Lawsuit Defends World of Warcraft Strategy Guide from DMCA
March 29, 2006 | 7 Comments
Brian Kopp of Bronson Florida is selling The Ultimate World of Warcraft Leveling & Gold Guide and Blizzard isn’t happy about it. Blizzard forced Ebay to shut down his auctions claiming violation of DMCA.
Public Citizen is defending Kopp:
“Copyright laws are designed to promote creativity and innovation, not squelch it,” said Greg Beck, the Public Citizen attorney representing Kopp. “A video game is copyrightable just like a book, and just like a book you should be able to comment on it, create new works inspired by it, teach about it in classes, write newspaper articles about it and so on. It is this kind of innovation and open discussion that the copyright laws are supposed to foster. By claiming that mere publication of a how-to book about its game infringes its copyright, Blizzard has interpreted its intellectual property rights in a way that would prohibit legitimate commentary that is protected by the First Amendment.”
Tags: blizzard, brian kopp, copyright, dmca, first amendment, game, gold farming, guide, public citizen, strategy guide, video game, warcraft, world of warcraft, wow