Blizzard Squeezes $88 Million From Private Server Owner

[Candidus]

I've got a course in wilderness survival under my belt. If by any long-shot chance Reeves and I have that in common, she ought to quit her job(s), say "Fuck yas' all. I won't bother working, as I'll never keep enough to make it worth my while", then drop off the radar for a year.

Turn up as far from home as possible, assume a new name, use a homeless shelter as a base from which to get any job you can and start living again from scratch.

Good luck Reeves.

 

[Cousin_IT]

You cannot do much else but laugh when judges pull such absurd numbers out their arses in cases like these.

 

[manythings]

Wow, indeed. This person, knowing quite well running a private server was a no-no to begin with, also piles on the burden with microtransactions? She is lucky Blizzard didn't press criminal charges for fraud and extortion.
Oh she will appeal, but if successful it will only trim down the penalty a little bit. Face it lady, you are stuck with debt for life.

They'd make less money in reparations if she served time plus they can act like they didn't do as much as they could to her.

 

[Enkidu88]

Holy balls. Personally I think she'll appeal, and any reasonable judge will probably grant that it was an excessive amount. And then only charge her 60 million. So, whatever she does she's screwed.

I'd advise her to declare bankruptcy and then move to Florida (a very debtor friendly state). Or failing that, move to a non-extradition territory and live in exile.

 

[dfphetteplace]

Like they are ever going to get any of that money.

 

[manythings]

...and a paltry $63,600 in attorney's fees. The attorney's fees seem paltry next to the $85 million in statutory damages, anyway.

This part is really bugging me. It sounds like one of them should have been removed. I'm no expert on grammar, but this sounds really bad.

It's emphesising that word since you can't emphesise a word purely using it once. I'm emphesising emphesis you see.

 

[Albino Boo]

Do you know how long was she running this, how many players and how much money she made?

Depending on the amounts, this could be either be justified or overkill.

She made $3,052,339, disgorgement means you pay the cash you made illegally. She will just declare bankruptcy and walk away from the civil debt.

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

It's too bad that it is illegal to run a private server anyway (money taken in as an aside). That's one thing that I find a bit questionable to begin with anyway, but I find the "example" almost as bad as the RIAA suing music downloaders.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Don't fuck with Blizzard, *****.

Man, I don't think she'll ever be able to pay that back. Maybe she should just go bankrupt and live in a box for the rest of her life. This sound harsh but considering how much potential revenue Blizzard can lose with its huge fan-base the costs add up quick. When you mess with the big dogs you get mauled, I suppose.

 

[Sonicron]

If she's smart she'll use the money she's been hiding under the matress to buy a shotgun and blow her bonce off.
I mean, honestly - what else is there to do when you get slapped with a sentence like that?

 

[Krion_Vark]

I hope she made some money off the players on her server.

thats the exact reason why it is so high. Not only was it ILLEGAL she also had micro-transactions in place to make money off it. It is probably also why it was HER they went after and not someone else.

 

[Pandora92]

Seeking to shut the server down and protect their financial assets from others "stealing" money from their IP? Fine. Ruining someone's entire financial future and even life so that they may as well start living on the street or kill themselves now? Not fine, that's just a dick move, and sounds exactly like the sort of thing that stems from having someone with the mentality of Kotick as your CEO.

 

[Vhite]

Its not that much from their point of view, just few more milimeters on official Blizzard money pile.

 

[samsonguy920]

Wow, indeed. This person, knowing quite well running a private server was a no-no to begin with, also piles on the burden with microtransactions? She is lucky Blizzard didn't press criminal charges for fraud and extortion.
Oh she will appeal, but if successful it will only trim down the penalty a little bit. Face it lady, you are stuck with debt for life.

They'd make less money in reparations if she served time plus they can act like they didn't do as much as they could to her.

The only thing Blizzard will get from this is the word going out that they are serious about shutting down private servers, and whatever money she does own up to having made from her microtransaction scheme(which won't be all of it you can bet). After that she will declare bankruptcy, lose some assets, and call it a day. With no prison time on her record, she really doesn't have much sitting on her shoulders except she probably won't be able to touch Blizzard games ever again. But don't feel too bad, she has more to look forward to.

As if they didn't have enough fucking money already.
Corporate greed makes me want to punch someone in the face.

They don't expect to receive that much. Most corporations(with the exception of a lot of banks it would seem these days) aren't living in fantasy land. The idea is to get the point across that what she did was wrong. She not only ripped off Blizzard with running the server without their say-so, but she also ripped off a lot of people who used it. I'm waiting for the followup when the class action suit is filed against her from all the people she bilked for the microtransactions.
Taking that into consideration, who do you want to punch now?

 

[Motiv_]

Seeking to shut the server down and protect their financial assets from others "stealing" money from their IP? Fine. Ruining someone's entire financial future and even life so that they may as well start living on the street or kill themselves now? Not fine.

Precisely. I mean, the most they should've done is had her pay back the 3 million, and spend a year or two in prison. THAT, to me, would be fair. But 88 MILLION dollars? My expected income for life is a little under 2 million. And that's if I work my same hours for the next.. 25 years, and then start collecting social security.

This woman, unless she declares bankruptcy or pulls some very smart and sneaky court moves, is quite frankly fucked. Sure, she was committing a crime, and got her just desserts, but don't stuff the ***** until she explodes.

As if I had any respect for Kotick to begin with, I now have lost all of it.

 

[Cynical skeptic]

It was a scare suit, sure. The actual damages will likely get cut back a bit (read: to somewhere near zero) in appeals, but... she had it coming. She was operating a pirate server for profit in a country where doing such things isn't legal.

All the other private server owners will simply just say, "she was retarded," and keep right on with their whole 'pirate server' gig. Hell, they're probably the ones who tipped blizzard off.

This is as shocking as the guy selling drugs in front of a police station, who'd occasionally offer drugs to the cops as they came and went, getting locked up for an extreme length of time.

She was visible, traceable, made no attempts to hide her activities, and was profiting. Surprised it lasted more than a few days.

 

[Tom Roberts]

Why would you kill yourself?
If you really don't care if you live or die, go and dig yourself two graves, and then get a nice selection of guns and dynamite, consult a few books down at the local library on demolitions and dead man's switches. Then load up, cry out 'Revenge!' and head out to kill whoever did you the dirt.

Maybe you'll get killed right away, maybe you'll take them all with you. Either way I can respect it more than just putting your toe on the shotgun trigger.

I wonder if I just advocated terrorism here?

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Jesus christ why are people so bad at crime.

If I had less ethics and was more motivated I would totally do this. 1. incorporate anonymously (in nevada) 2. create accounts for merchant transactions on behalf of your corporation 3. buy your hosting on behalf of your corporation 4. pay yourself a salary equal to your revenue - operating costs

It is almost impossible for blizzard to prevail in a suit against you personally when you are acting on behalf of your corporation. And if they sue your corporation just declare bankruptcy, dissolve the corporation, re-incorporate under a new name and carry on.

 

[Albino Boo]

Precisely. I mean, the most they should've done is had her pay back the 3 million, and spend a year or two in prison. THAT, to me, would be fair. But 88 MILLION dollars? My expected income for life is a little under 2 million. And that's if I work my same hours for the next.. 25 years, and then start collecting social security.

This woman, unless she declares bankruptcy or pulls some very smart and sneaky court moves, is quite frankly fucked. Sure, she was committing a crime, and got her just desserts, but don't stuff the ***** until she explodes.

As if I had any respect for Kotick to begin with, I now have lost all of it.

Its a civil action, you cant sent to jail.

 

[VincentX3]

It will shut you down, crush your soul, crush your soul shards, and then sprinkle them on Bobby Kotick's ice cream cone.

Somebody needs to make an image of this

OT:

Wow is right.

Nuff said