Subscribe to
Posts
Comments

MDY CaptionVB has obtained an order (.pdf) issued by the judge in MDY v. Blizzard requiring World of Warcraft creator Blizzard to respond to a brief critical of a key argument in its case against bot-maker MDY.

The argument under attack is Blizzard’s claim that software which loads World of Warcraft in a computer’s memory creates a copy, and thus violates Blizzard’s copyright. The brief Blizzard has been ordered to respond to was filed last month by Public Knowledge, a digital rights advocacy group. Though Public Knowledge’s brief was styled as an amicus curaie (“friend of the court”) brief in support of neither party, the brief focused exclusively on questions regarding Blizzard’s somewhat controversial copyright claim. Public Knowledge’s argument was amplified in MDY’s subsequent briefing.

For background, see VB’s complete coverage of MDY v. Blizzard.

The issue is essentially this: Blizzard claims that when third-party programs like MDY’s Glider (which automates certain World of Warcraft tasks) load World of Warcraft software into a computer’s RAM, that “creation of a copy” violates the copyright Blizzard holds in its software.

Public Knowledge argues “that Blizzard doesn’t have a claim on copyright grounds because the right of users to make the copy for use by the computer is already guaranteed by law. [...] Therefore, Blizzard cannot claim any infringement of its copyrights based upon the creation of RAM copies because the right to make those copies was never Blizzard’s to license in the first place.”

The brief appears to have caught the attention of the Court, which wrote:

Public Knowledge argues that WoW users are owners of the WoW software they purchased and therefore do not infringe copyright by using their software in a manner authorized by 17 U.S.C. § 117. MDY Industries and Michael Donnelly make the same argument in their reply brief. The Court will require Blizzard Entertainment and Vivendi Games to respond to this argument.

Oral argument on this motion is scheduled for June 26 in Phoenix.

Note: If any of VB’s Arizona law student or attorney readers would consider covering the argument June 26, I would very much like to run something. Drop me a note if you are in the Phoenix area, and could plan to attend and write a guest spot.

Email This Post Email This Post
Print This Post (Printer Friendly Formatting) Print This Post (Printer Friendly Formatting)


Related Posts on Virtually Blind

5 Responses to “MDY v. Blizzard Bot Suit Judge Requires Blizzard to Respond to Amicus Brief on Copyright Issues”

  1. on 20 Jun 2008 at 10:13 amAshcroft Burnham

    Welcome back, Ben :-) Thank you for covering this issue so thoroughly – it is an extremely important issue to cover for many purposes. My view, as you may know, is strongly aligned with that of Public Knowledge – I am very surprised that this issue was not authoritatively settled many years ago.

    I shall look forward to the developments!

  2. [...] Nachtrag mit neuem Link (2008-06-17): Virtually Blind: MDY v. Blizzard Bot Suit Judge Requires Blizzard to Respond to Amicus Brief on Copyright Issues [...]

  3. [...] for purposes of running it is explicitly allowed by copyright law. The judge required Blizzard to respond to the argument last Friday, and Virtually Blind has Blizzard’s [...]

  4. [...] for purposes of running it is explicitly allowed by copyright law. The judge required Blizzard to respond to the argument last Friday, and Virtually Blind has Blizzard’s response. The basic argument that Blizzard makes is [...]

  5. [...] Since I’m not a lawyer, I will refer any reader who wishes a deeper legal analysis of the issues to the postings made by Ross Dannenberg on The Patent Arcade and Benjamin Duranske on Virtually Blind. [...]

Leave a Reply

Notes on Comments: Your first comment must be manually approved, but after it is you'll be able to post freely with the same name and email. You can use some HTML (<a> <b> <i> <blockquote> etc.) but know that VB's spam blocker holds posts with five or more <a> links. VB supports gravatars. Got a gravatar? Use the associated email and it'll show with your comment. Need one? Set it up for free here.