This Means Warcraft!

This Means Warcraft!
Mark Rasch, 2006-04-03

A recent World of Warcraft case involved a WoW book by Brian Knopp that was being sold on eBay. It resulted in automated takedown notices by "lawyerbots" and shows how the legal process today can end up silencing legitimate uses of trademarks and copyrights.

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This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-03
Anonymous

Great article! This highlights the long known issue that those with the most money, and thus those with the most lawyers, have no problem forcing their own narrow minded interpretation of the law on others. Only now they have even automated the process....

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This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-03
Anonymous (1 replies)

WAr of the Worlds: Martian's not Robots - in "war machines" -- think tanks.

Otherwise a fine piece and Ihope he gets a good judge....

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War of the Worlds 2006-04-03
Mark D. Rasch (2 replies)

As I recall in the radio version, the Martians were inside machines.. not technically robots.. but almost as scary as lawyers......

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Re: War of the Worlds 2006-04-03
Matthew Murphy (1 replies)

Almost as scary as lawyers, but nowhere near as scary as robots and lawyers put together! GOOD GOD!

So, these firms are having a robotic agent that has a high margin of error (such as the 'lawyerbot') send takedown notices that make a copyright claim "under penalty of perjury" without any human ...

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Re: Re: War of the Worlds 2006-04-07
Anonymous

That point about lawyerbots sending notice "under penalty of perjury" has lots of interesting aspects that I hope will be well litigated in Kopp's action.

I'm glad Kopp is fighting back, one way to stop this sort of crap is to make those responsible pay enough that it becomes economically unatt...

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Re: War of the Worlds 2006-04-04
Anonymous (1 replies)

The difference being lawyers are empty inside......

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Re: Re: War of the Worlds 2006-04-12
Anonymous

There are several issues here;

One, Mr. Kopp, as a player of the game, signed a Terms of Service agreement. It is possible that his book was in fact a violation of the agreement between Mr. Kopp and Blizzard.

Two, If you look at any MMO's business model, they are pretty much all "Pay-to-Play"....

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Knopp's personal site also taken down by ISP 2006-04-04
Anonymous (1 replies)

Seems that Brian's attempts to sell the guide on his personal website have also run into difficulties. The site was taken down by his ISP. It was here but now replaced by a legal notice.

http://www.angelfire.com/games6/wowseller8/auction.htm ...

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Re: Kopp's personal site also taken down by ISP 2006-04-04
Brian Kopp (1 replies)

It's Kopp not Knopp as in the title heh. and that angelfire site wasn't mine. someone tried to copy it months ago and it redirected bad. wether they tried to help me or steal i'm not sure. My site is
http://www.ultimatewowguide.i8.com ...

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Re: Re: Kopp's personal site also taken down by ISP 2006-04-07
Mark D. Rasch

Kopp's website (where he also sells the book) contains the following disclaimer, which may or may not be effective:

Disclaimer:
This guide is not a copy of the official guide nor is it piracy in any way shape or form.
The "World Of Warcraft Guide Package" is an unauthorized source for education...

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This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-04
Jeff Hotchkiss, UK

An excellent article - it makes me wonder if this sort of activity is unique to the US (i.e. due solely to the provisions of the DMCA).

One possible solution is that such notifications must be in writing, as in pen and paper, which would keep the mail service in business and eliminate the robots....

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This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-04
Anonymous (2 replies)

So, Kopp has sued them - did he succeed, or is the case still ongoing?...

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Re: This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-04
Anonymous

And where is the website for protesting against Blizzard? We should all be joining forces to help Knopp against this robotic monster! Before this case is finished, nobody would dare mention they are Blizzard employees....

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Re: This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-05
Mark D. Rasch (1 replies)

The case was only recently filed. The defendants have not yet replied....

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Re: Re: This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-06
Jack

Well, I wish him the bast of luck. As has been pointed out in other places, and implied at here, this could have some serious ramifications for authors....

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This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-04
Dan (2 replies)

The sad part is that Blizzard is actually infringing on Brian's right to write about and publish his own personal experiences, which he has paid Blizzard for via the WoW subscription fees. This would appear to be a case of prior restraint in many ways. Under First Amendment law, Brian should be ab...

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Re: This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-04
Louis

Funny; The DMCA was signed by President Clinton in October 1998. ...

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Re: This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-10
Mickey

It would be nice to be able to blame a single president for these idiocies. Unfortunatly youŕe just seeing the continuation of the same trend wee been seeing since at least the early 90s.

Unicornzvi@yahoo.com
...

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This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-06
E (1 replies)

Great article, it seems that Lawyers have found a way exploit the legal system. The exploit being creating FUD among content providers (Websites) with the leaverage of the copyright laws and having things done their way without ever having to go to court. I guess the concept of "actus non facit reum...

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Re: This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-12
Anonymous

"Great article, it seems that Lawyers have found a way exploit the legal system."

Lawyers created the legal system, as a way to control everyone else. Don't tell me you just noticed?
...

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So what is the actual argument, here? 2006-04-06
Anonymous

It seems like the issue is laziness on the part of content providers who don't bother to review the situation, and copyright holders who apparently can't be arsed to review legal threats before sending them out. It seems to me that all we're doing here is establishing that lawyerbots are a bad idea...

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This Means Lawcraft! 2006-04-06
DarknesS

Like some posters already pointed out this is a really great article. So thanks for the article...

Let's all hope the outcome of the process will enforce less aggressive "lawyerbots" (I know this is not very likely to happen - But hope dies last).

...

While searching for a litle bit more i...

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This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-07
Mark D. Rasch (1 replies)

A few points.. first, the WoW Website and Terms of Service http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html provides that "You agree that you will not (i) modify or cause to be modified any files that are a part of a World of Warcraft installation; (ii) create or use cheats, "mods", and/or hack...

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Re: This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-08
Matthew Murphy

In this instance, Blizzard's claim should be one of "breach of contract" rather than copyright infringement, no?

It doesn't seem that copyright law prohibits the conduct that Mr. Kopp engaged in. If the EULA is extended to do so, then it becomes the contract, rather than the law, that has been v...

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Great Story! 2006-04-07
Anonymous (1 replies)

I?m glad people are finally starting to see, and write about, the many different angles our government?s allowing citizens to be screwed over by the corporations that line our congress? pockets. The DMCA and many other bills have stripped nearly all our rights when it comes to the Internet or anyth...

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Re: Great Story! 2006-04-12
Anonymous

I agree, all too often individuals let the corporate "wall of lawyer" indimidate them even when they know it is wrong. Stick to your guns I don't lose any sleep when I see lawyers taken to court for pushing people around....

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One reply 2006-04-11
Anonymous

I have only comment when I read such things
"GET THE SOFTWARE TO BE SECURE LUKES! RATHER THAN CRIBBING AGAINST PEOPLE WHO BREAK THEM!"...

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This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-12
ipIStheft

Go Kopp Go! The Dumies Guide parallel is accurate, sue the blizzards, make them go bust. hang on, then no one would play the game, and there fore no one would buy your book. hmmm....

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This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-14
Anonymous

Anybody know where to get a copy of his guide off bit torrent or something? Just cause that would crack me up. I don't even play the game. i beleive ti's actually pretty stupid to pay a monthly fee to play a game. I'll just stick to counter-strike if I wanna play some humans and Oblivion or Morrowin...

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Who said it was a bot? 2006-04-14
Anonymous (1 replies)

Maybe I missed it in the article but did anyone ever ask Blizzard if it was in fact a bot that sent the notice and not a real person? If it isn't legal to have bots do it I would imagine that a company the size of Blizzard would be smart enough to just hire a team of people to issue the takedowns. G...

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Re: Who said it was a bot? 2006-04-24
Mark D. Rasch

I never said it WAS a bot, just that it was presumptively so because of the timing. This article supposes that it is a bot, but since Blizzard has not yet even filed an answer, we clearly dont know. The automated nature of the response is, actually not part of the complaint....

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This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-20
Anonymous

Exellent Article. Thanks. And keep us posted please....

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This Means Warcraft! 2006-04-25
Alexey Vesnin

The key of this problem is that the dumbest bot in that case is the human who have automated the process. Yes, in 21th century there ARE many tasks that are routine and ONE-WAY-predictable, and - they SHOULD be automated. But not for lettin' us to bore in vain - but to free our time from stupid and ...

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