Blizzard 'Will Not Hesitate To Take Legal Action' Against Copyright Violators

After filing and subsequently dismissing a lawsuit against alleged StarCraft II beta hackers, Blizzard told Gamasutra on Friday that it isn't afraid to take legal action against purported violators. "It's important to note that we aggressively protect our copyrights and the security of Battle.net," Blizzard said in a statement. "In addition to providing players with a high-quality online experience for Blizzard Entertainment games, the service is one of the most effective measures we have for preventing piracy of our software over the internet." Earlier this month, Blizzard filed suit against six alleged StarCraft II beta hackers, accusing the group, named "StarCrack," of working on a way to play StarCraft II multiplayer games on "rogue" servers. Blizzard dismissed the suit a week later. "Blizzard Entertainment did file a lawsuit against a team of people developing software designed to emulate our Battle.net gaming service and facilitate piracy of our games," read Blizzard's statement. "We don't discuss the details of litigation-related matters, but we can confirm that the matter has been resolved in a way that has allowed us to dismiss the lawsuit." The statement added, "Circumventing the anti-piracy measures we have in place with Battle.net is a violation of the Beta Test Agreement for StarCraft II, in addition to our End User License Agreements and Battle.net Terms of Use." It's not the first time that Blizzard has sued someone for using private servers to run Blizzard's games. Most recently, in October 2009, Blizzard sued one Alyson Reeves and five unnamed defendants for running World of Warcraft on an unauthorized private server. Blizzard said of the most recent suit, "Battle.net-emulation software like the project we sought legal protection against has previously been ruled unlawful by the courts, and we will not hesitate to take legal action against any other such project that violates our rights, promotes piracy, and jeopardizes our goodwill with legitimate players." "We’ve put a lot of work into developing Battle.net into the premier online gaming destination for Blizzard Entertainment gamers," the company said, "and we have a responsibility to protect our rights and maintain the quality and integrity of Battle.net for our players."