Arizona judger David G. Campbell has ruled ruled that popular World of Warcraft bot Glider qualified as a “circumvention device” under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), potentially setting a legal precedent that could enable software companies to pursue copyright infringement cases against individuals who violate terms of service or end-user license agreements.
In the decision, judge Campbell found that Glider constituted a “circumvention device” under the DMCA because it deliberately worked around a “warden” mechanism Blizzard employs in World of Warcraft to look for (and shut down) bots like Glider. Glider is not used to extract copyrighted material from Blizzard’s World of Warcraft universe; rather, it enables users to automate highly repetitive actions within the game so their characters can advance. Glider users are still purchasing copies of the World of Warcraft software and paying a standard subscription fee to access the game. MDY industries, the company that makes Glider, argued that the in-game experience, if it’s copyrightable at all, would be a joint creation of Blizzard and the player, since the response of the game depends on user actions. Judge Campbell rejected the argument, and also found MDY founder Michael Donnelly, NDY’s founder and author of Glider, can be held personally responsible for copyright infringement activities of his company.
Although industry watchers expect the decision will be appealed, if the ruling is upheld it could mark a fundamental shift in the penalties for violating software license agreements. Violating a license could become copyright infringement, and distributing tools that enable users to violate licenses would become an act of secondary copyright infringement…which carries much harsher penalties than those permitted under contract law.
