Blizzard Sues StarCraft II Hackers

[jomofro39]

I am happy this is occuring. Good Blizzard, keep the game clean, as it should be. Maybe Activision should have done something like this for MW2 and there would be a more reputable online ranking system, therefore increasing TRUE competitiveness, and therefore, fun. Thank the heavens that Black Ops is coming with dedicated servers (as limited as they truly are, though, better than nothing.).

 

[jskilnyk]

I think thats great. They should go after them considering they ruining the gaming experience for the rest of us.

 

[freename]

Blizz just isn't the company it used to be :/
Yeah, cheaters suck, but this seems a little extreme..

 

[noodlegts]

Guys... enough with the Activision hating...

Everyone's first reaction is to jump on the Activision sucks and they love nothing but money bandwagon, but in this particular case, Blizzard is right. If there is rampant cheating, people are less likely to buy the next StarCraft II title. Therefore, Blizzard is suing the people who created the hack because it is enabling cheating, and ruining the online experience for its customers who paid for the game.

If you've ever played against hackers, you'll know it SUCKS.

 

[seanma0314]

I frowned at the thought of them suing the makers but I didn't know they were profiting from it, that changes my view.

 

[jellico]

While I understand why Blizzard is doing this, I am very much against it. This is perversion of laws designed to protect a company's intellectual property from outright piracy, thus depriving them of the right to profit from their IP. If you want to start talking about crap like loading it into memory without their blessing for purposes other than what they originally intended, then I think we have to look at an article that came out on G4.com yesterday talking about all of the features that have been incorporated into WoW that are based on the work of add-on creators and even other MMORPGs. I think if Blizzard is succesful in this suit, they might set a dangerous precedent which will eventually come back to bite them in the arse.

 

[jalek]

There is no offline when you're required to be connected. It's Ubisoft DRM taken to a new level.

That said, if these guys were actually reselling cheats, they should've seen it coming.

 

[igot1forya]

This is why I LAN... but Blizzard wont let me even let me do that w

 

[RogueLegend]

To those of you defending the hackers- the hackers had to agree to the terms of the game in order to play it. Once you consent not to ruin the fun for others, you should stick to it.

Updates are one way to protect the game. Terms of service are another. Banning users who exploit them is another. Lawsuits are yet a fourth means of protection for the game.

In this case, I blame the hackers for being stupid enough to agree to Blizzard's terms, give them their info, and then hack the game. If they were that dumb, then they deserve to get sued.

 

[stevelord]

Make an example of them.

 

[OvrClkr]

Hopefully one day there will be a solution to this, people deserve a clean/fair experience.. the hacking just degrades the game in so many ways, basically steers people away from playing just like MW2 where if I can recall correctly there were more than 2 million users playing online on a daily basis.. Now its down to 20,000 users which IMHO is an absolute fail.

I don't really see the point, you lose your skill, you get noticed immediately, and you basically tarnish your rep. Whats the point of swapping IP's every time you get caught, waste of time/money IMO.

 

[onichikun]

[citation][nom]curiousgeorgieo[/nom]They should have hired them.[/citation]
Why? Reverse engineering a game and developing trainers does not require any special abilities, it just takes practice and a different set of skills that would not be well suited at game development. There are also a few companies out there that can assist Blizzard better with security than a few developers who made hacks.

Blizzard is making the right move suing them. I hope they succeed.

Developing hacks/trainers for personal use in order to test your abilities is one thing, but doing it and then distributing/selling it is another.

 

[dormantreign]

Blizzard better watch it, if they were selling hacks then i'm okay with the law suit, but if they were giving it away and they got suit i would request battle.net get ddos'd. I know that wouldn't cause loss of profit haha.

 

[Warsaw]

Very extreme IMO. Not sure if I like the way Activision (Blizzard's REAL backing) does business. Well, I already know I don't like the way they do business but this certainly does butter up the bread. It's really hard for me to imagine buying another Activision product in the future.

And for you would-be-sayers of the point of view that they mess the whole system up you forget a few things. SC2 from the BEGINNING was this stupid (again, IMO) automatic login to the "community". I'm sure I'm not the only one who cared less about this feature. I don't believe you should automatically be logged in to this sort of feature. What if some people just want to hack and cheat on single player (which some did and got banned), you take away something that the PC market is supposed to have the freedom to do so. Blizzard, YOU chose to have the game this way (or Activision, whoever made the decision).

And yes, I do realize that saying these things will put me in the light as one of these hackers when that is false. I have had a bit o' fun hacking for a small amount back during SC1, when it was a LAN game with some buddies, or if others were doing the same online. Though I have not hacked in quite some time, possibly years.

I am basing my opinion on morals alone and how I feel in that we lose control over our media more and more as time passes. If I buy a product there should be less restrictions and more to cater to the person who bought the game.

 

[hellwig]

I'm not defending the hackers if they violated any laws. At the same time, its Blizzard/Activision's fault for tying the game into their stupid Battle.net system.

Believe it or not, I've have NEVER played a Blizzard game over Battle.Net regularly (I played an open DiabloII game for like 15 minutes once, lost a bunch of ears). I don't give a rats ass about my ranking or anyone else's. I just want to be able to play the game at a leisurely pace, and sometimes that means cheating.

I even wrote my own local-character hacker for Diablo II, it would only up stats and grant skills, and un-kill Hardcore characters. I was never able to create items. Point is, it was a fun exercise in hex-editing and programming, plus the ability to one-hit kill almost every MOB was cool too. I'd hate to think Blizzard would sue me if I could even try to do the same on Diablo III (for Starcraft, the in-game cheats were sufficient for my needs, and I assume Starcraft II has similar cheats?). But then again, with the mandatory tie-in to Battle.Net, I haven't even bothered buying Starcraft II and probably won't buy Diablo III.

 

[screechy]

Waaa Waaa waa is all I hear. A ban is good enough. Unless they were selling a large quality of mods, quit bitching blizzard. Maybe offer them a job instead of sueing them

 

[Gin Fushicho]

For profit? Idiots, I'm glad they are being sued.

 

[newbie_mcnoob]

I question how much jurisdiction the Los Angeles US District Court has in Canada or Peru.

 

[brett1042002]

[citation][nom]SteveLord[/nom]Make an example of them.[/citation]

^ This. Cheaters suck. gtfo.

 

[jerreece]

I have to agree with Blizzard on this one. "Companies" who make "software" as an addon for Blizzard's property, and then make money for profit off of it should be sued. It's the very premise behind copyright infringement. It's not like these "cheats" work on all games, they are designed for use specifically with Blizzard's software.

 

[LORD_ORION]

I sort of approve, these are not regular hacks, they are doing it for a profit. They should not be profiting to degrade the service for legitimate license holders.

But, knowing how clueless the baby boomers in charge are, the penalty will probably not fix the crime.

 

[random_guy417]

So if I make a controller with a rapid fire mode and sell them, should game companies sue me because others might be using it?

Some people hack for fun against willing players. I know there are CS servers where everyone on them is using hacks and they're open about it. They do it for fun.

Ban the people using them in anonymous games, but that's it.

Blizzard is suing the people that cracked their game and distributed it. This is against their EULA and is copyright infringement. They have every right to sue. However, I do agree that a ban should be enough. I hate Activision as much as everyone else, and they're getting pretty close to RIAA-hatred levels.

The people that download games, movies, music, etc have no intention of buying it, at least not without trying it first (although most just have no intention of buying it). I know I download a game if there is no demo before I waste $50-60 on something that may be complete crap. If it is a good game, I buy it. If not, I get rid of it. If game companies want to keep me from pirating their games, all they have to do is make sure they release a demo for them. If they want me to actually buy a game, they should make it damn good.

 

[Senor Snarf]

[citation][nom]COLGeek[/nom]Break the rules, pay the price. Not a problem. Next.[/citation]
Perhaps this would be more fair if the rules stated that the penalty for breaking them was getting sued and charged with idiotic claims such as "inducing players to infringe copyright by loading copyrighted content into the system RAM" by a corporation that has infinitely more money than you and all your friends combined.
Either way, don't try to bull**** us into believing that you've never committed copyright infringement or broken an end-user license agreement. We know you have, and we know you would **** bricks if you were sued for it.

 

[p3t3or]

I love this! Finally someone is doing something about people who destroy online games. I do not play FPSers anymore because of the rampant hacking.

 

[kelemvor4]

[citation][nom]jerreece[/nom]I have to agree with Blizzard on this one. "Companies" who make "software" as an addon for Blizzard's property, and then make money for profit off of it should be sued. It's the very premise behind copyright infringement. It's not like these "cheats" work on all games, they are designed for use specifically with Blizzard's software.[/citation]
These guys weren't selling blizzard's IP, they were selling their own original code (I assume) and thus are entitled to make money selling it if they so choose.

These laws aren't in place to prevent this, they're in place to prevent folks from selling other people's copyrighted works as their own.

In other news, Honda is planning to sue Larry's muffler shop for selling add on mufflers for the accord sedan... The whole premise of this lawsuit is ridiculous.