NEWS: Blizzard takes legal action

[Noobcraft]

From the private server wow-trance

We've discovered some disturbing information to which we've not verified it's integrity but need to take steps to ensure survivability, servers are all offline to be backed up and downloaded from our servers.

I cannot give any details at this time as we don't even know if this is a legit report. Servers will resume after the backups and downloads are complete.

Information has been confirmed more or less the following private servers have been served a DMCA notice from blizzard:

chaoscrusade
toxic-wow
Ani-wow
wowfusion
wowgasm
wowscape

Update from Ani-wow

Update (12/04/0: We're sorry to inform our users (you) that our "World of Warcraft" server will be closed, due to a "legal DMCA" complain letter from "Blizzard Entertainment Inc".
We've received the letter this morning, and it's been confirmed to be real, we have to get rid of all "World of Warcraft" content within 24/hours, and for obvious reasons we have agreed to cooperate with this DMCA letter and close "AniWoW" down..
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blizzard Entertainment is taking serious action to take down all unauthorized private "WoW" game servers/and or content related to "illegal use of emulators" within the next days..
- This isn't just for us, all private servers will eventually receive this letter, as there's a huge list of private servers listed in the DMCA letter...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We sincerely ask you to please take this under moderation, and NOT to blame Blizzard for their actions. They deserve the right to do what they did.
It's been a fun time, and we appreciate and thanks all our users for the support and cooperation in making our community a fun place for everyone. This however, have come to a end.. and we believe this to be our final good bye.
(We'll be opening a "community" forum, NOT related to "World of Warcraft" within the few days. So if you still want to keep in touch with members from our previous community, we'd like to ask you to stay tuned for more information regarding this notice).
AniWoW ( 1 Years, 6 Months, 4 days... )
May 10, 2007 - December 04, 2008...
Once again, thank you all! *drops a tear*
- Kyuu, AniMMORPG Founder.

Update from wowscape
Nov/5/08 New wowscape update from ryerye "REMOVED BY REQUEST"

Apologizes for the website downtime.
Long story short, there is someone out there who is jealous about our position on the top 100 list. We refuse to co-operate with anyone who attempts to blackmail us, it's just not the way the staff here think.

So far I've blocked over 5000 IP's, mostly from China (probably drones/infected PC's). There is still a lot more that are flooding still, however the webserver can handle the load at the moment. Things may be a little slower than normal over the next few days, there is simply nothing we can do until this idiot gets bored.

In the meantime, with the IP's blocked and mod_evasive set on tight settings, hopefully the site will remain stable.

The most ironic thing is that he wants his server to be ranked higher, but by taking down this website he also took down the website of Ascent. Some people's stupidity amazes me.
If any of you are still having trouble connecting, you can get around the DNS by using this IP as your realmlist: 67.228.11.181.

The game servers are completely unaffected by this attack, so you should have no trouble getting ingame even if the website goes down again.
Hopefully that will clear up some confusion and stop people running around spreading rumors.

Update from RYERYE on page 6

Straight from WoWFusions forums they call it false, and might be opening there server back up. Link of source: http://forums.wowfusiononline.com/index.php?showtopic=42648




Well, considering the fact I was writing an employee for a major business, I tried keeping it professional, short, and to the point. Here's an exact copy -n- paste of what I wrote Mrs. D. Lira. 
----------------------------------------------
Email From Sajakain To D LiraMrs. Lira:

First off, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is James.

Here recently I have received word that a letter was sent to you from a counsel of Blizzard Entertainment concerning the hosting of private World of Warcraft servers. I have saved this picture and uploaded it to my photobucket account in case the original link were to be removed. Here is a link to my photobucket account of this picture of the letter: Letter from Blizzard. For reference, here is the original link to the picture that I had come across: Letter from Blizzard.

The only reason I am writing you concerning this matter is to validate it's legitimacy. Is this a legitimate statement from Blizzard to SoftLayer or is this some fancy prank that someone has put out to try and stop the hosting of World of Warcraft private servers?

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.

- James 

---------------------------------------------------
I wonder if I'll get a reply?

- Sajakain 
--------------------------------------------------
OK. So as I said in this post in the massive Announcement thread, I wrote Dody Lira. And up front, I must say I made a mistake. Dody Lira is not a "Mrs.".... Dody Lira is a "Mr.". Oops. :huh:

Anyway.... so just to let you know.... here was the response to this email:

What is your account number/abuse ticket number associated with this incident?

Thank You. 
--------------------------------------------------------------
No joke. That was the first reply to the email. As Holidaycookie and I both said... "WTF?" :blink: So I wrote Mr. Dody back. Here's what I wrote:

There is no account number. I am not an account holder with you. I do not have a ticket number for this incident. I'm simply asking whether or not the supplied letter, supposedly sent to you from Blizzard, is legitimate or fake.

Thank you. 
---------------------------------------------
Within a matter of minutes I got yet another reply:

I have no idea how you came across this letter and who you are. Call me regarding this issue. Edited: Phone Number Removed

Thank you
--------------------------------------------------
So I called him. My first attempt rewarded me with a "This extension cannot be reached." generic message. I lol'd, spoke to Holidaycookie over instant messenger, lol'd again, and then retried the call. He immediately picked up the phone.

I explained who I was and why I was calling and his first response was "So do you have an account with us or not?" I told him, again, that I didn't. He had then stated that seeing as how I do not have an account he could not disclose any information about this letter because I am not "contracted" with SoftLayer. During our 5 minute coversation he had asked which forum I had got this from. The reason being is because I am not the only person that has called him. His tone of voice was agitated, but yet calm due to the professionalism he has to maintain, but still.... agitated. According to Mr. Dody he has received many "similar calls regarding this same type of issue". I simply told him to google Wowtoxic. (It's not a lie. They have this stuff on their site too.)

I then bluntly stated "Well I'm just calling to see if this specific letter is legitimate or fake. People are wanting to know so I am calling to ask." He then stressed again that he could not disclose any information concerning the letter, regardless if it was real or fake. I simply thanked him and that was the end of the conversation.

=================================
=================================

If you were to ask me my gut instinct, I'd lean more towards the fake side of the fence. Yes, this company knows about the letter but it seemed to me that Mr. Dody was more upset that his personal work information is being rapidly spread across many forums and random, non "contracted" people are calling him wanting answers he can't legally give.

Before we hung up he did state that the owner, or contracted member, from my forum / website should be the one to contact SoftLayer for the answers regarding this particular letter's legitimacy... or lack there of.

I would suggest to anyone who is thinking about it... do not waste this man's time more than it already has been.

- Sajakain

Update Chaos Crusade home page

We regret to inform you that ChaosCrusade will be down until the issue with the received DMCA is cleared.
We cannot give a time/date or even an estimation at this present point in time but we will try to keep all of our users updated.

In the mean time you can keep in contact with us by simply joining our IRC channel, where updates and discussion will take place.
You can reach us on IRC @ irc.deltaanime.net #chaoswow.

Alternatively you can use the webchat client to connect, which you can find by clicking here.

We are aware there are copys of the DMCA on the internet leaked by a private server who recieved the letter. We urge everyone to NOT contact any of the party's involved. Thank you for your co-operation.

12/05/08: DMCA notice passed as authentic. ChaosCrusade's future will be discussed over the next few days. All realms will remain offline. 12/05/08: ChaosCrusade pending contact with the law firm Sonnenschein. 12/04/08: ChaosCrusade receives a photocopy of what appears to be a DMCA letter from the law firm Sonnenschein.

Update Burning wow

Hello everyone,

As you all have heard by now, there are many rumors floating around that Blizzard is shutting down emulated WOW servers using the DMCA. I cannot confirm nor deny that this has actually happened, nor can I make an advisable argument as to whether or not Emulation is legal in the United States in regards to an MMORPG.

However, I can state that Burning-WoW is equipped to handle such a situation. We take daily backups of vital data and code, and though being interrupting, such a notice would not cause this community to cease to exist. Burning-Wow will continue, and will prosper.

Please be sure to help squash rumors like this by directing other players to the "News and Announcements" thread, as they can be detrimental to the community!

Happy Hunting!
Daenks (for the Burning-Wow Community Staff)


To staff: do not lock this topic, instead, delete flame posts.

Update V.C.N (seems like bull to me but meh)

Ok so as many of you heard, many servers are being shutdown:

I will explain something very quick:

With a new release of WOLTK and 3.0.3 Blizzard has installed a special protection in their patch. Any servers that have WOLTK and receive incoming connections using the client, it reveals the source of the connection. So as you may notice any large server with WOLTK is being shutdown legaly.

V.C.N is not on WOLTK. We are woking on patch 2.4.3 and will remain to do so.

Interesting fact thanks to toxic for reminding me.
T O X I C: hey m8... my question is i have offline server... im playing alone on it its 3.0.3 can blizz **** me up ?

The answer is no, hosting a private server publicly is illegal but hosting it offline is not as well why would blizzard go after offline and non public server's anyways?


Update http://www.xtremetop100.com/ is down so is wowstatus and wowps.


Update from WoWFusion

Hey guys,

I wanted to clarify a couple of things-rumors that have been wandering the forums since yesterday.
Blizzard IS taking action towards private servers, and they have every reason to do so. We as WoWFusion staff, by hosting a private server, acknowledged that the Game, dubbed World of Warcraft, is and was never our intellectual property and by providing match making services, is, indeed, against the Terms of Service constructed by Blizzard. I am not making the implication that you, as players, and we, as staff, have purposefully violated the terms of service of the original creators of WoW, as we all know, WoWFusion was solely based on the belief of entertainment, community, and for some, experience. WoWFusion was not founded on business perspective, and definitely not founded on the terms of disfranchising the original creators of the Game: Blizzard.

Moreover, I do not want to compromise the innocent lives of anyone associated with WoWFusion, either directly or indirectly, specifically the ones who have devoted a large percentage of their time here on WoWFusion, as well as those who have invested financially, either small or large, for Our Purpose. Deeds such as private servers, are in need of an omega. Don't get me wrong, I hate for this to happen, especially now when an new development such as WOTLK has presented itself. However, things are not looking bright. To puts things into better perspective, Blizzard WILL take legal action against private servers if they continue to exist. So there we have it, the final attempt by Blizzard to abolish our "illegal" activities, in which they may have succeeded, compared to those of the past.

As for donors, well... read on. Most of you have dubbed a donation with.. well I have no idea what you guys call it; there have been too many variations. Therefore, if you really want your money back AND ONLY IF YOU HAVE DONATED WITHIN THE LAST MONTH, please send an email to the Donation Market (donors should know the email). We will have you refunded as soon as possible.

All in all, this is not the official statement for the closure of WoWFusion. We have yet to receive some minor details, therefore shall not make any rash moves. The servers will stay offline during this "depression." I am truly sorry guys, I know this came as a shock. We could not have helped it either way; Blizzard would have done this sooner or later.

Sincerely,
WoWFusion Staff.

Update from latruwski

it's a fact they are all ****ed

Update from Sajakain

If you read the prior pages to this thread you will see that I was quoted from the forums of the private server that I personally play(ed) on: WoWFusion. Also, if anyone were to pay attention to those boards and follow through with what they look up, they'd realize that I did in fact write Mr. Christian Genetski and he did reply to me stating that he did, in fact, write the letter to SoftLayer.

Despite what you may personally think; rest assured. The letter is real. The situation is real. And Blizzard will take legal action if they have to.

- Sajakain

[Justink15]

Short for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, an act of Congress that was signed into law on October 28th, 1998, by President Clinton. DMCA's purpose is to update U.S. copyright laws for the digital age.
Briefly, the DMCA stipulates the following conditions:

It is a crime to circumvent anti-piracy measures that are built into commercial software.
It is a crime to manufacture, sell or distribute code-cracking devices that illegally copy software. However, it is not a crime to crack copyright protection devices in order to conduct encryption research, assess product interoperability or test the security of computer systems.
Under certain circumstances, nonprofit libraries, archives and education institutions are exempt from the anti-circumvention provisions.
The copyright infringement liability of ISPs that simply transmit information over the Internet is limited. However, ISPs must remove material from users' Web sites that appears to constitute copyright infringement.
The liability for copyright infringement by faculty members and graduate students of nonprofit institutions of higher education is limited when the institutions serve as ISPs and under certain circumstances.
Webcasters must pay licensing fees to record companies.
The Register of Copyrights must submit to Congress recommendations regarding how to promote distance education through digital technologies while "maintaining an appropriate balance between the rights of copyright owners and the needs of users."

source: What is DMCA? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer Dictionary

[kev3136]

Honestly, its really hard to say their moves. Its like chess, we need to predict their next move. In my opinion they may have even assigned more than 1 lawer (1 For each Server) To make sure they are down for good. Even though they can go to another hosting service, I believe they may even take action against the individuals. Blizzard is a very powerful entity, and most people arn't even aware of what they are capable of.

Where it really boils down to, is if they actually hired these lawyers to completely destroy all of the private servers, or just the most profitable ones. If they have hired them to just destroy them, it will only be a matter of time until they come back. If they hired them to take all or the majority of them out, then we are in big trouble, and need to find some sort of loophole, and quick.

We can't under estimate blizzard when it comes to doing things with legality, they definatly have the funds to pay these lawyers to destroy all Private servers if they wanted.

[bettyb00p]

Yeah... Everyone on Toxic-WoW's IRC is freaking out, Aether gave us a paste-bin to the letter he received. Was about DCMA etc...

Everything is shutting down except for the small servers.

CC is gone, completely, their domain no longer exists, and their IRC is gone too.

[Clain]

I find this quite funny actually, I hope the scape is gone soon too :O
EDIT: Provide facts next time and don't start rumors unless you know exactly whats going on, go with what Hasbro said :P

[bettyb00p]

I find this quite funny actually, I hope the scape is gone soon too :O

It is, check out the site, the computer that was running the servers or computers, was shut down, only the domain remains

[kev3136]

Uh, you guys are just going to start a rumor which isn't true.
So don't feed into this thread, it'll cause confusion and a rumor which isn't true.
SOMEONE sent a notice to Softlayer asking them to remove several clients.
There was no mention of COPYRIGHT issues or anything regarding maps/dbcs just that it violates their terms of use and agreement. So there's no need to worry.

See the problem here is that Blizzard almost definatly has the resources to get a hold of other hosts, and track down the Owners of the server itself. After a warning from blizzard, and then a continued operation or violation of the terms, can be very very big, and I know they are watching the servers now.

[Hasbro]

See the problem here is that Blizzard almost definatly has the resources to get a hold of other hosts, and track down the Owners of the server itself. After a warning from blizzard, and then a continued operation or violation of the terms, can be very very big, and I know they are watching the servers now.

You must be psychic or something to know they're watching the servers now.

[Spectre90]

Yes a fake email, except for the fact it was in the softlayer ticket panel and not an email at all.

[kev3136]

You must be psychic or something to know they're watching the servers now.

Any idiot knows they have been watching our servers for some time, they needed the right time to strike. Now is the question of whether they are going to continue, or just take out those servers and be done with it.

[EatUrBrains]

its true like wow fusion is freakin out go there and see

[Calek]

Confirmed..

Toxic shut their servers down with a sever message that said "Servers going down in 5 seconds. I'll explain on the site" "Characters saved blah blah blah - SPLASH SCREEN"

Within minutes the website was taken down.

Wowscape is down.

Saw something in the forums on Wowfusion but I don't have forum access so couldn't read it..but the title of the post was offputting.
**UPDATE** I signed up for the forum to see what it said:

Hey guys,

I know you haven't see me on the forums in a while, however that is apart from the subject of the matter.
Many may have guessed from the topic title that Blizzard has finally taken action against World of Warcraft private servers. They recently had communication with our servers' host, SoftLayer. In fact, it was Blizzard's lawyer who submitted the "abuse" to the SoftLayer. Therefore, all servers will be down until further notice. I don't know what else to say at the very moment, but I will do my best to keep you guys updated.

EDIT-1: Blizzard is shutting down ALL private servers, not only us. Sorry if I failed to make that clear.

Regards,
WoWFusion Staff.

Blizzard feels now is the time to strike obviously.

We'll see how this plays out.

[Clain]

Hey guys,

I know you haven't see me on the forums in a while, however that is apart from the subject of the matter.
Many may have guessed from the topic title that Blizzard has finally taken action against World of Warcraft private servers. They recently had communication with our servers' host, SoftLayer. In fact, it was Blizzard's lawyer who submitted the "abuse" to the SoftLayer. Therefore, all servers will be down until further notice. I don't know what else to say at the very moment, but I will do my best to keep you guys updated.

EDIT-1: Blizzard is shutting down ALL private servers, not only us. Sorry if I failed to make that clear. 

Regards,
WoWFusion Staff.

Is the message posted on WoWFusion.

[Calek]

Hey guys,

I know you haven't see me on the forums in a while, however that is apart from the subject of the matter.
Many may have guessed from the topic title that Blizzard has finally taken action against World of Warcraft private servers. They recently had communication with our servers' host, SoftLayer. In fact, it was Blizzard's lawyer who submitted the "abuse" to the SoftLayer. Therefore, all servers will be down until further notice. I don't know what else to say at the very moment, but I will do my best to keep you guys updated.

EDIT-1: Blizzard is shutting down ALL private servers, not only us. Sorry if I failed to make that clear. 

Regards,
WoWFusion Staff.

Is the message posted on WoWFusion.

LOL! Well guys...for the record, Clain did post this first..I was adding the edit as he posted it lol.

[Hellgawd]

I would like to see some more confirmation. And besides, people do other illegal things, so private servers will still be around.
I wonder why Blizzard hasn't gone after ExtremeTop100 - it's very obvious it's entirely relying on the income provided by WoW Private Servers.
EDIT: The 'Ip Banning' is either complete bullcrap, or someone at one of the servers was forced to give a list of the IP's used for accounts.