Author: Robert Lopez
MDY filed a claim for declaratory judgment that its program, Glider, did not infringe rights owned by Blizzard. Blizzard Entertainment counterclaimed, alleging two violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Blizzard also attempted to hold Michael Donnelly, the president of MDY, vicariously liable for tortuous interference and copyright infringement, previously decided at summary judgment. Glider is ‘bot’ software that can play Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (WoW) for users. Blizzard claimed that MDY violated §1201(a)(2) and §1201(b)(1) of the DMCA by trafficking in a technology designed to circumvent protective countermeasures in WoW’s code designed to protect copyrighted material. Previously at summary judgment the court held that this DMCA protection did not apply to the literal game code. The court extended this logic, holding that the protection also did not apply to non-literal elements of the game, like graphics and sound, because the user could freely access these elements. Instead the court noted that Glider circumvented a countermeasure protecting the dynamic game play experiences which even when merely ‘choreographed’ by the server, is protected by copyright.
Published in Wednesday, March 11, 2009, Volume 6, No. 4