Note that users need to have actually purchased Blizzard in order to use the free networking software, so Blizzard's lawsuit isn't over purchase of the game, but over a piece of software that interacts with the already-purchased game, a feat that Blizzard claims violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
"Designing and distributing new software that interacts or competes with existing software is not a crime," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "The tradition of creating products using 'reverse engineering' has given us cloned personal computers and allowed independent and home mechanics to fix our cars."
This is an important case not merely for online gaming, but computer users in general. This interpretation of the DMCA can broadly be used to require any number of restrictions on how people can use products they've legally purchased. The "copyright" that DMCA allegedly refers to has always protected "first-sale" rights, basically meaning that once you've purchased a concrete product (like a book) you're free to do what you like with that product, short of making duplicates of the product for sale. This is the right that allows libraries to lend books out to patrons and used bookstores to sell used books. The DMCA has little or nothing to do with "copyright"--except that it corrupts the term in order to garner more profit for corporations and fewer rights for citizens.
[via EFF: Press]
Posted by johndan at December 23, 2003 03:06 PM
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