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 hacks, or any other third-party software designed to modify the World of Warcraft experience;"

The EULA http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/eula.html provides:

you may not, in whole or in part, copy, photocopy, reproduce, translate, reverse engineer, derive source code, modify, disassemble, decompile, or create derivative works based on the Game, or remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Game.

exploit the Game or any of its parts, including, but not limited to, the Game Client, for any commercial purpose, including, but not limited to, use at a cyber cafe, computer gaming center or any other location-based site without the express written consent of Blizzard;

Note, there is no indication that the Plaintiff reverse engineered any part of the game, or that he developed any hacks or cheats, but I must admit that I have not read his book. Nevertheless, even if he DID develop a hack or cheat in violation of the Terms of Use, what Blizzard effectively enjoined was the sale of a book, not the development of a hack or cheat. That is a slippery slope however, as the publication of source code or exploit code (exploit here being loosely defined) can constitute an infringement or violation of terms of service.

It appears that Blizzard is relying on the EULA prohibition on "commercial exploitation." This is an amazing extention of copyright law, claiming that ANY commercial use of a copyrighted work is an infringement.





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