Statement from Blizzard Entertainment to the BlizzHackers Community
As many of you are aware, Blizzard Entertainment? strongly opposes the development of unauthorized emulation servers designed to facilitate the use of pirated versions of Blizzard's copyrighted World of Warcraft� game client. In accordance with this position, we have taken action to halt the development of such servers, and will continue to do so as needed.
While we appreciate the devotion and enthusiasm that many of the visitors to BlizzHackers and similar websites have for World of Warcraft�, we have consistently maintained that the development of World of Warcraft� emulation servers is unlawful, both under U.S. and international law, because such server development breaches our EULA and Terms of Use, circumvents our copyright protections, and facilitates the infringement of our copyrighted game.
Some individuals have expressed their belief that the development of emulation servers designed to interact with World of Warcraft� does not hurt Blizzard. This is simply not true. We have invested massive amounts of time, creativity, energy, and money in building a world-class gaming environment. The development and hosting of World of Warcraft� emulation servers undermines the value of our investment, endangers our ability to maintain our current games, and hampers our ability to continue developing future games. Beyond being unlawful, such conduct harms not only Blizzard, but also those who enjoy Blizzard games.
Others have suggested that Blizzard is attempting to stop any server development, including open-source development projects. To be clear, we are merely striving to enforce our intellectual property rights and stop the development of World of Warcraft� emulation servers. Blizzard has no objection to open-source development of MMORPGs generally and recognizes that there are many such projects ongoing. We are not attempting to stop coders from working together to develop their own games. We must, however, object to the development of servers that allow the use of pirated game clients and prevent Blizzard from realizing the fruits of years of intense development. If members of this community are truly interested simply in writing code to see how the process works, then we strongly feel that they are free to do so by developing their own original game, but not by creating servers that rely on infringing our copyrighted material.
In connection with our ongoing efforts to protect World of Warcraft�, we have contacted a number of individuals with significant involvement in World of Warcraft� emulation-server development, and most of them have agreed to cease further activity. Blizzard asks that those of you who are continuing to host or work on development of unauthorized World of Warcraft� emulation servers take this opportunity to voluntarily stop these efforts and delete all related code. We fully intend to protect our rights and will continue contacting those who do not voluntarily cease their activities.
If you are voluntarily ceasing further involvement with World of Warcraft� emulation-server development or related infringements, please advise Blizzard by sending an email to
[email protected]. Thank you in advance for your understanding and for your compliance with our request to cease contribution to any World of Warcraft� server-emulation project.
The site will will continue under the name Edge of Nowhere without the disputed content.
Robert Laverick
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