Blizzard on a power trip

[Apoc]

It's been one hell of a week!

Within the last week, Blizzard has contacted all of the major bots around. (WoWMimic, Farmer John Bot, and more) This doesn't sound like anything all too 'interesting' due to the last ruling in the Glider case, which effectively makes botting of any kind illegal. However, it is actually incredibly interesting due to the way they are contacting these bots.

Throughout the week I've been talking to people who have been personally contacted by Blizzard in regards to their bot. However, not a single one of these people are the authors of said bot, nor are they 'legally' involved with any of these bots. Which begs the question, wtf?

Blizzard has not issued any forward emails to any of these bot creators, or legal owners. Instead, they have opted to CALL (yes, I said call, in some cases on private cell phone numbers) people who are 'vaguely' affiliated with the bot in question. This ranges from people who haven't been around for nearly a year, to just things as simple as a moderator on a forum. The common trend with all of these phone calls, is that they want information on certain people (so far, every report I've heard has been asking for information on myself), and that it's for a 'legal matter'.

My question is simple. All of us who have created these bots (well... most of us at least) have emails that are publicly available, so why does Blizzard instead opt to retrieve personal information on people not directly affiliated with these bots in order to manufacture their case? And where do they get the warrants to retrieve this personal information without any proper legal reasons to do so?

I'm assuming Blizzard is compiling information on all of these bots to take to court before the last ruling of the Glider case is overturned via the 9th CCA. I've not heard a single report of Blizzard sending a cease and desist notice to any bot.

To sum this up, I'll put it into a few questions.

1. Where does Blizzard get the authority to collect personal information on people who are only 'affiliated' and not 'partnered' with said bot?
2. Why doesn't Blizzard contact the actual creators of these bots instead of spooking the lower end of the totem pole?
3. Why is Blizzard relying on scare tactics to get bots shut down? Are they scared that as soon as the ruling is overturned, they won't be able to do jack shit?
4. Why is Blizzard so damned scared to talk man-to-man (or man-to-woman, etc) to anybody who is directly affiliated with these bots?
5. Do they know that they will have no case as soon as the Glider ruling is overturned?
6. Do they *really* fear us that much that they need to be sneaky and attempt to scare people into submission?

I'll leave you with a final note. If you've written a bot, keep low for the time being. If you have a Blizzard rep contact you, PLEASE post it here, as what they are doing is illegal as per privacy laws. (They have no legal right to collect personal information on non-affiliated parties. This includes forum moderators)

If they use someone's REAL NAME in any of these phone calls, or emails, PLEASE post here as well. (Omit the name please.)

I will still be releasing OpenBot.NET no matter what Blizzard decides to do. I've talked with my lawyer, and if they attempt to build a case purely based on speculation, they'll have one short court battle, and I'll be one rich man.

[Gripen2]

Im not a botter nor im a moderator.
And i haven't recieved any E-Mails or Phone calls. I guess im safe.

[Kuiren]

Damn, I hate power trips. Now, if it was an acid trip, I wouldn't mind. :]

[theawpspy]

1. They got none,
2. One of their scare tactic's scare their people, to get people talking to each other, and warn etc etc, " making their communitys afraid"
3. Scare tactics are old and effective,
4. Can just guess they're trying to scare their community's
5. No, their will always be new cases, dont forget blizzard is RICH,
6. Just think it's some g33k's that wanna feel powerfull

[Cypher]

HOLY SHIT APOC THEY'RE OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE

[Kuiren]

[Innit]

On topic, don't get too cocky, blizz made a whole load of bullshit up in the glider case.

[Piersd]

HOLY SHIT APOC THEY'RE OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE

lololololol

[Cephalopod]

He can get as cocky as he likes.

From what I understand of Openbot, if it's illegal, then so is every programming language in existance.

[Liquid Malfunction]

He can get as cocky as he likes.

From what I understand of Openbot, if it's illegal, then so is every programming language in existance.

Is profanity included in that list? I think Apoc has mastered that one

[trumpeter617]

If you remember back when Blizzard first started to take action against MDY (Glider) the guy in charge of Glider alleged that Blizzard sent some "thugs" to his private residence to scare him, or some jazz.

Its all the same old story and isn't anything unusual for a big company to do.

[sp0rkeh]

1. Where does Blizzard get the authority to collect personal information on people who are only 'affiliated' and not 'partnered' with said bot?
2. Why doesn't Blizzard contact the actual creators of these bots instead of spooking the lower end of the totem pole?
3. Why is Blizzard relying on scare tactics to get bots shut down? Are they scared that as soon as the ruling is overturned, they won't be able to do jack shit?
4. Why is Blizzard so damned scared to talk man-to-man (or man-to-woman, etc) to anybody who is directly affiliated with these bots?
5. Do they know that they will have no case as soon as the Glider ruling is overturned?
6. Do they *really* fear us that much that they need to be sneaky and attempt to scare people into submission?

All of your questions are framed under the assumption that the ruling is going to be overturned and that you fully understand Blizzard's intentions in questioning people, neither of which anyone here knows for sure. As far as contacting people not directly associated with the bots: They're simply gathering information. It's not a scare tactic. You don't confront someone regarding legal matters without first obtaining as much information as possible about your case. I'm sure if they had their way you'd never hear about them questioning people until the day they served the court papers. Since that's not usually possible, the next best thing is obviously asking people that don't have a great deal of interest staked in the potential court case.

[Apoc]

All of your questions are framed under the assumption that the ruling is going to be overturned and that you fully understand Blizzard's intentions in questioning people, neither of which anyone here knows for sure. As far as contacting people not directly associated with the bots: They're simply gathering information. It's not a scare tactic. You don't confront someone regarding legal matters without first obtaining as much information as possible about your case. I'm sure if they had their way you'd never hear about them questioning people until the day they served the court papers. Since that's not usually possible, the next best thing is obviously asking people that don't have a great deal of interest staked in the potential court case.

Of course I'm assuming that. We all know (including the 30+ pages in Blizzards own forum thread full of people) that the ruling was a total crock. Let's just say, it's a 90% chance that Glider will have the ruling overturned. (Hopefully the $6M damages as well since no evidence was presented)

[djCorrupT]

Its a scape goat imo.

they are useing glider to scare the other bots to stop but playing glider to stop distributing. I honestly would not doubt it. Whats next, youtube scams? if they are downing one thing, just wait until 95% of more scams, bots, hacks, and possably even this website is going to be brought down.

its a fight of:

money VS. money
and
Power VS power

[Clain]

Offtopic: All I know is that if Blizzard contacted me..., I'd say "See you in court mother ****ers"!