Blizzard Squeezes $88 Million From Private Server Owner

[TerranReaper]

Are the same people that see this as corporate greed the same people that are against piracy and all that stuff? If you are, then you're basically a hypocrite. In any case, the number is fairly harsh, but the person knew the consequences of hosting a private server and charging money for it. It's basically a business move, and I don't think you people would like it if you were a business and someone else was making money for what you've made.

 

[Fappy]

I'd move to Ireland or something. They'd never find me there!

 

[Agayek]

How is this irrelevent? she was illegaling making profit from copyrighted material, she wasnt running a server for some friends she was doing it for profit.

It is fiscally irrelevant. Whatever profits she took from Blizzard were, most likely, less than what they would lose if one of their accountants made a rounding error. The vast majority of players on private servers are never going to pay full price for the game, that's the point of private servers.

What she was doing was illegal, and she should have been punished, but a $90 million debt is well past the point of "punishment befitting the crime". Unless she declares outright bankruptcy, she'll be in debt for the rest of her life, and for a goodly portion of the life of whoever inherits the debt. And if she does declare bankruptcy, she won't be able to own literally anything beyond food and clothes for years.

I have absolutely no problem with her being sued, but a $90,000,000 fine for the extremely small revenue loss is absolutely ludicrous.

Edit for clarity's sake:
It's my understanding from the newspost that she made approximately $3,000,000 in revenue through the private server company. As such, I feel it would be appropriate for the final settlement to be $6,000,000 plus legal fees. That is, she pays Blizzard all the revenue she made, plus an equal amount out of pocket. It is still an exorbitant amount for a private citizen to owe, and still sends a strong message, but it won't completely decimate this woman and her family for generations.

 

[Nexus Arc]

In some weird way this is worse than getting caught for marijuana, meth, kokane, moonshine, and other illegal substances all at once at least you get out of jail and have a chance to redeem yourself, or at least get back to a decent status qou. With this she could work all her life and she will still be in debt can't even afford food... HaHA!!

 

[SinisterGehe]

they already have enough money to buy saturn and all of its moons why did they do it

B's she broke the law and made profit with product she did¨'t own.
If you make a game, and I buy copy of it and start making money with it with out asking you for permission. Would you be ok?

 

[SinisterGehe]

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.

If she would been sentenced to pay back just that 3million she would still be ruined.

 

[Christopher Waldron]

Wow, ruin a woman's life over something that probably could have been stopped with a cease and desist letter? Bravo Blizzard, hope you're proud.

 

[Mordreich]

I have a whole new respect for Blizz, they seem to have a full understanding of "Doing it right the first time".

 

[Rewold]

The huge fine is because they want to scare other private server owners to stop their business. Same goes for piracy.

 

[Jared]

Oh wow o.o talk about bringing down the hammer...that is...huge

 

[Littlee300]

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.

To be fair blizzard did warn many private servers, including her with a cease desist. When the big dog is eying you it is time to back off. This would be totally unfair if there wasn't a micro-transaction on her server. Well extreme times call for extreme measures and as someone earlier said, totally fall off the radar then assume a new name and go to a homeless shelter far away or just file bankrupt, whatever suits her purpose

 

[Littlee300]

Wow, ruin a woman's life over something that probably could have been stopped with a cease and desist letter? Bravo Blizzard, hope you're proud.

Where is that god damn source... Well they did send cease and desist to her as people have already said in this forum.
*sigh*

 

[Loonerinoes]

Suuuuuuuure Blizzard will do that to everyone. It'll manage to find every damn private server in the world on the interwebs with their leet spies which are *EVERYWHERE* /end sarcasm.

The reason why it went after this one was because it was a) Big enough to get noticed and b) because it used a monetary system to make profits off of a creation of Blizzard and hence that irked them.

You can have your cautionary tales all you want I think, but in the end they're no more true than saying that piracy will land you in jail and it being true only for the mass dedicated releasers. And even then possibly only if they're confirmed as having enough cash to fork over from the ensuing legal action and only if they're being stupid about it, like doing so from a public computer.

 

[fozzy360]

I can't believe what I just read. I knew about blizzard's greed soon after buying WoW Vanilla, and ever since then my awareness of it has only increased, as they land blow after blow of decisions motivated by pure greed, and not quality. But this...

No. This cannot be described as "overkill". Blizzard has gotten fat. And with all animals (and believe me, this puts them in the "animal" category), you slaughter them when they get fat. I think people around the world should boycott blizzard and their products, just bring their income to a crashing halt to teach them about HUMILITY. They just DESTROYED this woman's life over what? Money? A freaking video game? I hope the man in charge gets a terminal illness and dies a slow, painful death. There are boundaries we all must have, and the one who initiated this surely didn't have any.

I pray for this woman. I hope the cycle of greed ends soon.

Yeah, screw Blizzard for trying to protect their IP. They should be burned at the stake for trying to send a message to dissuade others from infringing on their copyright, because no one else would do this, right?

/sarcasm

Really, the corporate hate wagon is getting a little out of control here. Was the fine a bit excessive? One could argue that, but no one can argue that Blizzard was acting to protect their own creation from others trying to make a profit off of it. What person or persons or corporation wouldn't act to protect their property? Warnings were sent but ignored. What did they think would happen? That Blizzard would roll over and forget about the whole thing? This wasn't some fan-made homage. It was a private server, which by its very nature is illegal. I understand the cool thing nowadays is to hate on the corporations, which, sometimes, is warranted. However, I don't think that can apply here.

. And all of you who are sticking up for blizzard should join them in some terminal illness. You just forfeited your right to be called human beings.

Please leave your "rational person" card at the front desk on your way out, please.

 

[Exocet]

I seriously don't understand these ridiculous fines and lawsuit charges.How the fuck can anyone without a big company or huge family wealth afford to pay for a such fine?

And what do they do when the check you write bounces at Blizzard's happily chosen bank?

 

[ImprovizoR]

Human greed has no boundaries. Fuck Blizzard and fuck their games. I'm even more glad now that I didn't buy SC2. And everyone with a soul should close their WoW account immediately and let them go bankrupt. I know what she did was illegal but they could have sent a letter of warning first, this was unnecessary.

I pray for this woman. I hope the cycle of greed ends soon.

How about those 88mil instead of praying? Cause praying's not gonna help one bit so you might as well give up on that.

 

[Asehujiko]

Looks like Actishit learned to avoid bad press by ruining people's lives under the name of one of their slave developers.

And from the looks of it, it's working.