SCII - Cease and Desist

[Monki 478]

As many of you may have noticed, many SCII hacks have been taken down. This due due Blizzard sending out cease and desist notices, heavy shit.

 

It recently has come to our attention that, via the website {SITE_NAME} , you are

engaged in the commercial, for-profit, development and distribution of Starcraft® hacks and/or

cheats, including the hack referred to as "{HACK_NAME}," that are used to modify and alter the gameplay and performance of our client's videogames, including "Starcraft II: Wings of

Liberty."

 

 

Your creation and distribution of the {HACK_NAME} (and/or any other Starcraft hacks or

cheats) is in blatant violation of Blizzard's rights under federal and state law, and constitutes

copyright infringement (including direct infringement, secondary infringement, and inducement

to commit copyright infringement) and commercial misappropriation. See, e.g., Midway

Manufacturing Co. v. Artic International, Inc., 704 F.2d 1009, 1013-1014 (7th Cir. 1983)

(copyright infringement via altering gameplay of arcade game); Micro Star v. Formgen, Inc., 154

F.3d 1107 (9th Cir. 1998) (sale of video game "mods" was copyright infringement). In addition,

you are engaged in the intentional interference of our client's contractual relationships with its

users, including express and implied agreements that prohibit the use of hacks and cheats such as

those offered for sale on your website. See MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment,

Inc., 2008 WL 2757357, *14-15 (D. Az. 2008).

 

 

Our client's intellectual property is extremely valuable, and Blizzard takes very seriously any

attempt to trade off or profit from the use of its intellectual property. More critically, as you must be aware, your distribution of the {HACK_NAME} causes serious injury to the value and integrity of our client's products, as well as impairs (if not destroys) the game experience forothers.

 

 

Accordingly, demand hereby is made that you (1) immediately cease and desist from any

further distribution or sale of the {HACK_NAME} (or any other hacks or cheats), whether on the

website {SITE_NAME}, or on any other website; (2) provide us with a full and complete

accounting of your profits in connection with the {HACK_NAME} for all Blizzard products,

including the total number of sales of the {HACK_NAME} and income generated therefrom, and

(3) confirm to us in writing that the {HACK_NAME} has been removed from the

{SITE_NAME} website and/or any other website, and that you will take measures to

ensure that no additional hacks for Blizzard products are sold (including but not limited to hacks

for the Starcraft® series of games). Please inform us in writing of your agreement to these

terms, as well as the requested information, on or before the close of business on Friday,

September 3, 2010.

 

 

Please be advised that while our client wishes to resolve this dispute amicably, Blizzard is

prepared to vigorously enforce its rights, including, if necessary, by filing a lawsuit and seeking

any and all available legal and equitable remedies, including injunctive relief, monetary damages

(including statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work infringed), and attorneys' fees.

 

 

Nothing contained in this letter is intended to, nor shall it constitute, a waiver or relinquishment

of any rights, claims, defenses, or causes of action possessed by Blizzard, all of which expressly

are reserved.

[Zander 85]

Lol owned

[Ruler of War 169]

I do believe freedom hack received one of these. (Keyword: believe. I cant say weather or not they did, because quite frankly im not sure. But it does make sense)

 

 

By the way who got this nice letter or email?

[Speedskater 167]

and have we gotten one yet?

[Suteki 114]

I guess I'll say it again; they got pimp smacked

[ziablo 0]

This looks like one of those BS letters you get from the ISP when you download a bugged torrent. They ask you to give up all the financials and proof that you did harm to their product so that they can PROSECUTE YOU. Otherwise they don't have proof of anything or even know who you are. They ask you to take blame for it, and I hope that no one did that.

 

I haven't checked the court cases they mentioned but they really seem to be hung up on the for-profit aspect. As far as I know, hacks such as Freedom Hack were completely free and didn't even offer a for-pay version?

[Speedskater 167]

Yeah i thought so to ziablo but who knows. and you are right freedom hack was free

[Zander 85]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102805-Blizzard-Squeezes-88-Million-From-Private-Server-Owner

[Monki 478]

This is real, and I am 99% sure FH did receive this, hence their abrupt shut down. If I am wrong, Nano feel free to correct. And I advise you to remove all SC2 hacks, Ghozt, I will leave that call up to you instead of doing so on my own accord.

[Ruler of War 169]

Well im quite sure that if GC gets the C&D letter... Ghozt will do............... Something

[Speedskater 167]

Or we can hide the "goods" >_>

[Ruler of War 169]

SHHHHHH don't say that the all mighty blizzard gods will know!!!

[Speedskater 167]

with the money they have... pretty much

[GhoztMan 219]

Or we could be like some warez sites and change our domain name every other day. LOL

[Speedskater 167]

Ha ha food for thought

[Zar 696]

I was told by my attorney that this is simply a scare tactic. He said blizzard can not claim any copyright infringement because of the open source code. Making a "hack" as a separate entity from the game is not considered copyright infringement. All the person has to do is say they are a security researcher and publishing the results of their work for other security researchers and that they are not providing binaries or hacks to exploit games, and in no way responsible with misuses of the source code.

 

FH shouldn't have shut down. They could have stood their ground through stipulation.

[XGhozt 410]

I'm not too worried guys, we have an agreement thing, and we're not selling any hacks or making any profit from having them in the downloads. I don't even have any ads on the site anymore. This site is for the community, and for fun and I've never made any real money off Gc.

[Magic Bitch 126]

thats what you say ghozt i have seen bank accounts >.> <.<

[Zander 85]

I'm not too worried guys, we have an agreement thing, and we're not selling any hacks or making any profit from having them in the downloads. I don't even have any ads on the site anymore. This site is for the community, and for fun and I've never made any real money off Gc.

Well VIP could technically be counted as revenue for hacks...

[n0.obAtroN 0]

I was told by my attorney that this is simply a scare tactic. He said blizzard can not claim any copyright infringement because of the open source code. Making a "hack" as a separate entity from the game is not considered copyright infringement. All the person has to do is say they are a security researcher and publishing the results of their work for other security researchers and that they are not providing binaries or hacks to exploit games, and in no way responsible with misuses of the source code.

 

FH shouldn't have shut down. They could have stood their ground through stipulation.

 

Your attorney obviously doesn't know much, did he graduate high-school? Stated in EVERY commercial EULA is something to the effect of: "Reverse engineering this product is prohibited in every way shape and form".

 

Creating hacks could easily be pursued in court as an "attempt to reverse engineer Sc2". Being the multi-million dollar monster that Blizzard is, they would have no issue getting a court order/subpoena, getting your real name from your ISP, and pursuing further legal action.

 

XGhozt: Out of all the members on this site, you are the most vulnerable. Blizzard does not have immediate access to the IP addresses of this site's members, but they do have access to this sites IP address. With a simple court-order/subpoena they would have your real name, and a lawsuit could easily appear shortly after.

 

Even if your contracts to the members of this site legally protect you from the fallout of these user(s) actions, is it really worth dragging it through the court-system, paying the up-front lawyer/court-costs, and dealing with the IMMENSE amount of stress?

 

To tell you from personal experience, both suing and being sued, it is NOT worth it. I have gotten court-orders and pursued legal action against people on the Internet before, and it works. Don't think that your immune to it, because your not.

 

It is my humble recommendation, as a veteran in this area of expertise, to not host Starcraft 2 hacks on Ghoztcraft.net.

 

Do note that none of my advice is not meant to replace that of an attorney's. Be sure to consult with an attorney for the best course of action.

[Mastric 77]

Thats why i'm here, one text from Toasty while he rides in the cop car and the site can no longer exsist :)

[Monki 478]

Do note that none of my advice is not meant to replace that of an attorney's. Be sure to consult with an attorney for the best course of action.

I chuckled at the very end. ^_^

[XGhozt 410]

Honestly, I don't plan on selling sc2 hacks, and there certainly aren't any in the VIP section. If Blizzard complains I'll just host the files somewhere else, save me the bandwidth anyway. Nothing says we can't have a website about gaming, regardless of it's form.

 

Thats why i'm here, one text from Toasty while he rides in the cop car and the site can no longer exsist :)

:friends:

[GhoztMan 219]

Mastric! I haven't seen you for a while. :P Y'know, it would be awesome if Ghoztcraft could host it's own SC2 server; although it would take time and dedication to figure out how to do it. I've heard of some people creating private servers, but that's what they are- private. :P

 

 

Silly Veeber. :P