Blizzard Sues Starcraft II Hackers

Last week Blizzard filed a suit in the LA US District Court against three programmers – carrying the handles “Permaphrost,” “Cranix,” and “Linuxawesome” – accusing them of creating and selling hacks in violation of the end-user license agreement, Battle.net terms of use, and copyright law.

According to the suit, “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.'”

Blizzard is accusing the three of multiple counts of copyright infringement, and demanding damages and disgorgement of any profits earned from the sale of the hacks.

“The harm to Blizzard from Defendants’ conduct is immediate, massive and irreparable,” the suit claims. “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.”

Source, Gamespot