Don't Mess with Blizzard! Pirate Servers to Pay $88M Damages

MMORPGs—or Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, for those of you not so familiar with game-speak—use an 'official' server that gamers to connect to. Access often requires payment of a subscription fee, the amount of which varies from one game to another. It goes without saying, really, that pirate setups have long been undercutting the official servers with free or cut-price private versions.

However, the owner of one such unofficial server has now been ordered to pay a hefty fine to the game's official developer, Blizzard.


It's actually very rare to see software developers attack unofficial servers. However, last October Blizzard made an official complaint against Alyson Reeves (also known under the pseudonym Scapegaming), the owner of five pirate servers for World of Warcraft, used by up to 24,000 gamers. The California Central District Court recently ruled that the pirate servers' owner must pay damages of no less than $88 million to Blizzard.

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It may sound like a lot of money, but Blizzard actually only started its legal proceedings to recover the $3 million of profit pocketed by Alyson Reeves. The other $85 million are damages and interests ordered by the court ... which certainly sends a very clear message to other would-be pirates!



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