic International, Inc., 704 F.2d 1009, 1013-1014 (7th Cir. 1983)
(copyright infringement via altering gameplay of arcade game); Micro Star v. Formgen, Inc., 154
F.3d 1107 (9th Cir. 199 (sale of video game "mods" was copyright infringement). In addition,
you are engaged in the intentional interference of our client's contractual relationships with its
users, including express and implied agreements that prohibit the use of hacks and cheats such as
those offered for sale on your website. See MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment,
Inc., 2008 WL 2757357, *14-15 (D. Az. 200.


Our client's intellectual property is extremely valuable, and Blizzard takes very seriously any
attempt to trade off or profit from the use of its intellectual property. More critically, as you must be aware, your distribution of the {HACK_NAME} causes serious injury to the value and integrity of our client's products, as well as impairs (if not destroys) the game experience forothers.


Accordingly, demand hereby is made that you (1) immediately cease and desist from any
further distribution or sale of the {HACK_NAME} (or any other hacks or cheats), whether on the
website {SITE_NAME}, or on any other website; (2) provide us with a full and complete
accounting of your profits in connection with the {HACK_NAME} for all Blizzard products,
including the total number of sales of the {HACK_NAME} and income generated therefrom, and
(3) confirm to us in writing that the {HACK_NAME} has been removed from the
{SITE_NAME} website and/or any other website, and that you will take measures to
ensure that no additional hacks for Blizzard products are sold (including but not limited to hacks
for the Starcraft® series of games). Please inform us in writing of your agreement to these
terms, as well as the requested information, on or before the close of business on Friday,
September 3, 2010.


Please be advised that while our client wishes to resolve this dispute amicably, Blizzard is
prepared to vigorously enforce its rights, including, if necessary, by filing a lawsuit and seeking
any and all available legal and equitable remedies, including injunctive relief, monetary damages
(including statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work infringed), and attorneys' fees.


Nothing contained in this letter is intended to, nor shall it constitute, a waiver or relinquishment
of any rights, claims, defenses, or causes of action possessed by Blizzard, all of which expressly
are reserved.

BayTSP, Inc. ("BayTSP") swears under penalty of perjury that Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (Blizzard) has authorized BayTSP to act as its non-exclusive agent for copyright infringement notification. BayTSP's search of the protocol listed below has detected infringements of Blizzard copyright interests on your IP addresses as detailed in the attached report.

BayTSP has reasonable good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of in the attached report is not authorized by Blizzard, its agents, or the law. The information provided herein is accurate to the best of our knowledge. Therefore, this letter is an official notification to effect removal of the detected infringement listed in the attached report. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Universal Copyright Convention, as well as bilateral treaties with other countries allow for protection of client's copyrighted work even beyond U.S. borders. The attached documentation specifies the exact location of the infringement.

We hereby request that you immediately remove or block access to the infringing material, as specified in the copyright laws, and insure that the user refrains from using or sharing with others, unauthorized Blizzard materials in the future.

Further, we believe that the entire Internet community benefits when these matters are resolved cooperatively. We urge you to take immediate action to stop this infringing activity and inform us of the results of your actions. We appreciate your efforts toward this common goal.

Please respond indicating the actions you have taken to resolve this matter. The provided link has been assigned to this matter: BayTSP Web Infringement Response System

For email correspondence, please reference the above Notice ID in the subject line: mailto:[email protected]?

Nothing in this letter shall serve as a waiver of any rights or remedies of Blizzard with respect to the alleged infringement, all of which are expressly reserved. Should you need to contact me, I may be reached at the following address:

Regards,

Mark Ishikawa
Chief Executive Officer
BayTSP, Inc.
PO Box 1314
Los Gatos, CA 95031
v: 408-341-2305
f: 408-341-2399
[email protected]

So, there's some informal notes about it. I will tell you that, as I talked about for years, now with Diablo III and the involvement of the RMAH (which this ENTIRE game is based around (items as the only means to customize anything, etc.) as I also predicted.. probably in order to ease people into the future that is Titan) litigation strong-arming is their main defense. The last couple of months alone, I've had at least a dozen people consulting with me about issues like this. Good lucks.

For a few years now I've been wanting to write up a huge post about this stuff for Blizzhackers so people understand the tactics and what their rights are in such cases. As Apoc mentioned, there are Reversing clauses in the DMCA, but you can't always make them apply. You would need a really good lawyer, and in the end, it's probably not at all worth the time, effort, money, and headaches even trying to fight. You either aren't profiting or not profiting enough for it. I don't care how popular your pay-project is. This is how it is now and I've been trying to prepare the community since the announcement of D3. Anyway, I had a few dozen pages written up, but I was cross-referencing and citing so much stuff and so many books that I got way ahead of myself and discouraged lol. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know if OC has an large IRC channel, but we have a lot of channels on the synIRC network if anyone ever needs help.