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Comic for: April 11th, 2007
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World of Warcraft: "Banning Computers"
Posted: Wednesday April 11th, 2007 by

An anonymous writer at Slashdot has submitted an article discussing the legal tussle between Blizzard and MDY Industries over WoWGlider a program that plays WoW for you. The writer summons forth an interpretation of the legal filing that reads as follows: "Apparently accessing the copy of the game client in RAM using another program infringes upon their rights. Under that logic, users do not even have the right to use anti-virus software in the event that the game becomes infected." The author also calls into question Blizzard's Warden program that scans users computers and sends data back to Blizzard.
Source: Slashdot [ more info ]

From my perspective, that's a ridiculous leap in "logic" but makes for good political commentary on the issue. Reading the legal document (linked in the source article) shows no real room for that kind of interpretation with connecting dots that have no business being connected.

Blizzard, in my opinion at least, has every right to try to put the kibosh on a 3rd party piece of software that basically allows jackasses to screw with server economy and make repetitive tasks such as mining virtually impossible because some bot will always get there before you. Now, I personally hate their Warden program. My data on my computer is mine, they have no right to look at it. So, it's hard for me to decide which is the lesser of two evils: 3rd party asshat programs, or corporate anti-hack programs.

And before you jump to conclusions about the reasons for the comic, I'll tell you the purpose... sometimes posting the unbelievable/questionable will draw more attention to the real issue than the real issue will itself. And, I'm okay taking flak if it means you guys actually go out and read about the situation. Like I've said many times before "that's part of my job".
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Today's Pimpage: Valued Customer is wearing a WoW Alliance shirt from the Blizzard Store.

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