Blizzard sues Peons4Hire... for spamming

Copernicus · 05/26/07, 3:25 PM

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...geNo=1&sid=1#0

Originally Posted by Eyonix

As many of you know, the latest content patch, along with many great new content additions, contains technical counter-measures designed to combat in-game gold spamming. Our efforts to reduce in-game abuse and create a fun, safe environment for everyone are never-ending.

With that said, we felt that it was important to share with the community just how serious we are in our efforts to combat this type of abuse. Blizzard has filed a federal lawsuit against the operators of Peons4hire, a popular gold-selling organization which many of you have no doubt seen advertised. As part of the lawsuit, the operators of Peons4hire have been asked to immediately cease all in-game spamming efforts by all entities and websites under their control.

If this organization refuses to act accordingly, further legal action will be taken. We'll be sure to keep you posted on the progress of this topic.

From Eyonix's post, it looks like Blizzard's lawsuit deals just with in-game spam and nothing to do with the legalities of gold-selling.

Northerner · 05/26/07, 4:42 PM

The legalities of gold-selling itself (and the whole virtual property issue surrounding it) is still one I don't think Blizzard will want to touch. Many of the big dogs have gone sniffing around and frankly, the potential disaster represented by getting a bad verdict is just too dangerous.

It is quite interesting that they are going to try and stop them from spamming in-game though and frankly I'd love to read the brief. I suspect it is mostly just a harassing tactic but hey, fair is fair.

yuri · 05/26/07, 4:56 PM

Well done, Blizzard. They actually get the goldsellers for spamming, pretty smart. Since it is virtually impossible to actually sue them for the whole property thing.

• Zoid · 05/26/07, 5:05 PM

What exactly does the lawsuit entail? Is it based on EULA enforcement?

Quigon · 05/26/07, 6:36 PM

This is going to set one hell of a precedent if they fail in court. Time to sell my golden efreeti boots for $500 again.

Malan · 05/26/07, 6:40 PM

Originally Posted by Zoid

What exactly does the lawsuit entail? Is it based on EULA enforcement?

At some point someone in the Benefactor Bar said they had an "inside source" that works for one of the gold spam companies and said that they were exploiting a hole in Blizzard's servers that allowed them to spam whispers without being detected. Might have something to do with that.

Synwyn · 05/26/07, 6:54 PM

Originally Posted by Malan

At some point someone in the Benefactor Bar said they had an "inside source" that works for one of the gold spam companies and said that they were exploiting a hole in Blizzard's servers that allowed them to spam whispers without being detected. Might have something to do with that.

I've also heard the same thing. It just seems it's completely rediculous to be able to spam everybody on the server in less than 15 seconds. I'm glad they're finally getting around to stopping this completely. It's gotten insanely annoying in the last few months.

Shadowed · 05/26/07, 7:05 PM

Originally Posted by Synwyn

I've also heard the same thing. It just seems it's completely rediculous to be able to spam everybody on the server in less than 15 seconds. I'm glad they're finally getting around to stopping this completely. It's gotten insanely annoying in the last few months.

Not really, any addon author that even knows a little but about the API could have made something to spam everyone, it wasn't throttled either in the limit of what you could send, one of the changes in 2.1 was throttling the amount of whispers that could be sent within a short period of time.

Malan · 05/26/07, 7:27 PM

Originally Posted by Shadowed

Not really, any addon author that even knows a little but about the API could have made something to spam everyone,

Yes but that gets recorded by the server. What we were told was happening was an undetectable way of doing it.

topojijo · 05/26/07, 7:53 PM

wowrex seems to have taken their place. I'm getting frequent spam from them now. I report it every time. If that bypass others were doing is true that is just terrible programming.

• Viator · 05/26/07, 10:16 PM

Congress just passed anti-spam legislation a few days ago. I don't know if the executive signed it into law but the timing may be deliberate. Of course I don't know if the bill only involves email spam or what amounts to glorified AIM spam as well.

Northerner · 05/27/07, 2:27 AM

Originally Posted by Quigon

This is going to set one hell of a precedent if they fail in court. Time to sell my golden efreeti boots for $500 again.

That's the thing though Quigon, they are very carefully avoiding the virtual property aspects. In the present legal environment I still think it would be suicide to try and get at them on that basis.

I was quite serious actually, I'd love to see the legal basis for what they are proceeding with, although I imagine it isn't very interesting actually. Unless the Spam legislation is far more broad than past consumer protection legislation it shouldn't even be applicable and isn't what they are pressing anyhow it would seem. 5GP says they are just going to try and bully them with lawyer hours for a while and see what happens. Blizzard has the muscle now to do so and probably with some success.

Nonetheless, even if it isn't perfect, good on Blizzard for at least stepping up to the plate and trying to do something about the problem.

Vontre · 05/27/07, 2:30 AM

This really strengthens my respect for Blizzard. Good for them, stick it to those bastards for fucking with our game.

Mouce · 05/27/07, 3:05 AM

To put it briefly, it seems like they could get the spamming companies for some form of advertising without their (Blizzard's) permission, especially within their own service.

Mags · 05/27/07, 3:40 AM

I'm curious to see where the lawsuit goes. New Zealand recently passed anti-spam legislation, and I actually read the text of the Act. In the NZ legislation, electronic communication seemed to be defined broadly enough that in-game spam messages could potentially be covered.

Chris