Blizzard Squeezes $88 Million From Private Server Owner

[oranger]

Wow, why not just bring back crucifixion while we're at it? that debt is impossible, so if she doesn't want to file for bankruptcy, (and thus rent an apartment, own a house/car, have kids etc..)she will never, EVER have a wage above the minimum.
Copyright infringement may be punishable by law, but wtf is this? this is cruel, and destroyed her life for next to nothing.
Other than that, appeals are gonna keep that debt away for damn near ever, as it should be.

 

[Banana Phone Man]

Well I know that Bilzzard are not going to be getting that kind of money. SUre they will make back what they lost and possibly extra but not 88 million which means that they aren't in this to make more money. However that is one hell of a shcok tactic to put of others from doing what this person did. When I first read it I thought to myself "holy f*****g s**t" which can only mean that it worked.

 

[Zayren]

Nononon.
No.

The fees for this kid of stuff is just stupid and TOTALLY disproportionate. If she stole a mansion it'd cost faaaaaar less. It pisses me off so much seeing stupid shit like this. If I was Blizzard, I'd just be like, "Fuck the court, give us $1000 and we'll be fine."

 

[oranger]

Double post

You know, blizz wouldn't get a dime from ME had I done that. Its actually pretty easy to make money disappear. Even 3 million dollars.
File for bankruptcy...go to Canada...buy a house for cash...rent said house for cash...geez, why is this chick still around?

 

[tk1989]

It will be appealed; charges will be lowered greatly. Thats pretty much always what happens in these cases

 

[MattRooney06]

0__O Holy balls. As though they needed the money...why did they have to be dicks? What happened to "stop doing that right now or we'll take all your money. And then some"

No word of warning?

i guess this was the setting an example lawsuit, i recon this will be the case they point out to others when they threten to press charges

 

[jacx]

i just want every one to know that paton (allison reeves) was a thief..she stole donations made by players to pay for gear that were supposed to pay for server updates and hardware and software updates... do want to know what she did with it...she bought a tredmill...yes a tredmill... she absolutley ruined the server and killed the fun that was scape... i hope blizz gets all thier money outta her (and this si the first and last time i will hope blizz gets any kind of extra money)

 

[NoseDigger]

Shows an example to the rest. Sucks for her though.

 

[Chronarch]

$88 million is way overkill. That person's future looks pretty bleak right now.

 

[black-magic]

The company deserved every penny of it's losses.

This doesn't even fall into the realms of poor defense "i'm just doing it because it's not available in X place" or "I'm not doing it for profit" this was a for profit company utilizing another company's billion dollar game, good riddance, Scapegaming.

 

[JordanMillward_1]

Damn, that girl not only has some balls to be trying to profit off a private server, but is thick as pig shit too.

She deserves everything that comes to her. I hope she's made to live in a box for the rest of her life. Hopefully that'll teach people not to steal from someone and flaunt it in their face by using your real name, etc, in the process.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Seeking to shut the server down and protect their financial assets from others "stealing" money from their IP? Fine. Ruining someone's entire financial future and even life so that they may as well start living on the street or kill themselves now? Not fine, that's just a dick move, and sounds exactly like the sort of thing that stems from having someone with the mentality of Kotick as your CEO.

this. i can undertand shutting it down and giving her a small fine or somehow make her reimburse the company through work or something, but they just literally ruined her life, if i were her, either A) get off the map asap, or B) kill myself.

that is a ridiculous amount

 

[Gruchul]

The thing is, it's a product they're selling- once they have sold it it is no longer theirs- it is the property of the person who bought it. Would you be happy if someone sold you a house and then told you you were only allowed to use "x brand" furnature in it to make it hospitable? and that you would be prosecuted if you bought the cheaper "y brand"

You didn't read the terms and conditions did you? How about the box which clearly states there's a monthly toll to be paid? Your analogy doesn't work because it suggests withheld information which may have prevented you from buying the product in the first place.

OT: I think it may be impossible for me to feel sorry for someone who ripped someone else off to the tune of $3million. You get larger punishments for stealing more stuff. Makes sense to me anyway!

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Hurts the pocket book I expect... But it does send a message, and I'm pretty sure thats what the size of the judgement is about. Not necessarily whether it gets paid or not. It solidifies the copyright material argument, and leaves no room for people to make money off of other people's product without a heavy price to be exacted.
I don't have a problem with this, and I wonder if people would be against it if Blizz wasn't owned by Activision and had nothing to do with Kotik.
And if I were an owner of Blizzard I personally would have dropped the heavy end of the hammer myself. So much money goes into development of that game and for someone else to profit off of that hard work without having to gain permission/pay due is a gross insult. And while I know how hard it is to run a private server, it doesn't translate as being your own work no matter how much you try to change the game, you still didn't code it.

 

[JordanMillward_1]

The thing is, it's a product they're selling- once they have sold it it is no longer theirs- it is the property of the person who bought it. Would you be happy if someone sold you a house and then told you you were only allowed to use "x brand" furnature in it to make it hospitable? and that you would be prosecuted if you bought the cheaper "y brand"

You didn't read the terms and conditions did you? How about the box which clearly states there's a monthly toll to be paid? Your analogy doesn't work because it suggests withheld information which may have prevented you from buying the product in the first place.

Hell, it doesn't even work with normal games, and certainly not with MMOs. Almost all games are still owned by the company who made them, and you only own a licence to use the game. That's all in the terms and conditions you agree to when you tick the box and install the game, and it's entirely legal for the company to do.

So yea, when it comes to computer games/programs, your "house" analogy is entirely 100% incorrect. You should probably read the legal contract (terms and conditions) you are agreeing too next time kerkanka, because a court won't accept that as an excuse if you said that to them.

 

[Dexiro]

These lawsuits always seem unnecessarily harsh. I'd be devastated if i was told to pay something much smaller like $10,000. I can't imagine what having to pay 88 million must feel like, do most people even earn that much in their life time?

 

[geldonyetich]

You'd be surprised how many idiots seem to think they can throw up a server emulator or fan game and charge for it without the owner of the IP coming along and laying down a legal smackdown.

 

[Slayer_2]

That much over a video-game? Society is fucked up.

 

[Rayansaki]

Well that's enough for them to pay off Starcraft 2!

 

[lacktheknack]

0__O Holy balls. As though they needed the money...why did they have to be dicks? What happened to "stop doing that right now or we'll take all your money. And then some"

No word of warning?

I guarantee they warned her... not that they need to. What she was doing was ILLEGAL.

I mean, really, what did she expect was going to happen?