Should people have the right to cheat? More than 100,000 folks seem to think so. That is how many copies have been sold of a computer program called Glider, which essentially plays the game World of Warcraft for you. While you sleep, eat, go to work, attend class or do whatever else, Glider controls your WOW character – killing monsters, casting spells, collecting treasure and accumulating the experience points required to advance and become more powerful.

Of the more than 11 million people who play World of Warcraft, most do so legitimately; they actually play the game themselves. The whole point of a massively multiplayer online game like WOW or EverQuest is that players can take pride that their virtual accomplishments and wealth reflect real human effort, determination, ingenuity and skill. To have the few unscrupulous players use a “bot” program like Glider makes a mockery of that effort and contributes to ruining the entertainment experience for everyone.

But should creating and selling a program like Glider be illegal? That is the question that has been winding its way through a federal court in Arizona since 2006, when Blizzard Entertainment first locked legal horns with Glider’s author, a programmer named Michael Donnelly, and Mr. Donnelly’s company, MDY Industries. Last summer the court ruled that MDY (which has made at least $3.5 million in sales from Glider since 2005) had illegally interfered with Blizzard’s customer relationships and engaged in various copyright violations. Then, last week, Judge David G. Campbell additionally ruled that MDY had violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by circumventing an anti-bot technology developed by Blizzard. Blizzard, he said, was entitled to an injunction essentially shutting Mr. Donnelly down and halting sales of Glider.

Source: New York Times