World of Warcraft Guide Quashed, Lawsuit

'Warcraft' maker sued for blocking sales of unofficial guide (thanks Mike Martinez) has word on some legal action over an unauthorized strategy guide for World of Warcraft. Here are a couple of excerpts:
Filed Thursday in a California federal court, the complaint (click here for PDF) alleges that Blizzard Entertainment, its parent company Vivendi Universal, and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) were wrong to order eBay to terminate auctions of "The Ultimate World of Warcraft Leveling & Gold Guide," a book penned by 24-year-old Brian Kopp of Bronson, Fla.
...
Kopp filed counternotices protesting the infringement claims. Because the companies did not respond to the documents within 14 days, eBay was free under the DMCA to reinstate his auctions, which it did. But by November, eBay had accumulated enough takedown warnings from the companies to warrant suspending Kopp's account. He restarted his sales under a new username, which quickly earned suspension, too.
...
The suit seeks three major forms of relief: monetary compensation to cover, among other things, profits lost from the halted sales; an injunction preventing the entities from interfering with Kopp's book sales; and a judgment that his book is protected by the First Amendment and doesn't interfere with intellectual-property rights.
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Re: No subject
Mar 25, 2006, 14:41
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Re: No subject Mar 25, 2006, 14:41
Mar 25, 2006, 14:41
 
If the book encourages or explains how to do things that are against the user agreement or game rules or whatever, then I hope the kid gets crushed. If not I hope blizzard loses.

Either way the book is a scam.


It is not a scam.

Sure most if not all the information in this "book" are avaible free online.

But did you ever think not everyone wants to alt-tab to their browser or even a text file to look up something while they are playing WoW? Did you ever consider some of us would like to have it all in printed form complete with an index and such for quick listing? No need to alt tab or anything else.

Sure you yourself can even print it out, but not everyone has a printer, OR wants to waste a ton of paper/ink to print out the massive information that WoW contains. The book is a reasonable price considering production cost, it would be cheaper to buy it. Not to mention some people, like myself, would rather pay a few bucks and save myself hours apon hours of watching my printer clunk out 50+ (and thats a small estimate) pages of WoW information.

The only thing the guy has to worry about is if his guide, as you mention, is if he discusses exploits or cheats. I doubt he does so under DMCA and the First Amendment he is well within his rights to write this book and sell it.

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