Blizzard Caught In Legal Fight With Game Cheating Company

[Vengfull]

1

Last week, Blizzard filed a lawsuit against the team behind a series of bots called “Buddy,” which allow users to cheat at games such as Heroes of the Storm, Diablo III and World of Warcraft. This week, the creators of those bots are hitting back at Blizzard, claiming the company has stolen their code. But Blizzard says they’re not wavering.
As TorrentFreak report, Blizzard’s lawyers allegedly approached James “Apoc” Enright—a freelancer working with the bot’s creators, a German company called Bossland—and offered him a deal “under which he agreed to hand over the source code for the Stormbuddy software.” Stormbuddy is Bossland’s cheat bot for Blizzard’s MOBA Heroes of the Storm.
Bossland CEO Zwetan Letschew told TorrentFreak:

Today Blizzard acted in a manner as shady as possible for a multi-billion-dollar corporation. We were informed that the deal compelled Apoc to submit the entire source code of Stormbuddy, which is actually the intellectual property of Bossland GmbH, to Blizzard.

Strong words. Letschew says that as a result of the alleged acquisition of the code, and the loss of sales resulting from the fact they’ve had to stop selling their cheat service, Bossland will be taking Blizzard to court in Germany. They want to get their hands on the details of the deal made with Enright, who as a freelancer was not in a position to hand over code he did not own, they say.

This is far from the first time Blizzard and Bossland have gone (or threatened to go) to court; they’ve battled since 2011, and earlier this yearBlizzard was ordered to pay legal costs in a case involving gold-selling inDiablo III. In May of this year Blizzard banned thousands of players caught using Bossland’s bots in World of Warcraft.
Blizzard, as expected, see things in a different light. While not addressing Letschew’s specific allegations in this case, a spokesperson for the company tells Kotaku:

Bossland’s entire business is based in cheating, and the use of their bots negatively impacts our global player community. That’s why we do not tolerate cheating in our games, and it’s why our players overwhelmingly support that policy. We’ve already won numerous cases against Bossland in Germany (where they’re based), and despite their tactics to delay the ongoing proceedings and the related repercussions, we’re confident that the court system will continue to validate our claims and ultimately stop the distribution of these cheating bots.
We’ll continue to aggressively defend our games and services, within the bounds of the law, in an effort to provide the best possible experience for our players. We want to use this as an opportunity to remind players who might not be aware—using bots, such as those distributed by Bossland, to automate gameplay in our games will result in a loss of access to those games.

It’s tough mustering much sympathy for people who try to make a living overtly and specifically cheating in a video game. But the courts aren’t a place for sympathy, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.


Direct Copy & Paste from Kotaku : Source

[Vengfull]

i feel sorry for our own Apoc

[lolp1]

This is unfortunate. However, I am almost positive that Blizzards move here was smart on their end and that they have done nearly the same exact thing in the past for Diablo II. It was just not publicly known nearly as much. Their case here is not really too much legal theory and there are several proven cases very similar to this that have all been upheld in the courts in the past 10 years.

Here is my post from the other thread here for anyone curious.

They have used this same strategy before I believe in Diablo II. They contacted several people with suites against the coders behind the hacks/bots. Seven total that I am aware of, four of them publicly. This came in the same fashion as this seems to be playing out, they banned the four major hacks a time or two, and of course they were re-released right away. It's worth noting, they hired out-side help with the warden back then to manage to ban those four hacks and several others, and I suspect (conspiracy theory..) they realize right away this was not going to be the best route.


With in a few months, all seven individuals were threatened with suits and some got it worse than others. From hush-hush contracts about discussing any detail of the case publicly on both ends, to hard-drives handed over, to not being able to hack or even install future Blizzard games(with some restrictions). To my knowledge, all seven people took the deal in exchange for a lower financial penalty.

[Deathyaw]

I wonder how much they offered Apoc for the source code

[lolp1]

I wonder how much they offered Apoc for the source code

If this is anything like their past cases, likely the only offer he got was not to be sued into an oblivion for every thing he has.

[Jaerin]

I would not be surprised if this was a strategic move for Bossland to take the offensive against Blizzard instead of always being on the defensive.

The problem is Bossland has very little ground to attack Blizzard by himself. Therefore he can be constantly harassed in court through ever burdensome evidence requests or the like. This would allow him to potentially bite back and get legal precedence to stop the harassing legal claims.

[Aes]

I wonder how much they offered Apoc for the source code

bossland and HB team TOLD apoc to give them the source code when blizzard asked for it


https://www.thebuddyforum.com/stormb...tormbuddy.html

The last thing we would like to do is to cause Apoc great distress and harm by forbidding him from signing the deal. We were at no position to do so in the first place, especially since he is just a freelancer and works on projects outside Blizzard games, except Stormbuddy.
For this reason we commended him to take the deal even if the grounds of the complaint are factually incorrect.

[Vengfull]

i didnt even know that part thanks Aes

[lolp1]

bossland and HB team TOLD apoc to give them the source code when blizzard asked for it
https://www.thebuddyforum.com/stormb...tormbuddy.html

That is very misleading, if I understand the situation correctly. While they did openly encourage him to take the deal, they really had no choice.

We were informed about the situation and commended Apoc to take the deal. US law system can bankrupt one for nothing more than an accusation. The last thing we would like to do is to cause Apoc great distress and harm by forbidding him from signing the deal. We were at no position to do so in the first place, especially since he is just a freelancer and works on projects outside Blizzard games, except Stormbuddy.

It also seems at the point of originally encouraging to take the deal they were not actually aware of the full details of the deal that was being accepted. The report was filed on November ninth, and the thread on the buddy forums below was posted on November eleventh.

Today Blizzard acted in a manner as shady as possible for a multibillion-dollar corporation. We were informed that the deal compelled Apoc to submit the entire source code of Stormbuddy, which is actually the intellectual property of Bossland GmbH, to Blizzard. We understand that Apoc still had no choice but to take the deal or spend many months, probably years, personally battling a multibillion-dollar company.

I think over-all the image of the buddy products court battles with Blizzard is some what positive, it's anything but. They've lost nearly every single battle, or at very least they lost all the ones of any great importance in the end. They are now moving to the higher courts and they are feeling confident that they will agree with them. I think they also probably were confident that the lower courts would agree with them too, until they didn't. I do wish them the best of luck though, Apoc has been nothing but helpful from the encounters I've seen.

[ZOMGMAO]

"Blizzard Vows to "Aggressively Defend" Games in Wake of Legal Battle With Bot-Maker"

[matisyahu]

so you telling me apoc just sold us all out and bailed to avoid personal consequences?

[Jadd]

so you telling me apoc just sold us all out and bailed to avoid personal consequences?

Wouldn't you?

Although I'm not really sure he "sold us all out" anyway...

[Vengfull]

He hasnt sold us out he was told to hand it over even by BL because he is only a dev - Its not like they are handing over all the accounts associated with having a botting license on them and the emails etc they just wanted StormBuddy source

[matisyahu]

whats to guarantee that stormbuddy didnt share same anti detection methods like hb or db?
and when i said sold us out i meant it more in the meaning of found it easier to give up immediately than taking the fight , i guess i would do the same but i always believed this is why i never became someone on such a key position.
and btw veng he wasnt "ordered" by bossland to do it he was told that they would advice him to do it if it was a personal friend to friend advice.
its like when the mrs. tells you " ye fine do whatever you want" (you as a soon to be married should have exp with that )

[D3Boost]

whats to guarantee that stormbuddy didnt share same anti detection methods like hb or db?
and when i said sold us out i meant it more in the meaning of found it easier to give up immediately than taking the fight , i guess i would do the same but i always believed this is why i never became someone on such a key position.
and btw veng he wasnt "ordered" by bossland to do it he was told that they would advice him to do it if it was a personal friend to friend advice.
its like when the mrs. tells you " ye fine do whatever you want" (you as a soon to be married should have exp with that )

If he was 100% certain the court will give him reason, he would've went to court. Blizzard has won many cases involving bots in the past. I would definitely not be surprised if the court gives them reason.

Besides, they can afford to spend years in courts unlike freelancers. Frankly, I think they do this to scare people from using bots more than anything else..

We all know even if HB & co. went down, there would quickly be a replacement & then it's back to square one.