A post called Important Diablo II Character Information on the Diablo II Realms offers details on a plan by which Hardcore Diablo II characters that died between December 19 and January 1 will be revived to compensate for a bug (since corrected) that possibly contributed to their demise. Thanks DiabloII.Net. It's not clear from the Battle.Net post, but it seems apparent that this is related to this story on Slashdot called "Diablo2 Apocalypse Now" that indicates this was the result of crackers gaining access to accounts and "murdering" characters, among other things.