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". The longer a person plays the more money the title makes.

In Blizzard's view, a guide or book, that shortens the time that players might spend on the game also has the effect of shortening the title's profits.

Now there are so many websites out there with guides and spoilers for games that it's crazy. I have been really avoiding the ones for Oblivion because I want this one to last as long as it's going to. But in this case Mr. Kopp is selling his book, and it looks to me like as far as Blizzard is concerned that's stepping over the line. For Mr. Kopp to make money off Blizzard's losses is probably going too far.

Three, the reason Mr. Kopp is having so much trouble is compounded by eBay and their policy of going beyond the letter of the law. In fact, because the law only requires eBay to notify Mr. Kopp of the notices and only remove the material if Mr. Kopp fails to reply within the aloted time, eBay has in fact violated Mr. Kopp's fair use of the website. But this is only true if these terms are layed out in eBay's Term's of Use agreement between eBay and Mr. Kopp.

This is an interesting article, it does highlight potential or real problems with the world of the internet, but this actual case may not turn out to be the best example of these problems as Mr. Kopp and eBay are both potentially part of the problem.


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