Last week Blizzard announced that it had banned over 5,000 StarCraft II players found guilty of using hacks.
The mega-publisher is taking it a step further however, and has filed a suit in the LA US District Court against three programmers accused of creating and selling StarCraft II hacks. The hacks violate end-user license agreements, Battle.net terms of use and copyright law.
According to Blizzard, “just days after the release of Starcraft II, Defendants already had developed, marketed, and distributed to the public a variety of hacks and cheats designed to modify (and in fact destroy) the Starcraft II online game experience. In fact, on the very day that Starcraft II was released, representatives of the hacks Web site advised members of the public that ‘our staff is already planning new releases for this game.'”
“By distributing the Hacks to the public, Defendants cause serious harm to the value of StarCraft II. Among other things, Defendants irreparably harm the ability of Blizzard’s legitimate customers (i.e. those who purchase and use unmodified games) to enjoy and participate in the competitive online experience. That, in turn, causes users to grow dissatisfied with the game, lose interest in the game, and communicate that dissatisfaction, thereby resulting in lost sales of the game or ‘add-on’ packs and expansions thereto.”
Many legitimate StarCraft II players would like nothing more than to see these bottom feeders face real penalties, but the 3 accused do not reside in the US, which raises the question of just what sort of jurisdiction the hearing will have.
Loading ...
