More on installing = making a copy

 Posted by (Visited 7315 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , , ,
Jun 232008
 

Just continuing to follow the story, and it felt interesting enough to merit its own post rather than just an addition to the comment thread.

Blizzard Responds to Amicus Brief in MDY Bot Suit | Virtually Blind | Virtual Law | Benjamin Duranske

Although it has not put the issue in quite such stark terms, Public Knowledge is essentially seeking a ruling that says that the sale of consumer software is, in most circumstances, a sale, pretty much regardless of what the agreement that comes with the software says. If the court agrees in spite of MAI and its progeny (and the ruling survives certain appeal) then U.S. copyright law would protect, among other things, making copies of purchased software in RAM in order to use the software — no matter what the “license agreement” says. Resolving this issue in favor of Public Knowledge would call into question provisions in EULAs governing nearly every virtual world and multiuser online game, as well as EULAs for other software.

The Sunday Poem: A Cherufe Tale

 Posted by (Visited 8829 times)  The Sunday Poem  Tagged with: ,
Jun 222008
 

A Cherufe Tale

Pedro de Valdivia

Ay, Pedro de Valdivia, of Extremadura,
Do you miss your granite home?
The Bío Bío shores are flat and muddy waters
And Mapuches lurk in bushes and in loam.

Last night the cry of the Chonchon, tue tue tue,
Called out bad luck for you and Spain.
Do you fear for your fresh-made town of Concepción?
It will survive, as you survived the Atacama plain.

Tomorrow you will drink your gold, molten hot,
And writhe your guts out on a stake.
Your foster son Lautaro is now the native general
And you will die, hidalgo, one betrayed.

The Pillan spirits of this land have anointed you,
Pedro de Valdivia, rude conquistador.
Your small town will one day speak the word
“independence” in the Plaza Mayor.

You were the last of knights, you loved the last of queens,
Your European tale is Spanish no more.
It matters not if once you were of Extremadura,
Cherufe sacrifice; you die a myth Chilean born.

There are so many annotations to this one, that I am just going to link ’em all to Wikipedia. This one resulted from reading Isabel Allende’s Ines of My Soul, which brought back many memories of hours reading into the stories of the conquistadors. Truly amazing stories, full of gore and ridiculous heroism and unspeakable exploitation and rank stupidity. I had forgotten the story of the conquest of Chile, which didn’t really even end until the 1800’s. Read on for the summary…

Continue reading »

Installing = making a copy

 Posted by (Visited 7270 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: ,
Jun 202008
 

An interesting issue which should have come to a court ages ago is being surfaced by the MDY v Blizzard suit.

As you know, most of the time when you do something on a computer, copies are being made. In fact, a LOT of copies are being made (see my old post on microtransactions for a more detailed analysis and historical point of view on this). In particular, installing a piece of software means getting a copy on a disk, copying it into memory, then copying it from memory onto your own disk, then reloading it into memory every time you launch it.

So, Blizzard put a copyright claim in their suit against MDY, makers of WoWglider. And a third party called Public Knowledge, which advocates for digital rights, filed an amicus brief (“friend of the court,” basically a side opinion because they feel they have a stake in the case) which argues that the copyright claim is, well, bogus.

MDY v. Blizzard Bot Suit Judge Requires Blizzard to Respond to Amicus Brief on Copyright Issues | Virtually Blind | Virtual Law | Benjamin Duranske

The issue is essentially this: Blizzard claims that when third-party programs like MDY’s Glider (which automates certain World of Warcraft tasks) load World of Warcraft software into a computer’s RAM, that “creation of a copy” violates the copyright Blizzard holds in its software.

Public Knowledge argues “that Blizzard doesn’t have a claim on copyright grounds because the right of users to make the copy for use by the computer is already guaranteed by law. […] Therefore, Blizzard cannot claim any infringement of its copyrights based upon the creation of RAM copies because the right to make those copies was never Blizzard’s to license in the first place.”

This has broad relevance outside of this one case. So it’s particularly interesting that the judge in the case has now ordered Blizzard to answer this issue specifically.

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