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Nice “News from the Future” from BBC, a legal battle over a Warcraft ‘bot’. It will be interesting to read the verdict!
The makers of World of Warcraft are locked in a legal battle with a firm that has produced a tool to automate many actions in the virtual world. Blizzard is suing Michael Donnelly, the creator of the MMO Glider program, which performs key tasks in the game automatically, such as fighting. Both sides have submitted legal summaries to a court in Arizona.Mr Donnelly said the first time had had been aware of potential legal action over his program was when a lawyer from Vivendi games, which publishes Warcraft, and an “unnamed private investigator” appeared at his home.
Blizzard has said the tool infringes copyright because it copies the game into RAM in order to avoid detection by anti-cheat software.
Related:
The Future of Credit Cards – Earning virtual currency for spending in the real world & other world bridging.
An ATmega or BASIC Stamp in your keyboard can do the same job without being tracked. I considered doing it back in FFXI, but I was also trying to kick the habit at the same time.
Thats a pretty goofy argument, all programs copy from disk into ram in order to run. WOW is already in ram when its running. There are tons of mods and bots floating around for WOW, I think they will have a very difficult time proving their case.
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Make: School’s Out! Summer Fun Guide
This Summer Fun Guide is brimming with over 50 projects for kids of all ages. You’ll also find inspiring young maker profiles, as well as tool reviews written for and by kids! Plus, it’s our 3D issue, complete with 3D glasses and tons of super-cool 3D photos!
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