MDY Industries V. Blizzard Entertainment
See also: MDY Indus. LLC v. Blizzard Entm't, Inc.Warden has been brought to light by Blizzard's lawsuit against MDY Industries, LLC., the creator of the gameplay automation software Glider (more popularly known as WoWGlider or MMOGlider). Blizzard has alleged in legal filings that Warden prevents players from creating unauthorized copies of the game client, which was previously an unknown function. Blizzard makes no mention of its known function of collecting data on open programs. Furthermore, it is actually referred to as "Warden," the first time Blizzard has confirmed its name.
Presiding Judge David Campbell ordered against MDY in July, carrying Blizzard’s infringement claims and that the third party program tortiously interfered with World of Warcraft's sales and impacted Blizzard's relationship in a negative fashion with their customers. The US district court awarded Blizzard $6.5 million in damages against MDY Industries, and have held its founder, Michael Donnelly, personally liable for the awarded money.
MDY appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments on 7 June 2010.
On 14 December 2010, the Ninth Circuit vacated the summary judgment with respect to the secondary infringement count and the DMCA circumvention count with respect to the static literal elements of content already present on the user's hard drive, but upheld the summary judgment on the DMCA circumvention count with respect to the dynamic nonliteral elements of content provided by the World of Warcraft servers. The summary judgment on the count of tortious contract interference was also vacated, but was remanded to the District Court for further consideration as a finder of fact.
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