They started doing the bans because the writers of the third party program were charging for their program. They want to have all their legal bases covered when it comes to making money off of their games.

Le sigh, Again.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/66360
Le sigh, Again.

Some $6000 was just about to exchange hands during the Starcraft 2 MLG finals in Dallas today... When Battle.net goes down.
This happened during the poorly ran tournament at Blizzcon this year too, It's getting pretty stupid. :roll:

Ryder also took the chance to say that Blizzard's 2007 merger with Activision hasn't changed the focus of the company or the quality of its games.

"We operate in pretty much the same way we always have. Since we have been working with Activision we continue to be who we are. We make the same decisions in the same way we always have, and the relationship with Activision hasn't changed that," he said.

"For example, we often talk about play nice and play fair, which has to do how we work with each other and our partners. Preserving that Blizzard culture is a key part of our ability to continue to deliver great games." source

Words are beginning to escape me at this point. Really, what more is there to say? Then I happened upon this quote and realized I don't need to say anything:

Blizzard Entertainment may soon renew its on-again, off-again relationship with gaming consoles. The company has posted a new job opening on its official site seeking a "Lead Designer, Console" to work on Diablo III.

The 9th Circuit ruled today on the case we're all so curious about. It's a rather long and complicated order, and it's one that will take some time to fully analyze.

From my initial unfrozen caveman lawyering I believe:

- Blizzard lost on the copyright claim, despite Vernor losing before us. I'm amazed at this, but I think it's great for the free market. The court pretty much says you can't use terms in a contract to force behavior under threat of copyright infringement. That is a huge loss for Blizzard.

- MDY lost on part of the DMCA claim regarding the "non-literal" elements of the game and Warden. The court didn't want to adopt the Federal Circuit's standard on circumvention + infringement. Ironically, we probably would have that claim if we sold out of Washington DC. Seems like something the highest court should iron out, given the differences in circuits...

- Tortious got sent back and should be a jury trial. Neither party won that one, other than our respective attorneys.

- The permanent injunction might be off for selling Glider... or it might just be for me to sell it if I wanted to without MDY Industries. It's confusing to me, but some smarter guys will figure it out. Bottom line: there's a slight chance Glider might go on sale again, but don't get your hopes up.

I'm sure there will be a lot of analysis on this from various legal blogs, so keep an eye on EFF and Public Knowledge and so forth.

As an aside, the court seemed much more sympathetic to me than the district court. They understood that Glider was not a violation of the EULA when I started selling and they took issue with Blizzard trying to use the contract as a weapon. Overall, it's pretty good - but the DMCA thing might be a loss.

What's next?
No idea. All the lawyers are gonna need time to parse this out and see what to do. Could be sit around and wait for district court, could be some way to settle, could be sell Glider again... when we start to do something, I'll post.

TL;DR
Seriously, read it.