Blizzard Squeezes $88 Million From Private Server Owner

[Frankster]

snip

snippy

I'm curious as to what she would say :O I'm basing my post on what i read from others (i.e: the sum being passed on to relatives), would be good to know the actual truth behind the matter.

 

[i did it 4 the lulz]

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.

can you explain to me why she should file for bankruptcy? The law isent my strong side.

 

[Tamawam]

Blizzard loses a lot of respect on my side, even if they are in the right.

By crushing someone so totally, not only are they likely going to make a hardened and desperate criminal (with 80+million debt, is there any way out beyond a life of crime and taking advantage of state benefits?).

What really irks me is that the debt will be passed to her kids or parents.
Now, i'm all for controlling who gets to have kids (not as harsh as it sounds: im just a firm believer that if you're gonna have kids you better be damn sure you'd be a decent parent rather then getting a kid for your own sake) but passing that sentence onto the fammily... It's not just punishing the guilty but the family of the guilty and that is just wrong. Imagine YOU get a share of this sentence because of some retarded family member, would any of you still feel it was a just decision?

First, like I said earlier, the Blizzard people are pretty smart, and I doubt that they really think one woman is going to cough up $88 million dollars. And frankly, it's just silly to think they would.

Second, in re: death-- well, you're right, that would be a horrible scenario... except that it doesn't work that way, at least in America, and I'm pretty sure that Blizzard has to abide by the laws in effect in the jurisdiction where they have their headquarters. So when she dies, her estate is responsible for paying off any debts. If there isn't enough money, the creditors are shit out of luck usually, unless they can find someone else they can legally associate with the original debt. So unless she was employing her children to help her in her private server, they aren't going to be carrying any additional financial burden.

Now, stipulated, it may be different in England (of which she is a citizen? Yes? No?), but again, I think that Blizzard would legally have to treat this like she was living here. Hm. I think I'll ask my sister the lawyer.

Her husband used to work for a short period of time as a donation game master, a person who would help give player their proper gear once they've donated, they were volunteer workers though so

 

[solidstatemind]

But they've ruined this person's entire life.
A lotta people involved in Enron didn't get it this harsh.

I don't know, I find it hard to sympathize. They knowingly performed illegal activities... They took the risk, they lost.

You steral from a bank, you get tossed in jail, you can't make money until you're let out and then you possibly can't find a job... Your life is ruined. Same thing

I think my, "A lotta people involved in Enron didn't get it this harsh" still stands.
And Jail isn't supposed to be about punishment, its supposed to be about reform.

I agree that the fact that the biggest crooks in Enron got away with it is bullshit, but I don't think you can penalize Blizzard for Texas's mistake. You gotta fix that problem rather than use it to justify boning over somebody else.

Secondly, incarceration being about reform or punishment is still a very hotly debated topic. However, that said, I will point out that it's called the Penal System, and 'penal' is defined as "of or relating to punishment."

Oh, and for those interested in how fucked up Enron really was, check this video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaDelhvtQ98] out. It's a little dated since McCain didn't win the presidential election, but still interesting.

 

[YouBecame]

Sucks to be her.

Self inflicted though.

 

[Rhiehn]

If they just charged a few million, then she could keep the rest of her profits and continue. She owed at least enough money to make her bankrupt, and after that, the number is arbitrary and irrelevant, and blizzard knew this. This isn't even really unreasonable either, suing for exponentially higher than someones profit with extreme forms of piracy such as this is relatively normal. Blizzard wasn't greedy, she was, she ignored several C&Ds, and made a company around the server, if Nintendo or some other large company did this and Blizzard sued for the same amount, no one would have any problems with it.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

But they've ruined this person's entire life.
A lotta people involved in Enron didn't get it this harsh.

I don't know, I find it hard to sympathize. They knowingly performed illegal activities... They took the risk, they lost.

You steral from a bank, you get tossed in jail, you can't make money until you're let out and then you possibly can't find a job... Your life is ruined. Same thing

I think my, "A lotta people involved in Enron didn't get it this harsh" still stands.
And Jail isn't supposed to be about punishment, its supposed to be about reform.

Perhaps, but it does a better job of punishing than it does of reforming. How many people exit jail with no life but the life of crime they went into? I'll admit the poor reform is due to the punishment, but the punishment is there all the same.

As people have said, it's almost impossible for Blizzard to collect on this, it was about sending the message out there saying "Don't fuck with OUR system" but in the end, someone must be punihsed to send this kind of message out

 

[Traun]

Why do people feel angry at Blizz? Seriously? She made money off of their product.

And to think Blizzard have stolen everything they're known for from Games Workshop. Maybe GW can file for a cut of that dough? It seems to be your reasoning, no?

I like how much ignorance you can show in one post for both Games Workshop and Blizzard entertainment.

 

[DancePuppets]

Why do people feel angry at Blizz? Seriously? She made money off of their product.

And to think Blizzard have stolen everything they're known for from Games Workshop. Maybe GW can file for a cut of that dough? It seems to be your reasoning, no?

I like how much ignorance you can show in one post for both Games Workshop and Blizzard entertainment.

As far as I understand it, virtually all of western fantasy these days has a load of Tolkeinesque stuff, maybe his estate should sue! *rollseyes*

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I wonder if they teabagged her afterwards and said "I'm the Blizzernaught, *****"

Well, that is a SOUL destroying amount, but what she was doing by taking Microtransactions amounts to criminal fraud and direct theft from Blizzard. They tend to leave alone FREE private servers, but here this woman was infringing on their rights by taking money IN THEIR NAME for THEIR PRODUCT without any ownership of it.

There is more, I am sure, we're not hearing about.

 

[Dzil]

That's a lot of moolah. For reference sake, I think the govt gives you like 100,000 dollars if you die in a war. I could be off.

 

[Chaossebba]

Nothing to say but this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYuA2KD7jpA&feature=related

 

[jp201]

This is totally justified, he says.

Then he downloads 4 songs and gets fined 2 million, and suddenly its totally not justified.


People, she ran a private WoW server. Fine, she made profit of it. But still. There are so many people and so many companys making a lot of money exploiting and enslaving others, and they dont get fined, no, we are even encouraged to buy there products. There is something really fucked up about this.

so we should just let everyone get away with everything instead of prosecuting who we can?

also tell me about the exploiting and enslaving blizzard has done? Excluding the gnome race enslavement, we all know they deserve it.

 

[Ekonk]

Wow, that's fucking evil, Blizzard. It's just a game, guys. Charging someone for that amount of money is NOT a game!

 

[chronobreak]

They aren't going to get the money. Ever. So what kind of precedent did it set, realistically? I mean, the people that run these servers must know what they are doing isn't kosher. If they would have fined her $10,000 or so, that may be a deterrant, but fining people ridiculous sums that they know full well they will never see? It seems to be counter-productive.

 

[thahat]

Overkill

i cant help but imagine a spaceship with 'blizzard' written on the side firing its plannet killer gauss gun at a small smugglers vessle right now because of what you said, lol XD
i shouls stop playing sins of a solar empire this much xD

 

[Matt Kloepfer]

Must be so hard to deal with that kind of debt. Blizzard may have been a tad harsh with the suit, but it certainly made it's point.

 

[xDarc]

It says she made 3 million dollars in profits. Time to move to another country and retire. She doesn't have to pay Blizzard back, she just can't expect to live in the US anymore.

 

[McShizzle]

Off Topic:

Oh, and for those interested in how fucked up Enron really was, check this video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaDelhvtQ98] out. It's a little dated since McCain didn't win the presidential election, but still interesting.

That's scary. Glad I don't live in the States. I don't know all the ins and outs but I'm fairly certain lobbies don't have nearly that kind of power here (Canada). Heck, the current Conservative government (surprisingly) seems to be putting through regulation to provide for greater transparency in lobbying.