Blizzard Wins $85.4 Million In Damages From WoW Server Case

16 Aug 2010 at 21:10:39 by Peter Parrish

Blizzard has won a combined total of $88.0 million USD (including $85.4 million in damages) in a case against the owner of a private, unauthorised World of Warcraft server, according to a report at Gamasutra.

Court documents obtained by that site indicate that the defendant, Alyson Reeves, was operating the company 'Scapegaming' from the US state of Georgia. Reeves' site allowed players to access World of Warcraft through a non-Blizzard server, sidestepping the usual subscription fees. This doesn't mean players were getting WoW for free however, as evidence obtained from PayPal showed that Reeves "received $3,052,339 in gross revenues."

Damages of $85.4 million were calculated by taking a figure of $200.0 USD "per act of circumvention" and applying this to the 427,000-strong Scapegaming community. Reeves did not respond to the suit, resulting in a default judgement in favour of Blizzard.

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