Slapped with 88m dollar sentence for using micro-transactions on a private WoW Server

[Taxi]

Ill be the first one to take a shit on corporate greed, but i think its safe to say when youre being that careless, greedy and naive, you deserve to go bankrupt.

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Private World of Warcraft server owners may want to stop their illegal operations. Yesterday.

Don't mess with Blizzard, ever. Don't even entertain the idea. If you do, you could end up like private server company Scapegaming, which was running at least one private World of Warcraft server and has ended up being charged $88 million for it.

Private servers are unofficial portals through which to play MMOGs. Sometimes they're free, sometimes they're not, but they're just about always illegal when running a retail product. Scapegaming's World of Warcraft private server was reportedly using a microtransaction model that would allow players to purchase items.

Blizzard didn't like this very much, so it sued Scapegaming, aka Alyson Reeves. A judge laid down final judgment in the lawsuit last week, awarding Blizzard $88,594,539. Wow is right.

That's $3,052,339 in "disgorged profits", $85,478,600 in statutory damages, and a mere $63,600 in attorney's fees. The attorney's fees seem paltry next to the $85 million in statutory damages, anyway. To make matters worse, she also has to pay interest "at the rate provided by law until paid in full." Reeves may appeal the amount, but she's not going to get off easy no matter what she does.

It's hard enough to pay off a $10,000 car loan, so I can't imagine what it'd be like to have an $88 million dollar debt on your head. If Blizzard wanted to make an example out of Reeves for other private server owners, it's done that quite well. When it comes to copyright infringement and Blizzard, you don't want to be on the giant's radar. It will shut you down, crush your soul, crush your soul shards, and then sprinkle them on Bobby Kotick's ice cream cone.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news...e-Server-Owner

[jyaku]

mmmmm soul sprinkles

[jeffd]

cool, we needed a sixth version of this thread.

[Taxi]

Originally Posted by jeffd [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

cool, we needed a sixth version of this thread.

I dont even see a 2nd version of this thread... super misleading titles or what

[President]

General Forum Taxi.. This is at least the third separate one I've seen.

[Taxi]

Originally Posted by President [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

General Forum Taxi.. This is at least the third separate one I've seen.

Ahh... i see one now. Since i dont play anymore its not the first part of the forum i read when i get back to it. I guess people just cant bother to post in the right section, and admins got bored of moving threads.

[eqdruid76]

Were they literally charging money? Or were they rewarding donations? Kind of a big difference, legally.

[Toony]

Judgement not sentence.

[mgellan]

Originally Posted by Toony [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Judgement not sentence.

It's a civil case, the judgement is end of case ... sentences are for criminal cases.

Regards,
Mg