Blizzard Sues Private Server Company, Awarded $88M

[Sednogmah]

"A private server company, Scapegaming (aka Alyson Reeves), was ordered to pay Blizzard Entertainment over $88 million in damages after losing a lawsuit that was concluded last week. Scapegaming was operating unauthorized World of Warcraft servers and using a micropayment system to collect money from the servers' user base, which according to the lawsuit amounted to just over $3 million. $85 million of that settlement was for statutory damages, and surprisingly only $63,000 in attorney's fees."

The link above contains the official court documents, however you have to pay 0.99 USD to access them.

[stoneharry]

This is years old. If you want a copy of the lawsuit: http://arcemu.info/downloads/peyton/ReevesComplaint.pdf

And don't go QQ "OH NO ALL EMULATION IS GONNA DIEEEEE"... Blizzard took action to a few of the top servers as they were literally making mass money (wowscape = $100,000 a month from donations)... If blizzard wanted to destroy emulation they could do it with ease, the question is why do they let it continue?

[Sednogmah]

This is years old.

You seem to live years in the future. The final judgement was made 5 days ago on 2010-08-11. The case was closed 4 days ago.

And don't go QQ "OH NO ALL EMULATION IS GONNA DIEEEEE"

I did not imply any personal opinion of any kind in my post. I merely reported about the final outcome of the case.

[BaddyMcBad]

If blizzard wanted to destroy emulation they could do it with ease, the question is why do they let it continue?

Because if they did destroy emulation, they would eliminate all the possibilities of making money like this case.

[stoneharry]

I meant the news is years old, it's been discussed countless times and there is really no need to bring it back up. It only leads to drama.

Also the comment about people QQing was thrown out wildly, since I see this happen every time this is brought up or spoken off. Servers starting up are often "OH QQ DEFENSE AGAINTS BLIZZARD" just because this happened, lol.

[KuRIoS]

I meant the news is years old, it's been discussed countless times and there is really no need to bring it back up. It only leads to drama.

Also the comment about people QQing was thrown out wildly, since I see this happen every time this is brought up or spoken off. Servers starting up are often "OH QQ DEFENSE AGAINTS BLIZZARD" just because this happened, lol.

Naturally it should be brought up since the case is now closed..

[Dombo]

I read it on wow.com yesterday.

[eric908]

the illegal profits were only a little over $3million, the total amount will likely be appealed to a much lower value than $88million. Anyway that's what happens when you try to make big money from a big cooperation's copyrighted material without giving them a cut.

[DarkenedSky]

the illegal profits were only a little over $3million, the total amount will likely be appealed to a much lower value than $88million. Anyway that's what happens when you try to make big money from a big cooperation's copyrighted material without giving them a cut.

Yes, because Blizzard totally wants people to come up and offer them a "cut" of the money they made illegally.

Peyton simply was too greedy, always tried to get more and more people (even got someone from a fairly popular band to advertise/say hi to the members of WoWScape/ScapeGaming), and gave simply too little back in return. It's because of how poorly run it was in its last chapters that it had such a huge media appeal which also drew attention from the big wigs.

[eric908]

Yes, because Blizzard totally wants people to come up and offer them a "cut" of the money they made illegally.

Let me clarify. It's how the game is distributed across Asia. Foreign game developers host and run the game servers and pay blizzard a "cut". But you're right in the sense that it's legally earned money in those situations.

[anmarie0812]

Its not really "on topic" but is just running the server illegal or playing on it too?

[Dombo]

Its not really "on topic" but is just running the server illegal or playing on it too?

Playing on it is ok, it won't get you sued. Hosting one on the other hand is ILLEGAL and might get you sued.

[weezyC]

Playing on it is ok, it won't get you sued. Hosting one on the other hand is ILLEGAL and might get you sued

Yaa, good thing not many people are that succesful on making their private servers big :]
Haha

[shadowsx]

now his life is ruined, he will never pay half that off in his lifetime

[UnknownEncryption]

getting really big is wat gets em busted 95% are to small