Home Gaming Blizzard sues team behind StarCraft II hacks

Blizzard sues team behind StarCraft II hacks

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Wow, I think Mr. Kottick has issued Blizzard a new set of sharp teeth. That or all of the time spent developing scary looking Zerg units has finally made the developers twitchy and dangerous.

Last week it was reported that Blizzard had banned a whole lot of StarCraft II players for using illegal trainers to alter their games. Despite the fact that the trainers alter single-player gameplay elements, Blizzard maintains that they alter the online portions as well. Now, they’re suing three men who are responsible for developing some of these hacks and trainers, and while it isn’t clear as to whether or not this action is against the same people who developed the trainer from last week’s news, the action itself shows that Blizzard is done playing nicely.

According to the court application filed last week: “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’”.

Violation of the EULA and Terms of Use form the basis for the legal action, but Blizzard also highlights the fact that the men responsible made money from distributing the hacks and trainers to the public. What’s more, the long term damage caused by the illegal software has also been sited: “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.”

Blizzard has only referred to the three men responsible by their online names of “Cranix”, “Permaphrost” and “Linuxawesome”. A potential problem is that the three men do not live in the USA, and the application for legal action was filed in Los Angeles. Whether the court will have jurisdiction to pursue this further remains to be seen, but hopefully it will because these three deserve everything Blizzard wants to do to them. Everything.

Source: Gamespot

Last Updated: October 18, 2010

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