According to News.com, a 24-year old self-publisher filing a law suit CA federal court against video game publishing giant Blizzard Entertainment. 24 year old Brian Kopp sold an unofficial game guide titled, "The Ultimate World of Warcraft Leveling & Gold Guide" on Ebay for ?15 a piece. World of Warcraft is Blizzard?s epic Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) that has record sales and membership across the globe. Blizzard and Vivendi repeatedly filed to have the guides stripped from the bidding marketplace, to which Ebay complied. He also has an independent website that sells the guides.
"Weeks after his first auction went live, Blizzard, Vivendi, and the ESA began sending repeated takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), asking eBay to yank the auctions because of copyright and trademark infringement concerns. The auction giant?s general policy is to halt auctions when it receives such complaints and to suspend a user?s account after it racks up a certain number of warnings." Kopp filed counter-notices protesting the take downs. In his complaint he alleges that the guide does not violate copyright laws b/c it has a disclaimer notice on the first page stating that it is an unofficial guide and it?s use of selected screen shots falls within Fair Use.
Kopp seeks three forms of relief in his suit:
- Compensatory damages to cover certain expenses including lost profits from halted sales
- Injunction preventing others from interfering with his right to publish such guides
- Declaratory judgment that his book is protected by the First Amendment
About this suit, Kopp?s lawyer said: "In effect, if the video game industry?s actions are upheld, ?then selling a how-to book about Microsoft Word would infringe Microsoft?s copyright, especially if the book contained one or more screenshots of Word?s user interface,? said Paul Levy of the public-interest advocacy group Public Citizen, which joined in filing the suit on behalf of Kopp. ?We think this cannot be the law.?"
From www.IGDA.org
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